Elliot Brown x Land Rover Works V8 Trophy II

Our collaboration with Land Rover is well documented, we trended worldwide the day the collaboration was announced which was kinda cool. Here we introduce the Holton EB x  Land Rover Trophy II.

The Trophy event is solely for Trophy customers and it’s like a mini Camel Trophy in ethos, pitting drivers, co-drivers, vehicles, brains and teams against imaginative tests and trials over three days. The deep camaraderie was evident the minute we arrived to film and join the unfolding challenges. The people who imagined these vehicles and who made the event happen are special individuals. Their ideas come from inner passion to create exceptional customer experiences (and history perhaps?) Their passion transcends the world of business and I bet they’d bleed Land Rover Coniston green if they were to be cut open.

We’re equally passionate about our watches and fortunate to work in a business where passion drives decisions. Our roles are made even more fulfilling when we are able to share ideas with others of a similar outlook.

Our role was to imagine a watch that would do these vehicles justice, exclusively for Defender Trophy drivers and co-drivers. We were to become timing sponsors of the vehicles and created their unique dash clocks. Our design a lasting legacy and a small piece of Land Rover’s history.

The brains and people behind the Defender Works V8 Trophy go deeper than just making very cool vehicles. They put themselves in the customers shoes to imagine how the experiences can be made more memorable, more authentic, more ‘Land Rover’ and they challenged us to do the same.

Meetings were, let's say, easy and well lubricated. We knew the watch we wanted to make in essence, then whilst filming at Eastnor for the launch of the Land Rover x Holton Mk1, we were lucky enough to visit many areas of the estate that customers never see.

The closing scenes were shot, at the base of the family obelisk, the highest point in the estate and it gave us a thought.

We imagined the idea of invisible contours flooding across the dial created using a UV reactive invisible clear varnish, printed across the dial as contours. The contours would be hidden in plain sight until placed under UV light. We worked closely with our supplier to create a special batch of “Eastnor Yellow” UV reactive varnish. Clear by day, Eastnor Yellow to match the Defender Trophy cars under UV lighting.

We all agreed to keep the glowing contours a secret and reveal them at the end of the competition. Drivers and co-drivers were presented with their watches on day one but not informed of the hidden detail. All were asked to wear their watches to the gala dinner in Eastnor Castle and on the table place settings, were high powered UV torches left for customers to play with as they shared stories of their days competing. Land Rover Classic were happy for this final piece of the watch jigsaw to evolve naturally over the evening and sure enough, as soon as one competitor discovered the hidden contours, a UV light show spread quickly through the room as torches illuminated dial after dial. It was a special moment.

Before our relationship with the Classic Works team began, we had no idea we would be imagining and making watches of this ilk but it's great being involved and, hand on heart, we can honestly say as collaborations go, we struggle to think how it could get much more rewarding (or authentic) than this.

Which leads us neatly on to Defender Works V8 Trophy II.

Reaction to the first Trophy Competitors watch was so strong, it got us all thinking wouldn’t it be great if, next time, we were to also make a limited run of Trophy watches available to all.

The Elliot Brown Trophy Expedition II watches are limited to just 1000 worldwide, created to mark our continuation as official Classic Defender Works V8 Trophy time keeper with a version of the watch dial gracing the dash clock in the Trophy II Defenders. Two competitor/co-driver versions of the watch accompany each of the 25 Works Trophy V8 Trophy II Defenders.

The watches and dash clocks are permanent pieces of the Land Rover Defender history, yet they also have a story all of their own.