Chopard has been the World Sponsor and Official Timekeeper of the Mille Miglia since 1988, and the watch collection that carries the race's name has been running almost as long. Its latest turn, detailed by Monochrome, takes the compact Mille Miglia Classic Chronograph reintroduced in 2023 and issues it in three editions built around national racing colours, each sold only in the country whose livery it wears.
Where the colours come from
The idea predates the watches by more than a century. In the Gordon Bennett Cup races at the start of the 20th century, entrants were identified not by sponsor logos but by national colour. France raced in blue, Britain in green, Italy in red, and Germany in white, which later gave way to the bare-metal silver of the Silver Arrows once teams began stripping paint to save weight. Chopard has taken three of those liveries and mapped them onto one watch.
The British Racing Green edition has a galvanic green dial with a circular satin finish, white transfers and rhodium-plated hands. The French edition, which debuted at the 2026 Salon Retromobile in Paris, uses a varnished blue dial with silver-toned counters and red accents, framed by a silvered tachymeter. The German Speed Silver edition is the quiet one, a silver opaline dial with grey and black markings and almost no colour beyond the red tip of the chronograph hand.
One case, done three ways
All three share the 40.5mm case introduced with the 2023 redesign, 12.88mm thick, in Chopard's proprietary Lucent Steel, an alloy the brand makes harder and brighter than standard steel. The motor-racing detailing carries over: chronograph pushers knurled like brake pedals, a notched crown engraved with a steering-wheel motif, and a box-shaped sapphire crystal for the retro profile. Water resistance is 50 metres. The dials keep the same tricompax layout, with small seconds at 3, a twelve-hour counter at 6, a thirty-minute counter at 9 and the date between 4 and 5. The British and French versions ride on rubber straps moulded with a 1960s Dunlop tyre-tread pattern; the German edition swaps to perforated black calfskin.
Each caseback tells you which market the watch belongs to. Under the sapphire, the movement is a COSC-certified automatic chronograph based on the ETA A322-11, running at 28,800 vibrations per hour with a 54-hour reserve. Around it, an engraved motif crosses the black-and-white chequered flag with the national flag of the United Kingdom, France or Germany.
The catch
The movement is the sticking point for some buyers. An ETA-based chronograph at these prices is a hard sell on paper, and the comments under Monochrome's coverage said so plainly. What you are paying for is the finishing, the Lucent Steel case and the exclusivity of a 100-piece national run, not an in-house calibre.
Each edition is numbered to 100 pieces. The British Racing Green is GBP 8,050, sold in the United Kingdom. The French edition is EUR 11,100, sold in France. The German Speed Silver is EUR 11,300, sold in Germany. More detail is at chopard.com.
