President & CEO — Ford Motor Company

Jim Farley's Apple Watch Ultra: The CEO Who Races a GT40 at Le Mans Doesn't Wear a Standard Watch

He runs one of the largest automakers in the world. He also races a 1966 Ford GT40 at Le Mans Classic, owns Shelby Cobras and a Lancia Stratos, has finished on the podium in historic racing events, and does all of it with the explicit blessing of Ford's chairman. Jim Farley is the CEO of Ford Motor Company and one of the most credible car enthusiasts in a corner office anywhere. On his wrist: an Apple Watch Ultra — the only Apple Watch built for what he does at weekends.

Jim Farley — Apple Watch Ultra on wrist. Source: YouTube

Jim Farley — Ford CEO, vintage racer, and car collector

▶ Source: YouTube

James Duncan Farley Jr. was born June 10, 1962, in Buenos Aires, Argentina, where his father was working as a banker. He grew up in Greenwich, Connecticut, attended Portsmouth Abbey School in Rhode Island, graduated from Georgetown University with a degree in economics and computer science, and later earned an MBA from UCLA Anderson. His grandfather had worked at Henry Ford's River Rouge Plant in 1918. The family connection to the industry was already there; the obsession came from somewhere closer to the bone.

Farley joined Toyota in 1990, where he helped launch the Lexus brand in North America and later drove the creation of Scion, Toyota's youth-targeted marque. He joined Ford in November 2007 as group vice president of global marketing, overseeing one of his first major moves at the company: giving 100 new Ford Fiestas to YouTube influencers and letting them drive and review the cars for their audiences. The resulting 6.5 million views rewrote how automotive marketing worked in the digital era. He rose through roles including executive vice president of global markets before being named President and CEO on October 1, 2020, succeeding Jim Hackett. He has since restructured Ford into three distinct business units — Ford Blue (internal combustion vehicles), Ford Pro (commercial), and Ford Model e (electric vehicles) — and overseen the launches of the Mustang Mach-E, the F-150 Lightning, and the E-Transit. Ford posted $185 billion in revenue for fiscal year 2024.

None of which gets to the part of Jim Farley's biography that explains the Apple Watch Ultra. Farley owns and races a collection of vintage cars including a 1966 Ford GT40 — restored from a road-car conversion back to its period-correct racing livery of Ford dark blue with Wimbledon white stripes, the same colours that beat Ferrari at Le Mans in the 1960s — along with Shelby Cobras, a Ford-powered 1978 Lola T298, and a 1978 Lancia Stratos. He has entered the Le Mans Classic since 2018, won his class at Sportscar Vintage Racing Association events at Atlanta in 2020 and Sebring in 2021, raced the Mustang Challenge at Laguna Seca, and in 2022 finished second in class at Le Mans Classic in the GT40 after three 45-minute heat races. He described it as a dream come true. Ford Chairman Bill Ford has given him explicit approval to continue racing as CEO.

"A dream come true. A podium finish at Le Mans Classic in a GT40. Three hours of flat-out racing against some of the best drivers I know." — Jim Farley, after his second-place class finish at Le Mans Classic, July 2022

Timepiece

Apple Watch Ultra

The Apple Watch Ultra, introduced in 2022 and updated with the Ultra 2 in 2023, is Apple's purpose-built tool for people who operate at the extreme end of physical activity. Where the standard Apple Watch serves everyday health monitoring and communications, the Ultra exists for conditions that would defeat it. The case is 49mm titanium — larger, more robust, and more scratch-resistant than aluminium or stainless steel. The display is Apple's brightest, readable in direct sunlight at 2,000 nits. Water resistance is rated to 100 metres, with dive computer functionality built in for recreational diving. Battery life reaches 36 hours in standard use — 60 hours in Low Power Mode — against the standard Series 11's 24 hours.

The Ultra adds a dedicated Action Button — a physical control programmable for quick access to specific functions, useful when gloves or speed make touchscreen interaction impractical. Its precision dual-frequency GPS (L1 and L5) achieves significantly better accuracy than standard Apple Watch GPS, designed for navigation in complex environments including canyons, forests, and circuits. Emergency Siren reaches 86 decibels. All the standard Apple Watch health monitoring runs continuously alongside: heart rate, ECG, blood oxygen, sleep tracking, crash detection. On the wrist of a man who drives a 200 mph vintage racer at historic circuits on his personal time, the Ultra is not a luxury upgrade. It is the correct specification.

Case	49mm titanium — larger, lighter, and more durable than standard models
Display	Brightest Apple Watch — 2,000 nits, sunlight readable
Water resistance	100m rated — dive computer functionality built in
Battery	Up to 36 hours standard / 60 hours Low Power Mode
GPS	Precision dual-frequency L1 + L5 — high accuracy in demanding environments
Action Button	Dedicated physical control — programmable for quick function access
Health	Heart rate, ECG, blood oxygen, sleep tracking, crash & fall detection, emergency siren
Price	From ~$799

The Only Apple Watch That Makes Sense Here

This is not a complicated case. Jim Farley is the CEO of Ford Motor Company, which means he spends his working hours managing 177,000 employees, $185 billion in annual revenue, three distinct business units, an electric vehicle transition, a global supply chain, and the political pressures of American manufacturing. He then spends a significant portion of his personal time driving a 1966 Ford GT40 on circuits at racing speeds, competing in historic events against other serious drivers, and preparing vintage machines that require careful restoration and mechanical attention.

The Apple Watch Ultra was designed for people whose activities exceed the tolerances of the standard watch. Its titanium case, 100-metre water resistance, precision dual-frequency GPS, 36-hour battery life, and emergency siren are not features that most Apple Watch wearers will ever need. For a man who races a 200 mph GT40 at Le Mans Classic with the Chairman of Ford Motor Company's blessing, each of those specifications is earned rather than aspirational. The Ultra is the watch Apple built for extreme conditions; Farley's weekend schedule is exactly what Apple had in mind.

Car Guy at the Top

The automotive industry has produced many effective executives. It has produced few who are also genuine enthusiasts — who buy, restore, race, and obsess over the machines their companies make and those their competitors made half a century ago. Farley restored his GT40 from a road-car conversion back to its period-correct 1960s racing form, changing the paint from metallic red back to Ford dark blue with Wimbledon white stripes. That is not the behaviour of an executive cultivating an image. That is the behaviour of someone who cannot separate the work from the passion, because for him they were never separate. The Apple Watch Ultra on his wrist during a board meeting is the same device on his wrist three laps into a heat race at the Circuit de la Sarthe. It is built for both because he lives both.

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