By Harlan Chapman-Green
For those of you romantics who are wondering what to get your other half, maybe this time you should consider a cool new timepiece from what is perhaps the most romantic of all the jewellery companies: Chopard. Since 1988 Chopard has been responsible for timing one of the most prestigious motor racing events known a the Mille Miglia. The cars are sophisticated, and so the watches should be as well, luckily, the new watch does not disappoint.
Back in 2015 Chopard brought us the ultra sporty Mille Miglia GTS collection of watches, which came along with huge 12 and 6 O’clock markers (coated with Superluminova), deep black dials and a thin bezel. Now Chopard has come back with the all black version, stealthy, sleek and sexy in a way, the new GTS Automatic Speed Black watch. The Mille Miglia is a legendary racing event from the past, on par with the Indy 500 in the USA and the events held at Brooklands Motor Circuit during the first half of the 20th century. Although the last official Mille Miglia endurance race was held in 1957 those who heard about it revived it in a way in the late seventies as the Mille Miglia Storica for cars made before 1957. The historic races still follow the same route from Brescia to Rome and then back to Brescia to finish.
Chopard has equipped these watches with manufacture movements since 2015, beautifully decorated movements to go with Chopard’s sponsorship of what has been described as the “world’s most beautiful race” by Enzo Ferrari. The new GTS Automatic Speed Black combines the pizazz and glamour of the Mille Miglia races with the stealth looks and hardcore design of the black DLC coated stainless steel case. Like the other Mille Miglia GTS watches this one features the same narrow aluminium graduated bezel insert.
Perhaps my favourite detail is the Mille Miglia logo which surrounds the date window like a picture frame. Dotted around the watch are accents in the colour ‘Rosso Corsa’, that colour of red that Italian sports cars are known for, these are particularly prevalent on the dagger shaped hands which have also been given the Superluminova treatment. Even the sapphire on the back of the case has been given a dark tint to go with the black treatment of the case. Inside this watch is the automatic calibre Chopard 01.01-M which has been fully designed and produced in-house by Chopard themselves. It has been endowed with a strong 60 hours of power reserve and has been certified to chronometer standards by COSC. The movement beats at 4Hz and also carries 31 jewels and is a slim 4.95mm overall, just under half the watch’s total 11.43mm total thickness.
The Chopard Mille Miglia GTS Automatic Speed Black is perhaps best examined when you take the strap into consideration as well. Offered for this watch is a black rubber strap with grooves cut into it which evoke the tread patterns on Dunlop tyres used by the cars in the Mille Miglia. There’s also a black bead blasted and DLC coated clasp to the watch with the Chopard logo etched into a crescent shape. This makes it also more faithful to old motoring related signs of the past which would curve their writing rather than have it on a flat plane, it shows that for Chopard the clasp is clearly not an afterthought.
These are limited to 1000 pieces only at the current time, so if you like it you can head straight over to Chopard’s website and buy direct today! The price is 6800 €. For more info, please visit chopard.com
