News · Lorige

Lorige turns Inter Europol’s race-used brakes into the BL-Evolution Competition

The 50-piece edition combines carbon/carbon from the team’s 2026 LMP2 one-two finish with a refreshed dial and a seven-day hand-wound calibre.

Hen & Mills Editorial · 4 min read · 2 October 2026

• Lorige’s fifty-piece BL-Evolution Competition introduces its Inter Europol partnership, using carbon/carbon from race-used brakes of the team’s No. 43 and No. 343 cars.
• The 50 by 42mm case combines reprocessed carbon/carbon and grade 5 titanium, surrounding a refreshed gradient-sapphire dial and seven-day hand-wound LOR-DB03 calibre.
• Priced at CHF29,750 excluding VAT, the fifty-piece edition includes a Tech Hybrid rubber strap; allocation enquiries go through Lorige’s specific Competition product page.

A piece of racing hardware can give a watch a history before it tells the time. The useful question is how much of that history survives once the material becomes a case, a dial and something worn far from the circuit. Lorige’s partnership with Inter Europol Competition, announced on 1 October, answers with carbon/carbon recovered from the team’s race-used LMP2 brakes, combined with a refreshed display and a seven-day hand-wound movement. Fifty pieces make up the resulting edition: the Lorige BL-Evolution Competition.

A case with a previous working life

The case measures 50 by 42mm and 10.30mm thick, bringing a broad, shaped outline to a relatively shallow profile. Lorige uses reprocessed carbon/carbon from the No. 43 and No. 343 cars for both the case and dial material, while the bezel and caseback are satin-finished and polished grade 5 titanium. The distinction gives the dark composite a bright perimeter in the maker’s images. Water resistance is listed at 5 ATM, a specification that belongs alongside the race-derived material when considering the complete watch.

Lorige attributes the source brakes to Inter Europol Competition’s 2026 LMP2 one-two finish, and presents this edition as the first watch of the partnership. Its existing process turns used endurance-racing brake pads into cases, taking more than 30 hours to produce two cases from one pad, according to the product page. The brand says each case is authenticated with a certificate tracing the pad’s history. That documentation carries much of the concept’s value: the material’s particular previous job gives the finished watch its connection to the team.

More depth beneath the numerals

The refreshed dial uses a gradient sapphire layer and a skeletonised upper bridge to expose contrasting finishes below. Rhodium-plated Arabic numerals have been redesigned, with grey luminous inserts, while the indices use white Super-LumiNova. Moving towards six o’clock, the seconds display has a two-part construction with yellow and green markings associated with Inter Europol Competition. The colour is concentrated around that smaller display in the official photographs, letting the larger hour numerals retain their place around the dark face. Luminescent hands complete the main time indication.

A power-reserve display occupies the left side of the dial, giving the wearer a visible account of the manually wound movement’s remaining energy. Lorige describes a titanium upper bridge treated with DLC and rhodium, alongside contrasting finished components in the day counter. Sunray brushing radiates from the seconds display, drawing attention towards the smallest time division on the face. The effect is a layered dial built around different finishing directions, with the reserve and seconds indications contributing their own shapes to the larger hour-and-minute reading.

Seven days from two barrels

The LOR-DB03 calibre combines two manually wound barrels for a stated 168-hour reserve. A full wind therefore provides a seven-day running interval, making the reserve display an especially useful part of the dial’s information. The movement comprises 175 components and 29 jewels, beating at 21,600 vibrations per hour, or 3Hz. Its 31.10mm diameter and 3.98mm thickness locate much of the mechanical substance within the shaped case, while hours, minutes, seconds and power reserve remain the complete set of displayed functions.

The maker’s finishing description combines microblasted and rhodium-plated surfaces, sunray brushing and hand-executed chamfering under its Duo-Tone designation. Those contrasting treatments are visible through the back, where yellow details continue the competition palette. Lorige says the movement is hand-assembled in La Chaux-de-Fonds and adjusted in six positions. A dynamometric titanium crown is intended to protect the calibre while winding, with grey inserts continuing the case’s colour scheme. For this watch, the movement’s long reserve and visible finishing carry as much interest as the composite surrounding it.

A harness reference in rubber

The Tech Hybrid strap is a new two-part rubber design, combining a white fabric-look section with black rubber. Lorige’s press release specifies genuine rubber throughout, explaining the textile-like surface as a reference to the construction of a racing harness. The company’s Quick & Release system is included as standard. Its folding clasp offers 6mm of fine adjustment, providing a way to alter the fit without changing the strap’s overall design. The white section also supplies a larger area of contrast beneath a watch dominated by dark composite and metal.

Lorige BL-Evolution Competition pricing and availability

The public price is CHF29,750 excluding VAT. Reference BL-Evo.09/IEC is limited to 50 pieces, with the Tech Hybrid rubber strap and Quick & Release system specified for the edition. Lorige announced the partnership and watch on 1 October 2026. Availability enquiries are handled through the form on the specific Competition product page, which offers an allocation-information request. The product page gives no fixed delivery date. Lorige supplies a certificate of origin tracing the racing-brake material used for each case, with the edition’s dimensions and movement listed in its technical specifications.

Where the racing connection holds

The strongest part of this edition is the relationship between its material and its documentation. A collector interested in endurance racing can follow a used component into a finished case, with the maker identifying the cars and supplying a certificate for the material’s history. The dial refresh and seven-day calibre give that story a developed watchmaking expression of their own. The decision turns on whether that particular provenance matters enough to justify the price, and whether the broad shaped case suits the way the buyer plans to wear it.