The Mille Miglia (Thousand Miles) was the legendary 1,000-mile open-road race from Brescia to Rome and back, run from 1927 to 1957 and suspended after two fatal crashes. In 1977 the race was revived as a historic-car retrospective restricted to models that competed in the original era, and Chopard co-president Karl-Friedrich Scheufele, a car enthusiast and occasional competitor, became the event's official timekeeper in 1988. For the occasion Chopard designed a dedicated chronograph, the Mille Miglia, to be given to every competitor and sold in small anniversary series.
The design signatures were set from the first series and remain almost unchanged nearly 40 years later: red Arabic 12, 3, 6, and 9 numerals evoking historic Italian race-car dials; a chronograph tachymeter bezel calibrated to 400 km/h; leaf-shaped luminous hands; a date at 6 o'clock; and, most distinctively, a rubber strap with a 1960s-era Dunlop racing-tyre tread pattern moulded into the surface. Every Mille Miglia reference has carried some version of that strap, including the current Classic Chronograph.
From the 2000s onward Chopard expanded the Mille Miglia into a broad collection: GMT variants, GTS automatic three-handers, ladies references, and limited-edition commemorative pieces for specific race years. In-house movement development progressed steadily, with the 2017 introduction of the Calibre 03.05-C COSC-certified automatic chronograph (60-hour power reserve, column-wheel architecture) replacing the long-running Valjoux 7750 base in most references. Production volumes for the Mille Miglia put it alongside IWC's Portugieser Chronograph as one of the most successful Swiss chronograph families of the modern era.
Annual Mille Miglia Race Edition pieces have been released every year since 1988 to coincide with the June race, typically in limited editions of 250 to 1,000 pieces and selling rapidly to enthusiasts and participants. Collectors value the earliest 1988 and 1989 references, the 1998 10th-anniversary set, and the chronographs tied to specific high-profile race years. Contemporary retail for the Classic Chronograph starts around CHF 7,500 in steel; rose-gold and titanium limited editions reach CHF 30,000+. The Mille Miglia remains the only major watch-brand sponsorship of a historic-car event to have run continuously for 37+ years.
