Extraordinary dash clock for the Bentley Bentayga

BENTLEY recently launched a really neat clock—with an ultraluxury SUV wrapped around it.

In the continuing partnership with watch company Breitling, the new Bentley Bentayga will allow you to have, if you so wish, a self-winding tourbillion timepiece sitting along for the ride.

Breitling worked with Bentley’s in-house custom coach workshop, Mulliner Bespoke, to put together the very complicated dash clock. It boasts a one-minute flying tourbillion in a titanium cage.

The clock actually had to be designed in such a way that the winding mechanism would work appropriately in a vehicle which won’t move the same way as a wrist does.

Clearly, making the lucky owner wind his own watch would be out of the question even more than making it powered by electricity, so a clever system was designed to allow the winding rotor to be moved in such a way as to wind it correctly.

THE BENTLEY Bentayga

The clock sits in a mount in the center of the dash that allows it to be rotated appropriately by an electric motor.

It will run in normal watch-winder mode in general, but upon command will either turn and position the piece so you can more easily set the time or give it a few turns in case you want to be extra sure. Or if you want to show off the whole system. Which you really shouldn’t do, given that you are probably sitting in the world’s fastest watch winder.

Cocooned in plushness

The Bentley Bentayga has an all-new Crewe-built W12 TSI 6-liter 12 cylinder twin-turbo engine that allows you to accelerate your watch from zero to a hundred kilometers an hour in just 4.1 seconds and bring it past three hundred kilometers an hour surrounded in plushness and luxury.

Handcrafted wood and specially chosen and worked leather surround the driver and passengers and the clock in a cocoon that is as exclusive as it is fast.

An eight-speed automatic transmission brings 600 bhp and 900 Nm of torque out to all four wheels.

The engine uses both direct and indirect fuel injection systems, switching seamlessly between the two and allowing minimalization of environmental effect and maximization of power delivery while you are tearing up the mountainside.

The transmission and four-wheel-drive system have been strengthened to allow you to do just that.

Go-anywhere capability

When Bentley decided to add what they called “go-anywhere capability” to their stratospheric levels of luxury and exclusivity, they were serious.

Testing spanned five continents, from the dirt of South Africa to the sand dunes of the Middle East and  the mud of jolly old wet England, from freezing arctic tundra to sweltering desert heat.

You could say that the Bentayga brought Bentley way out of its comfort zone with a development program more extensive than ever before, but once you sit in the vehicle the idea of being “outside a comfort zone” will become as alien as some of the landscapes to which they brought the big SUV. 

And to make sure everyone remembers that Bentley is a sporting brand, they brought it to the infamous Nurbingring circuit to wring out both engine and chassis as much as possible.

All the chassis and systems testing was used to fine tune the new Bentley Dynamic Ride, the first electric active roll technology that uses a 48-volt system that  allows very quick and very silent responses with more than enough power behind them to act appropriately to road (or no road) surface changes.

As with all Bentleys, the multimode air suspension gives you four different modes from which to choose. There is a control at the rear that allows you to lower the rear suspension in case you want to hitch up your boat or load your appropriately-expensive gear.

If however you want to sit down in that rear luggage compartment, you will be able to do so in style. Available as an option is a folding event seat, leather-trimmed to match the rest of your bespoke interior and integrating seamlessly of course.

It may be hard to understand the need for an ultraluxury SUV in today’s world, where such bigger vehicles have become increasingly handling-oriented and more crossover-like than full truck.

But technology has allowed all these different and previously-niche vehicles to be more flexible in terms of how they can be used.

In this case the vehicle will probably appeal to those that want the particular qualities of Bentley: luxury, speed, technological advancement with world-dominating production and design ability behind it, but to be able to go places the other Bentleys can’t.

Perhaps they don’t want to settle for less just because they may be going a little off the beaten path. The Bentayga will be a unique (at least for the moment) vehicle designed to provide particular individuals with something they can’t get anywhere else, or at least not with the level of exclusivity that they would like.