Author: Merrel Briona

A fleet of technicolor supercars and high-octane wristwatches make a persuasive case to spend the weekend in Miami. Helmed by 0260 founder Lex Borrero and watch media personality Perri Dash, the inaugural Time To Drive Car & Watch Festival delivered an ambitious debut and laid the groundwork for future editions.

Held this past weekend on November 7 and 8 at Mana Wynwood, following a kick-off at the Concours Club, the festival brought automotive and horological worlds together for a weekend devoted to the machines that get collectors’ pulses racing. Robb Report served as the official media partner of the first edition, which drew over 6,000 attendees with 50 watch brands, hundreds of collector vehicles, and 64 speakers spanning racing, watchmaking, design, and entertainment.

Dash said the idea was hatched during Watches & Wonders Geneva in April. What followed was a months-long effort to assemble a festival that reflected their own collecting interests. “We wanted to create the dream event that we wanted to attend,” he told Robb Report. “If we were going to build something, we had to create something that has a little bit of us in it.”

Miami supplied a receptive audience to their vision. “It’s funny, because when you look at Miami’s car and watch community, you almost wonder why something like Time to Drive didn’t happen sooner,” said Matt McKenna, collector and founder of Miami’s Imperial Moto wearing a Patek Philippe Neptune reference 5085. “The two worlds have always overlapped, and Miami has some incredible collectors. And what I love about both cars and watches is that they’re rarely just about the object itself.”

The weekend began with an opportunity to put some exceptional engineering to work. Friday’s invitation-only gathering, the Driver’s Seat, brought guests to the Concours Club for hot laps, track sessions and passenger rides with professional drivers. A conversation between Borrero and Chopard U.S. CEO Jean-Baptiste Maillard added a watchmaking perspective to an evening centered on performance cars. Drew Coblitz, car and watch collector noted, “Normally we either go to car or watch events, and they’re rarely married the way Time To Drive managed to combine them,” he said, with an F.P. Journe Chronomètre Bleu on his wrist. “I had friends travel across the country to be here.”

By Saturday, the action had moved to Wynwood with impressive automotive displays that punctuated the entire show. WERKS: The German Concours assembled 150 curated Porsche, Mercedes-Benz, and BMW vehicles, while Icons of Stuttgart brought together such standouts as a Mercedes-Benz 300 SL Gullwing, a four-cam Porsche 356 Carrera, a Jägermeister Porsche 911 Carrera RSR, and a Porsche 918 Spyder Weissach.

Nearby, a Ferrari F40 and Aston Martin DB4 shared the broader festival billing with rarities including one of just six Ferrari Sergios ever built. Plus, the Amazon Green Carrera GT, and the 964 Turbo featured in Bad Boys—an especially fitting appearance in Miami. Leading the red-carpet fleet of super cars was a violet Czinger 21C Max that IndyCar champion, Alexander Rossi, was testing out with Brett David of Prestige Imports. “I’ve spent my whole career being defined by thousandths of a second, so I’ve always been drawn to people and brands who obsess over precision,” he told Robb Report. “Time To Drive showcased the best of the best in both worlds, and did it in a way that made you feel included and part of something special.”

Inside the Collectors Club, established maisons and independent brands presented everything from automotive-inspired chronographs to elaborate mechanical showpieces.

Jacob & Co.’s Bugatti Tourbillon bridged the connection between the two worlds, with a miniature V-16 engine animation incorporating a transparent sapphire engine block. Chopard brought its Mille Miglia collection, including the U.S.-exclusive Classic Chronograph American Racing Stripes Edition, limited to 50 pieces, alongside its L.U.C 1860. Grand Seiko, meanwhile, offered guests a closer look at its Spring Drive U.F.A. Ushio 300 Diver and a selection of watches typically shown during private collector appointments. Armin Strom showcased its Mirrored Force Resonance Zeitgeist Blue, made in a limited run of just 10 units, which completely sold out during the festival.

Other discoveries included Norqain’s first titanium Wild ONE models, Perrelet’s Turbine Casino Roulette, and L.Leroy’s Vox Temporis. “I felt the la familia atmosphere here in Miami,” Jessica Chow, founder and CEO of Vieren shared. “People genuinely connected with the story behind my family’s 50-year legacy in Swiss watchmaking, which made the experience especially meaningful.”

