Chopard Celebrates “Supercar Country” With Mille Miglia Classic Chronograph Raticosa


Enzo Ferrari once remarked that “You win the 1000 Miglia race at the Raticosa Pass.” The legendary road, which rises almost 1,000 meters above sea level and winds through Italy’s Appenine mountains from Tuscany to Emilia-Romagna, represents the most challenging stage of the Mille Miglia road race and has earned the nickname “supercar country” for its area’s longtime affiliation with Italian carmakers such as Maserati and Lamborghini. Chopard continues its decades-long timing partnership with the Mille Miglia race with the latest racing-inspired chronograph from its collection, the Mille Miglia Classic Chronograph Raticosa, which pays tribute to its historical namesake.

Housed in an ergonomically curved, 42-mm-diameter case made of stainless steel, the watch offers two distinct dial-color options, in off-white or varnished back. The case features the pump-style chronograph pushers characteristic of Chopard’s Classic Chronograph models, along with a screw-down crown shaped in a steering-wheel motif. Protected under a glareproof sapphire crystal, the dial, in both its colorways, uses large Arabic numerals with beige Super-LumiNova. The luminous material also coats the rhodium-plated baton hands for the hour and minute, while the central chronograph seconds hand has a red tip.

A tachymeter scale, a motorsport-inspired hallmark of the Mille Miglia collection, frames the dial, allowing a driver wearing the watch to use the chronograph to calculate speeds based on travel time and distance. The snailed subdials at 3, 6, and 9 o’clock track the running seconds, 12 elapsed chronograph hours and 30 elapsed chronograph minutes, respectively, and the date appears in an aperture at 4:30.

A self-winding, COSC chronometer-certified movement serves as the engine of this racing-derived timepiece, beating at 28,800 vph beneath a clear sapphire exhibition window and amassing a power reserve of 42 hours. The bright red “1000 Miglia” logo, echoing the one on the dial, graces the perimeter of the window on the screwed-down caseback, along with an engraving of the watch’s limited edition number (out of 500 pieces each for the black-dial and off-white-dial versions).

Completing the package is the strap, its chestnut brown color and perforated pattern evocative of classic leather racing gloves worn by the Mille Miglia’s “gentlemen drivers.” Additionally, its beige stitching matches the color of the dial’s luminous hands and numerals, and it’s lined with a black rubber inner layer with a tread pattern inspired by the Dunlop tires used on vintage race cars. Both versions of the Chopard Mille Miglia Classic Chronograph Raticosa are priced at $5,900.

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  1. Michael A Primavera

    I would love to purchase this watch. I have been wearing different watches for 59 years . And I would love to wear this one for the rest of my life. So about 10 more years. I like everything about this watch

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  2. Roy Kozey

    To many numbers cut off by the sub dials!Runes the vintage look of the watch.

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