Take A Look At These Classic Vintage Cars and Colorful Racing Watches
It’s not really surprising why watchmaker Chopard and legendary race Mille Miglia have shared a passion for fine mechanics, high performance, and classic cars for 30 years.
The timekeeper’s co-president Karl-Friedrich Scheufele is a discerning connoisseur of collector cars and also an accomplished driver that, for the past three decades, has exercised his skills at the wheel of the most prestigious automobiles, many of which he competes with in the annual race. As well, when Chopard became the official timekeeper of the racing event in 1988, the company released an eponymous watch collection.
A little bit about Mille Miglia: The prestigious annual endurance rally sees more than 400 historical cars covering a 1,000-mile route that snakes from Brescia to Rome and back. Back in the 1910s, in order to easily identify nationalities, particular colors were instituted for the competing drivers: bright red for Italy, racing green for the United Kingdom, gray-white for Germany, yellow for Belgium, and blue for France.
That scheme stuck, becoming the very colors of various speed machines. The fact that Ferraris are red and Aston Martins are green is no coincidence. These iconic colors—which you now know as Speed Silver, British Racing Green, Vintage Blue, Speed Yellow, and Rosso Corsa—can be traced to the earliest great races, of which the Mille Miglia was one of the most popular.
This year, to celebrate the 30th anniversary of Chopard and Mille Miglia's partnership, the watchmaker presents a re-edition of its historical collection in the Mille Miglia Racing Colors.
The five 42-mm chronographs, assembled in a 300-piece limited series for each color, are inspired by the cars that competed in the Mille Miglia between 1927 and 1940. The slim cursive fonts and counters recall dashboards from the late 1920s; the sweep-seconds hand features a bright red tip as if counting down the seconds of the race; and the arrow-shaped Mille Miglia logo appears at 12 o’clock in the heart of the dial.
These watches are authentic instruments for drivers hurtling along Italian roads. The chronograph functions measure short times; the tachymeter scale measures average speeds; its 50-meter water resistance prove particularly useful in rainy conditions; and its dials display optimal legibility thanks to broad Arabic numerals and hands, all of which are luminescent.
In the context of the legendary race or, really, life’s very own race, these colorful watches will let the gentlemen driver keep his eyes on the prize.
Greenbelt 5
