What is the Chopard Mille Miglia Watch?

The Mille Miglia Race

The Chopard Mille Miglia watch actually takes its name from a famous Italian car road race. Established in 1927, the track of the Mille Miglia open-road endurance race was, in fact, the road from Brescia to Rome and back, spanning roughly 1500 km, or 1000 Roman miles (hence its name). The race had 24 editions until 1957 (taking a break during WWII and resuming in 1947). The event finally came to an end in 1957 after two crashes that year took the lives of 12 people, including spectators.

In 1977, the race was reborn as the Mille Miglia Storica and reformatted as a classic and vintage car race. Today, the Mille Miglia is one of the most prestigious classic car events on the global calendar. All of the more-than 400 cars that compete in the modern Mille Miglia event are made prior to 1957 have must have ties to the original race. Chopard officially joined the Mille Miglia event as the Official Timekeeper in 1988 and continued to do so for the last three decades. In fact, Chopard Co-President, Karl-Friedrich Scheufele, has raced in every edition of the Mille Miglia event since 1988.

Naturally, Chopard went well beyond just sponsoring the event. The company created a whole collection of Chopard watches dedicated to the Mille Miglia. Here are some top Chopard Mille Miglia watches that highlight this special longstanding relationship between elegant cars and fine watchmaking.

Chopard Mille Miglia 8331

Sporting a very wearable stainless steel 39mm round case, an inner tachymeter bezel, and a duo of chronograph pushers flanking the winding crown, the Chopard Mille Miglia ref. 8331 is a great option for those who don’t want an oversized sports watch.

On the black dial we see the trio of chronograph registers, luminescent Arabic numerals, a date window between 4 and 5 o’clock, and the famous Mille Miglia red logo. Emphasizing the connection with the famous car race is the watch’s rubber strap finished with a tire tread pattern.

If however, you prefer a more intricate dial, there’s also this option of the Chopard Mille Miglia 8331 with an engine turned dial mimicking the checkered flag pattern. Plus, it comes with an elegant python strap in light tan for a dressier approach to the sports watch.

Flip the Chopard Mille Miglia ref. 8331 around and you’ll see the automatic movement driving the Mille Miglia ref. 8331 with about 42-hours of power reserve, a hacking seconds feature, and a quickset date function.

Chopard Mille Miglia GMT 8992

For a Chopard Mille Miglia that offers even more functionality than the time, date, and chronograph, there’s the Chopard Mille Miglia GMT ref. 8992. Sized at a robust 42mm, this stainless steel chronograph includes the handy GMT function to indicate two time zones via the GMT hand pointing to the 24-hour marked bezel.

The dial houses the trio of registers in the 6, 9, 12 layout while the date window sits at the traditional 3 o’clock position. To match the steel case, this Chopard Mille Miglia GMT 8992 comes equipped with a full steel bracelet with a secure deployant clasp. Yet again, this particular Mille Miglia model provides a transparent case for a view of the automatic movement working away inside the watch.

Chopard Mille Miglia GT XL Rosso Corsa

Within the Mille Miglia collection, Chopard produces GT XL versions, which as its label suggests are very large watches. For instance, the Chopard Mille Miglia GT XL Rosso Corsa includes a 44mm titainum case with a bold red dial. In an interesting twist, the 6 and 12 hour markers are applied onto the sapphire crystal. Taking up the left side of the vibrant dial are the three large registers while the right side has the date window. Running around the periphery of the dial is a chapter ring with minute/seconds markings.

Rather than large protruding chronograph pushers, this Mille Miglia GT XL has integrated chronograph pushers that lends a sleeker case silhouette.  Furthermore, the rally style strap with the large holes adds a great retro touch to the watch and comes with a titanium tang buckle. The sapphire caseback is emblazoned with the ROSSO CORSA text and indicates the specific number of the watch out of the limited 1000-piece production run.

If you enjoy watches that are heavily influenced by motorsports, then the varied collection of Chopard Mille Miglia watches have a fantastic selection to choose from.