Chopard’s History with Motorsport Racing
A Chopard Chronographe Chronometre with date, flyback, and a tachymetre scale, the Mille Miglia in Italy
Watches and cars go hand in hand. After all, Karl-Friedrich Scheufele said it best himself: “Lovers of fine cars often have a weakness for fine timepieces and vice versa. In both cases, extreme precision and sporting elegance are especially important.”
So just how far back does the relationship between cars and watches go? The first word goes to the Paul Newman Daytona and everything Heuer, but another one of the more prominent sponsorships of the automobile sector by a watch brand goes back to Chopard in 1988. In their case, they became partners and official timekeepers of the Mille Miglia, the famous Italian race started in 1927.
A Chopard Mille Miglia Chronograph ad circa 1980s
The idea for the Mille Miglia was conceived by Aymo Maggi, Franco Mazzotti, Renzo Casgneto, and Giovanni Canestrini, who decided to develop a road-race from Brescia to Rome and back; something significant to excite the Italian people, who at the time were under Mussolini’s rule. However, like Italy, the Mille Miglia has not had an easy life. It was stopped during WWII, resuming in 1947, but only for a decade, due to ‘la tragedia di Guidizollo’. The race was resumed again in 1977, but only open to cars made before 1957 that were registered for the original race. When Chopard partnered with the race in 1988, they also started producing their Mille Miglia collection, which consisted of a new watch every year, released in limited quantities. They made many interesting models over the years, one of which, released 1990, notably featured a split-seconds chronograph; a Chopard first.
Producing a new watch for the last 30 years has certainly made the Mille Miglia an intriguing collection, although it has yet to become a true fixation in the vintage watch market. Nonetheless, the Mille Miglia continues to be an icon, both in the car world and the watch one.
By: Eric Mulder
The Chopard Mille Miglia / Credit: Luxury Watch and Jewelry Market