Serica Parade Rides in the Peugeot RCZ Vision

Since 12 October 2026, Peugeot has been showing the RCZ Vision, an electric coupé that revives the name of the RCZ built from 2009 to 2015, at the Paris Motor Show. Its dashboard houses a mechanical watch. It is a Serica Ref. 1174 Parade with a Bleu Glacier dial, made as a single example, which tells the time on board and then lifts out of its mount to be worn.

The Peugeot RCZ Vision concept car in front three-quarter view — The Peugeot RCZ Vision, shown at the 2026 Paris Motor Show © Serica

Time on board, from Heuer to Bell & Ross

Watchmakers have had a place on the dashboard for more than a century: as early as 1911, Heuer presented the Time of Trip, an instrument intended for motor cars and aircraft. The idea of a watch you take with you when you leave the wheel is far more recent. In 2021, for the Boat Tail, Rolls-Royce and Bovet designed two tourbillon timepieces that can be worn on the wrist or set into the dashboard, where they become the car’s clock.

At Peugeot, there are at least two known precedents, on concept cars and with Bell & Ross. In 2006, the 908 RC was given a clock with jumping hours and central minutes. In 2010, the SR1 housed an exclusive watch, cut from solid aluminium, in a dedicated recess in the dashboard.

Serica on parade, from wrist to dashboard

Serica launched the Ref. 1174 Parade in 2024. This dress watch is built on a case the house calls Stadium, a steel oval measuring 35mm by 41mm, 8.2mm thick including the crystal and water-resistant to 10 ATM. It is powered by a Swiss automatic SoProd M100 calibre with a 42-hour power reserve, and shows hours and minutes only.

The Serica Parade Bleu Glacier seen face-on, its blue dial scored with curved lines — The Ref. 1174 Parade Bleu Glacier, a unique piece made for the RCZ Vision © Serica

The unique piece fitted to the RCZ concept car stands apart through its dial, the Bleu Glacier, exclusive and developed to echo the colours of the concept car, scored with fine curved lines radiating from the centre, punctuated by dot-shaped hour markers, with “Serica Swiss” at six o’clock as its only inscription.

The other half of the project is the mount. The Peugeot and Serica design teams jointly developed an integration module that follows the lines of the i-Cockpit. Once the watch is in place, only the front of its case remains visible, and the Stadium oval then reads as a dashboard instrument. The watch is removable: it leaves its module and goes back on the wrist.

A hand reaches for the watch set into the dashboard of the concept car — The watch in its module, beside the concept car's central screen © Serica

Serica made its name with tool watches, its diver first among them. That it chose the Parade here looks logical. An oval case, two hands, no numerals: it is the piece in its catalogue that comes closest to a clock once separated from its strap.

The Serica Parade Bleu Glacier worn on the wrist in front of the concept car — Out of its module, the Parade is worn on the wrist © Serica

What this reveals

Serica was founded in Paris in 2019 by Jérôme Burgert and Gabriel Vachette. Its watches are made in Switzerland; the house and its design are Parisian.

In 2025, its diver led to a collaboration of an entirely different kind. The Ref. 5303 PLD was developed with the Amicale des Plongeurs Démineurs, around a bezel with a double scale, in metres and minutes, that indicates the maximum working time at each depth. The edition was limited to 350 pieces. The partner was a circle of specialists, and the watch spoke first to those able to read such a specification.

With Peugeot, the partner is one of the best-known names in French industry, and the showcase a motor show aimed at the general public, far beyond watch enthusiasts. Within a year, Serica has gone from one to the other. Seven years after its founding, its design holds its own in the cabin of a volume carmaker, alongside the work of an automotive design studio.

A unique piece in a concept car represents no volume, and what Serica gains from it comes down to exposure. For independent French watchmaking, it is excellent news. A house that grew up among insiders now appears alongside a brand everyone knows. It is hard to see it as anything other than a sign of health, and one can hope that others will follow.

Sources: Serica press release, “Serica × Peugeot RCZ Vision, élégance en mouvement”, October 2026, and accompanying press kit; serica-watches.com, Ref. 1174 Parade and Ref. 5303 PLD product pages, “Our story” page; peugeot.fr, Peugeot RCZ Vision concept car page; media.stellantis.com, Peugeot press release for the 2026 Paris Motor Show and 2010 press release “Concept Peugeot SR1”; Bell & Ross press release of 9 October 2006 on the clock of the Peugeot 908 RC concept car; tagheuer.com, history of the house, 1911; press.rolls-roycemotorcars.com, “The Rolls-Royce Boat Tail timepieces: an artistic collaboration with Bovet 1822”, June 2021.