The winners of the Pro-Am class at the 2023 Liqui Moly Bathurst 12 Hour will each receive a watch featuring rock from the iconic Mount Panorama sign.
Sydney-based Bausele Watches has partnered with the event to create the unique prize, as part of its sponsorship of the Pro-Am Cup.
The four specially-made watches will each have, inserted within the crown, pieces of white rock which forms the Mount Panorama sign underneath McPhillamy Park.
Said sign was made from a locally quarried limestone rock product from Omya Minerals, taking about 1000 tonnes of material to construct.
Bathurst 12 Hour Event Director Shane Rudzis said, “We are thrilled to welcome Bausele as our official watch partners and as the key partner of the Pro-Am Cup in 2023.
“Much like the Bathurst 12 Hour itself, Bausele are a great and uniquely Australian product but with a global outreach and audience.
“Both feature high-quality, precision engineering and make for beautiful objects that many people desire, so for us it’s a match made in heaven.
“The Bausele Pro-Am Cup winners will receive a unique timepiece dedicated purely to the event.
“It will be a special award not seen anywhere else and continues to build on our efforts to ensure Pro-Am competitors have a great experience.”
Bausele, which sells its watches to over 40 countries and has partnered with the likes of the Sydney Opera House and Royal Australian Air Force, has also commissioned a limited edition run of 100 timepieces for Bathurst 12 Hour fans to purchase.
Rather than Mount Panorama sign rock, those watches will have pieces of tyre marbles from the GT3 race cars inserted in the crown, and will be available to pre-order from the watchmaker’s website.
Bausele owner Christophe Hoppe said, “We are very excited to come on board as a partner of the Liqui Moly Bathurst 12 Hour.
“The synergies between this great event and my company are perfect. Our premium quality Swiss watch brand and the quality of the cars at the 12 Hour are very much aligned.
“We are proud to work with the Bathurst 12 Hour to build a very special, exclusive Pro-Am Cup winners watch which will have part of Mount Panorama, the iconic home of Australian motorsport, within them.
“We look forward to working with the Bathurst 12 Hour for many years to develop these iconic watches that will become part of the DNA of the event as a very lucrative, money-can’t buy Pro-Am Cup winners watch for the gentlemen drivers and their team-mates.”
Pro-Am was the top class of this year’s Mount Panorama GT enduro, although the all-Pro class is back next year, when the event unfolds on February 3-5.