The 112^th edition of the Tour de France begins on July 5. The race is the world’s largest live sporting event; an estimated 12 to 15 million people line the roads of France to cheer, sometimes chase maniacally, sometimes scream at, and sometimes knock riders over. It’s some kind of event.

And because time matters (it’s a race after all), there are watches, from the famous to the infamous. So clip into the clipless pedals and lets look at five watches that channel le Tour.

The Yellow Jersey - Tissot PR 100 Tour De France T150.417.11.051.00

The Maillot Jaune, the most famous cycling jersey in the world, so of course we’ll start with something featuring yellow. The Tissot PR 100 features a yellow chronograph second hand with a bicycle on the pivot, yellow hands on the sub dial, and also sports Tissot’s end of battery life indicator (the watches second hand jumps every four seconds when the battery is ready to bonk, as they say in cycling.) The official watch by the official timekeeper seems a good place to start.

The Green Jersey - Baltic Hermetique Tourer

The Maillot Vert for those who parle-vous, and worn by legends: Merckx, Zabel, Cavendish among others. The Hermetique line is one of our favourites and though the price is north of $500, it’s French, and it’s undeniably vert.

The Lanterne Rouge - Seiko Prospex Speedtimer Factory Red Dial Limited Edition

The Red Lantern, or the last person to finish the race. Perhaps the most honourable position of all at le Tour. For teams full of domestiques (or what we call the W5C interns – we kid!) who selflessly and tirelessly serve the stars on the team, to finish the race without collapsing from exhaustion is a monumental feat. And it should be mentioned that the reigning wearer of the red light is Mark Cavendish, one of the greatest cyclists of all time.

This Seiko Prospex is a limited (European) edition of their legendary Speedtimer. Solar powered to go the distance and, not surprisingly, sports a red dial.

The King of the Mountains – Timex Expedition GMT Titanium

The polka dot jersey (or maillot à pois rouges, or ‘jersey with the red dots’) is given to the rider with the most capacity to suffer who wins the most mountain points. But here’s the thing. Finding a polka dot watch has not been easy. There is the Rolex Oyster Perpetual Celebration, but we’re not Watch Fifteen Thousand. You could do an AliExpress ‘homage’ to the Rolex. Alternatively, there is a Swatch polka dot watch (how could there not be.)

Instead we chose a watch you could wear in the mountains. Introduced in 1997, Expeditions have been designed to take beating, as one would expect from a company whose longtime slogan was “takes a licking and keeps on ticking.” GMT, titanium case, the watch to conquer Mont Ventoux.

Glorious (and inglorious) throwback – Festina Dune Quartz

In 1998, Festina’s soigneur Wily Voet was stopped by French police carrying a bag of drugs that would make Hunter S. Thompson proud. The subsequent PED scandal (known as “The Festina Affair”, branding nightmare that) was followed by cycling getting serious about doping reform Lance Armstrong. So, that.

Still we were inspired to include Festina who have been a supporter of the Tour since 1989, as well as the Vuelta de Espana and Giro d’Italia. And it wasn’t Festina’s fault. And we celebrate the human spirit here, the glorious and inglorious. The challenge is which watch, because Festina goes large with its offer. But we think the Dune Quartz might fit in this group. Understated, powered by the Ronda 517, affordable, and looks good.

Watch1500 Bonus - Breitling AB01768A1A1X1 Top Time Fausto Coppi

For those wishing to break through the 500 barrier, the Breitling AB01768A1A1X1 Top Time FAUSTO COPPI, named for the legend and what they call tourquise here, we call Celeste Green (for the Bianchi Coppi rode.)

Till next week! Allez!