“You win the 1000 Miglia race at the Raticosa Pass,” Enzo Ferrari once said. The renowned route, which rises over 1,000 meters above sea level and travels from Tuscany to Emilia-Romagna through Italy’s Appenine Alps, is the most difficult stage of the Mille Miglia road race and has earned the nickname “supercar country.”
Chopard’s decades-long timing connection with the Mille Miglia event continues with the Chopard Mille Miglia Classic Chronograph Raticosa, the brand’s latest racing-inspired chronograph, which pays homage to its historical namesake.
The Chopard Mille Miglia Classic Chronograph Raticosa is housed in an ergonomically curved stainless steel casing with a 42-mm diameter and two dial color options: off-white or varnished back. The case has the pump-style chronograph pushers found on Chopard’s Classic Chronograph models, as well as the steering-wheel-shaped screw-down crown.
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The dial, which is protected by a glare proof sapphire crystal, features big Arabic numerals with beige Super-LumiNova in both colors. The rhodium-plated baton hands for the hour and minute are likewise coated in luminous material, while the central chronograph seconds hand has a red tip.
The dial is framed by a tachymeter scale, a motorsport-inspired feature of the Mille Miglia series that allows a driver to utilize the chronograph to compute speeds depending on travel time and distance. The running seconds, 12 elapsed chronograph hours, and 30 elapsed chronograph minutes are tracked by the snailed subdials at 3, 6, and 9 o’clock, respectively, while the date is shown in an aperture at 4.30 o’clock position.
The motor of this racing-inspired watch is a self-winding, COSC chronometer-certified movement that beats at 28,800 vph under a transparent sapphire display glass and has a 42-hour power reserve. The perimeter of the screw-down caseback window is adorned with a brilliant red “1000 Miglia” emblem, which mirrors the one on the dial, as well as an engraving of the watch’s limited edition numbers.
The strap, with its chestnut brown hue and perforated pattern, completes the package, evoking the iconic leather racing gloves used by the Mille Miglia’s “gentlemen drivers.” It also has beige stitching that matches the color of the dial’s luminous hands and numerals, and a black rubber inner layer with a tread pattern inspired by classic racing car Dunlop tires.
