STYLE AND PANACHE
Chopard has been associated with one of the world’s top car races for 30 years now. To celebrate this lasting partnership, the brand has released a new limited edition.
Year after year, the Mille Miglia, the famous car race between Brescia and Rome, has kept alive all the specific elements that make up its charm. Meanwhile, its watchmaking partner has achieved the feat of commemorating each year’s event with a new, highly distinctive limited edition watch for the pleasure of collectors. You can have fun comparing the 2017 watch with the new Mille Miglia 2018 Race Edition by playing a game of spot the differences. The first difference is the width of the case, which has shed 2mm and now displays an ideal 42mm to house the chronograph functions. The dial still has all its sparkle, but the colour now comes in a darker hue. Similarly, the layout of the sub-dials has also changed. Chopard has opted for a classic tricompax style. The hour markers now come with Arabic numerals. Most of them overlap the round totalisers and are only partially visible. The date counter has been moved from 3 o’clock to 4.30. The monopushers used for split-time measurements have been slightly redesigned. The screwed caseback has been replaced by a sapphire glass, providing a chance to admirer the workings of the calibre. As for the strap, this year it combines leather with red piping and rubber lining.
Like all the watches manufactured by Chopard, this limited edition, with 1,000 pieces made of steel and 100 made of pink gold, has been certified by the COSC.
Price: 5,170 EUR chopard.com
By Dan Diaconu
The Seamaster 1948 with the sub-seconds comes with a brown leather strap, while the central seconds hand version strap is made of grey-blue leather. Each version comes in a limited edition of 1948 pieces and is displayed in a collector’s case. The hardest thing will be to choose…
To reinforce the sports look of this timepiece, the 45mm-wide steel case is rounded off by a choice of straps made of steel or rubber.
The timepiece is driven by an automatic movement. The calibre Powermatic 80, which can now be found on many of the watches made by Tissot, guarantees a generous power reserve of over three days.
This first traveller’s watch in Patek Philippe’s women’s collection stands out through its warm colours. The brown black tones on the dial combine beautifully with a vintage calf’s leather strap and with the dazzling and fine elegance of the pink gold case.
So, between 7 and 9 o’clock, an indicator in the arc of a circle displays the days of the week using a retrograde mechanism. A small blued steel hand moves forward every 24 hours then makes a backwards leap at the end of the week to begin its journey again on Mondays. Between 5 and 6 o’clock, two counters display a large date. These features are driven by an automatic movement. The 6950GJ is based on an ultra-flat 1150 calibre and stands out in terms of performance thanks to its two barrels. These two reservoirs of energy provide a generous power reserve of 70 hours. It is worth noting that the day can be set very simply with a press on a corrector housed beneath one of the timepiece’s horns. The date is adjusted using the crown.
The Big Bang Unico Red Magic is worn with a rubber strap with a folding clasp made of black titanium PVD. With this sports-style model, red means go!
The brand also made a brand-new strap, specially developed to provide an ultra-comfortable user experience. It is made in a single piece, and stands out through added suppleness, meaning it can be perfectly adjusted to its owner’s morphology, like a second skin.
As for the dial, everything has been crafted discreetly and transparently to let the jewellery artwork express itself. In the centre, two large silvered baton-shaped hands display the hours and minutes. The running seconds are offset in a counter encircled by a diamond ribbon at 3 o’clock whilst the date sits bashfully at 6 o’clock. The central direct drive, whose counterpoise proudly features the H of Hublot, indicates the chronograph seconde whilst the minutes are counted in a diamond-set totalizer at 9 o’clock.
The 40mm-wide Oyster cases are watertight down to 100m and dressed in Everose, a pink gold made by Rolex with lasting radiance. One of the models comes in Oystersteel, a 904L steel, and features a few touches of Everose gold on the bezel, dial, crown and on the central links of the strap. The other is entirely forged in the warm precious metal.