Three of the best classic car-inspired watches from Chopard, Breitling and Montblanc
Cars and timepieces have long gone hand-in-hand, here are some of the best automotive-influenced watches around
Cars! It’s been a few weeks since the last watch column, so I thought I would come back and reclaim my territory with something aggressive and manly, and what’s more aggressive and manly than automobiles! Yes, a Prius can be manly. And yes, it’s true I can’t drive, but that doesn’t make me any less of a man, right? It makes me useless in an end-of-days zombie apocalypse scenario, but no less of a man. Probably.
OK, I’ll concede cars aren’t all that manly, but watches inspired by cars certainly are! Boy, I bet you’ve all missed these tenuous segues into watches – but, really, this is a thing and even though it sounds a bit lame the watches themselves are pretty great.
My perennial fave collection when it comes to motor racing-inspired watches is Chopard’s Mille Miglia, named after the famed Italian endurance race featuring classic cars. There are lots of gems in this large collection but I’m a big fan of the new Mille Miglia GTS Power Control Grigio Speziale.
Priced at HK$63,000 (US$8,000), the Speziale is a real head turner, with a lovely grey colour scheme featuring as it does on the dial, the titanium case and even the fabric strap. The anthracite-grey dial colour is perhaps my favourite thing about this piece and it provides a great contrast to the red elements on the dial.
The watch is sized at 43mm and features are pretty simple, with only a power-reserve indicator and a date window but, to be honest, this timepiece is like a Jaguar – more of a looker than a performance machine. Inside is a Chopard-built 01.08-C movement that’s COSC certified and has 60 hours of power reserve. The watch is limited to 1,000 pieces.