Beyond the displays, the programming gave collectors access to the people behind the machines. Alongside Alexander Rossi, Porsche Penske Racing driver Felipe Nasr, automotive photographer Larry Chen, and Adam Golden of Menta Watches were among the weekend’s speakers. Matt Farah’s The Smoking Tire and Spike Feresten’s Spike’s Car Radio recorded live, while Assouline offered an early look at Porsche: The Impossible Collection.

The founders are already planning the next lap. During Sunday’s closing program, Borrero and Dash announced a 2027 return under the name Time To Drive: Art Unframed, with a new Miami venue and an expanded focus encompassing art, music, design, and motorsports.

Mere days after the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) dramatically expanded the use of an AI air traffic control tool nationwide, the agency issued an extremely rare ground stop for all flights in the entire country this afternoon.

Secretary of transportation Sean Duffy tweeted that the ground stop is “following a communication issue impacting all Air Route Traffic Control Centers,” adding that “FAA technicians are investigating the issue.”

While it remains unclear whether the Strategic Management of Airspace Routing Trajectories (SMART) system is connected to the first full ground stop since January 2023, Homeland Security administrator Markwayne Mullin admitted live on TV that his agency was investigating the possibility after a reporter pointed out the suspicious timing.

“We’re looking at that,” Mullin told the reporter, referring to SMART. “We’re working with our counterparts throughout all agencies.

The government contractor behind SMART, Air Space Intelligence, quickly denied that the ground stop is in any way connected to its tool.

“The current ground stop is not based on or a result of the SMART system, any product of ASI or our integration with FAA and ATC,” the company wrote in a statement.

According to a November 10 FAA statement, the SMART system is meant to assist air traffic controllers to “reduce delays, reduce fuel consumption and improve the travel experience for the flying public.”

The system — which cost the government just shy of $1 billion dollars — had already been in use in Washington, DC. However, a national rollout of the system this week came just days before the entire country’s airspace ground to a halt, in timing that’s bound to bring new scrutiny to the deployment. Considering tens of thousands of people can be in the air over the US at any given moment, a hallucinating AI model giving flawed advice to an air traffic controller could easily have disastrous consequences.

The midterm elections earlier this month made it abundantly clear that the American public rejects AI — and data centers in particular — wholesale. Any suggestion that an AI-powered air traffic control system caused a widespread grounding would nothing to help the tech industry and the Trump administration regain their trust.

Microsoft, which has been in the news today because of widespread outages of its products including Outlook and Teams, quickly denied any connection between the ground stop and the issues it’s been having.

“We have no indication that the FAA’s nationwide ground stop is related to any Microsoft services,” it wrote.

More on air traffic control and AI: The FAA Is Spending Nearly a Billion Dollars to Make AI the “Brain” of Air Traffic Control Towers, Starting This Monday

SAVE $81.99: The Sony WH-1000XM6 headphones are on sale at Amazon for a record-low price of $378, down from the normal price of $459.99. That’s an 18% discount.

Black Friday is still a few weeks away, but the deals aren’t waiting for cranberry sauce. If you’ve been thinking about upgrading your headphones or someone on your Christmas gift list is always wearing headphones, there’s a great deal in store at Amazon today.

As of Nov. 13, the Sony WH-1000XM6 headphones are on sale at Amazon for $378, down from the list price of $459.99. That’s an 18% discount, matching the best price we’ve seen on Amazon.

If we all take a second to think about how often we use headphones, paying $378 for a flagship model doesn’t seem out of the question. Use them for a smidge over an hour each day for a year, and the price of ownership drops to about $1 per day.

In Mashable’s review of the best headphones, the Sony XM-6 earn the top spot as the best for premium sound. They have exceptional active noise cancellation, and more microphones mean better call quality.

Sony also made the XM6 headphones with foldable earcups, and they come with a travel-friendly storage case. The folding design of this model is one of the major benefits of the XM6 compared to the previous XM5.

Instead of waiting for Black Friday, make the move and get the Sony XM6 headphones while they’re on sale for a record-low price.