Chopard Official Timekeeper and World Sponsor of the 1000 Miglia 2024

More than 440 of the world’s finest classic cars, 1,000 miles of Italy’s most breathtaking roads, two special new chronographs and Chopard on the start line. It can mean only one thing: the 2024 edition of the 1000 Miglia. For the 37 th year in succession, Chopard will again serve as the official timekeeper and world sponsor of ‘the most beautiful race in the world’, furthering a relationship that is one of the longest in history between a watchmaker and a motoring event. Equally enduring is Chopard co-president Karl Friedrich Scheufele’s love for the 1000 Miglia, and he will again take part – for the 36th time – alongside his dear friend Jacky Ickx driving the Scheufele family’s beloved ‘metallic strawberry’ Mercedes-Benz 300 SL Gullwing (look out for number 264).

Chopard pays tribute to a racing legend

This year, Chopard’s familiar booth on Brescia’s Piazza Vittoria – a few minutes from the Viale Venezia start and finish ramp – will be decorated to pay tribute to Brussels-born Jacky Ickx, who won the Le Mans 24 Hours race no fewer than six times between 1966 and 1985. He also achieved eight wins and 25 podiums in Formula One and won both the 1975 Cam-Am series and the gruelling Paris-Dakar Rally in 1983. As well as evocative images and memorabilia charting Jacky Ickx’s remarkable racing career, the booth will showcase the two special editions of the Mille Miglia Classic Chronograph JX7 recently unveiled in tribute to him.

The 2024 Mille Miglia editions revealed

Competitors will also be able to see the eagerly anticipated 2024 Mille Miglia special editions – the 36th in succession – which, this year, comprise two distinct models. Both will be launched at a special dinner taking place on the eve of the start at the Brescia’s fabulous Areadocks, a restaurant, bar and boutique hotel re-purposed from a disused railway warehouse.

The first model is the Mille Miglia Classic Chronograph in ultra-resistant and exclusive Lucent Steel™, made with a recycling rate of at least 80%. The 40.5mm diameter chronograph features a ‘La Gara’ (or ‘competition’) dial inspired by motor racing’s celebrated chequered flag. It is topped by a superb ‘glass box’ crystal which facilitates maximum visibility at all times, while a notched winding crown and knurled pushers recall a sports car’s brake pedals while also providing optimum grip. A sapphire crystal caseback offers a bird’s-eye view onto the mechanical self-winding, chronometer-certified movement, and a perforated strap in black calfskin matches the chronograph subdials while evoking the design of traditional driving gloves.

The second timepiece dedicated to this year’s race is the Mille Miglia GTS Chrono Limited Italian Edition, which features a 44-mm case made from lightweight, beadblasted titanium. It will be made in just 100 examples as a pure celebration of the country in which the legendary race was born.

The long and winding road 

Either of the new Mille Miglia timepieces would make the perfect companion for this year’s race, which will see the first car leave the start ramp at noon, with the others following at 20-second intervals in order of age, oldest first. Once underway, the crews will head-off in an anticlockwise direction to the first overnight stop in Turin before hugging northern Italy’s west coast the following day, arriving (for the first time) in the vibrant Ligurian capital of Genoa for lunch.

That second day finishes halfway to Rome in Viareggio, with the crews then heading inland the next morning via the beautifully preserved and historic town of Lucca before making it to the ‘Eternal City’ by nightfall.

The fourth leg, meanwhile, takes in the thrilling and testing Prato, Futa and Raticosa passes before the next day’s final run back to Brescia – where, after approximately 1,076 miles, the long-anticipated chequered flag awaits.