Mille Miglia 2019 Race Edition

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Mille Miglia 2019 Race Edition - Chopard
2 minutes read
The robust, high-performance and elegant new Mille Miglia 2019 Race Edition belongs to the Mille Miglia GTS collection presented in 2015.

In 2018, Chopard celebrated three decades of partnership with the Mille Miglia race. This four-stage rally driven from Brescia to Rome and back was bound to appeal to Chopard Co-President Karl-Friedrich Scheufele, a keen classic car connoisseur – and driver – when his schedule permits. Especially since the spirit of this race, which began in the 1920s and was resurrected in 1977, carries memories of the finest hours in motorsport, with the Dolce Vita as an added bonus.

This unique alliance in the world of classic motorsport is notably expressed through the Mille Miglia watch collection, which has taken a prominent place among the Maison’s timepieces thanks to its resolutely sporty character tinged with deliciously retro accents, much like the rally that inspires it.

The GTS line perfectly embodies this osmosis through resolutely current vintage watches capable of incorporating historical codes within a contemporary and uncompromising timepiece. The Mille Miglia 2019 Race Edition model vividly illustrates this approach in its version featuring an all-steel case and issued as a 1,000-piece limited edition. 

Mille Miglia 2019 Race Edition

The Mille Miglia 2019 Race Edition watch is first and foremost a watch designed for racing. Alongside its obvious robustness and durability, it features a 44 mm case with a screw-in back and water resistance guaranteed to 100 metres. The case-back is also engraved with the Mille Miglia logo on a black PVD-treated checkerboard pattern reminiscent of the race commissioner's flag. 

The timepiece is powered by a COSC-certified self-winding chronograph movement with a full two-day power reserve. Operating at a frequency of 28,800 vibrations per hour, it ensures eighth-of-a-second measurement of short times, perfectly adapted to old-timers' road-going exploits. The tachymeter scale engraved on the blackened aluminium insert of the bezel serves to calculate the average speed during the race. An essential piece of information for drivers, given that an endurance event such as the Mille Miglia race is won by regularity.

Mille Miglia 2019 Race Edition

The Mille Miglia 2019 Race Edition is also highly functional, particularly with its two ergonomically designed chronograph pushers. The hands and hour-markers are coated with Super-LumiNova®, ensuring perfect readability both day and night. In the same spirit, so as to leave as much space as possible on the dial, the seconds numerals pointed to by the dedicated sweep-seconds hand have been integrated into the inner bezel ring. The two chronograph counters, positioned along the vertical axis with the minutes at 12 o’clock, and the hours at 6 o’clock, appear in anthracite grey with a white transfer, creating a perfect contrast with the silver-toned dial featuring small seconds at 9 o’clock. The colour coding with red for the hands and black on the counters, inner bezel ring and bezel thereby serves to highlight the chronograph-related functions. The date, positioned for the first time beneath a domed crystal, reflects the same concern for legibility.

This Mille Miglia 2019 Race Edition nevertheless displays to the full the innate elegance that is inextricably bound up with the collection. The profile of the watch has been redesigned in terms of the case curves, complemented by a domed crystal creating an even more beautifully rounded effect. The camel-coloured perforated calf leather strap with tone-on-tone stitching is a vivid reminder that this naturally powerful yet classically handsome watch was designed as a racing companion. The strap lining features a Dunlop 1960s tyre-tread motif ensuring maximum wearer comfort as well as providing a reminder of beautiful driving adventures.

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