The Chopard Mille Miglia, launched in 1988, is a sporty automatic chronograph made to mark Chopard’s first sponsorship of the revived Mille Miglia classic car race. It has a steel case with a rotating tachymeter bezel, a chronograph with subdials, and a dial and strap inspired by racing car instruments and perforated driving gloves. I could not find reliable official figures for the original case size and movement, so they are not stated here.

The idea came from Karl-Friedrich Scheufele, co-president of Chopard and a classic car enthusiast, who proposed the sponsorship in 1987. One source states that the first chronograph was made in a limited series equal to the number of cars in that year’s rally, but I could not confirm this elsewhere.

The Mille Miglia was a key part of Chopard’s turnaround as a sports-watch maker, and the partnership has continued every year since. The collection is still in production, with new editions released regularly, though the 1988 original is a collector’s piece.