Shinola's Mackinac Night Race Brings a Sailing Legend to the Wrist

• The Mackinac Night Race launches Friday, July 17, limited to 500 serialized pieces worldwide at $3,995

• Each forged carbon fiber dial is formed under extreme heat and pressure, making every dial unique

• The yacht timer complication, traditionally used to count down a sailing race start, anchors the design

• Designed and assembled in Detroit, with the automatic SW511 chronograph visible through an exhibition caseback

Shinola releases the Mackinac Night Race on Friday, July 17, a 500-piece limited edition that takes one of watchmaking's most distinctive complications, the yacht timer, and strips away its expected nautical styling in favor of something considerably darker and more modern. At $3,995, it stands as one of the Detroit watchmaker's most technically ambitious releases to date.

The yacht timer is a complication with a specific job: counting down the start of a sailing race, a tradition drawn from centuries of Great Lakes maritime history and the storied Chicago-to-Mackinac race that gives the watch its name. Where most regatta timers lean into polished blues and marine brightwork, the Night Race pairs a black and orange forged carbon fiber dial with a sandblasted black PVD case, gunmetal indexes, and a new black mesh bracelet.

The forged carbon process matters to collectors: each dial is created under extreme heat and pressure, so the material's swirl pattern is never repeated. Every one of the 500 serialized pieces is, in a literal sense, one of one.

Through the exhibition caseback, the automatic SW511 chronograph movement is fully visible, a deliberate choice for a brand that has built its identity on assembly in Detroit. The Night Race follows the original Mackinac's run of 250 pieces, which found its audience quickly enough to justify this larger and more aggressive second act.

American watchmaking rarely gets to claim a complication as its own. The Mackinac Night Race makes a case that the yacht timer, born on the Great Lakes, belongs to Detroit as much as any Swiss lakeside town, and 500 collectors are about to agree. For availability and full specifications, see Shinola's site.