Chopard’s Mille Miglia Classic Chronograph Raticosa Returns to a Legendary Mountain Pass

Chopard’s Mille Miglia watches have always worked best when they feel tied to a place, not just a race.

The new Mille Miglia Classic Chronograph Raticosa does exactly that, turning one of the rally’s most demanding mountain sections into a compact, vintage-leaning chronograph with a very specific sense of road history.

It’s a watch for collectors who like their motorsport references with texture rather than theatre.

At a glance

The Raticosa Pass gives the watch its character

The Raticosa Pass is more than a romantic name on a dial.

Running between Florence and Bologna through the Tuscan-Emilian Apennines, the road climbs to 968 metres above sea level and was part of the Mille Miglia route from 1927 to 1957.

Alongside the nearby Futa Pass, it remains one of the rare stretches that can still be driven in a form close to what competitors faced during the race’s formative decades.

Its mix of elevation, tight bends and rhythm made it a defining test for drivers, and Enzo Ferrari’s line that the Mille Miglia was won at Raticosa still explains much of the pass’s mythology.

Chopard has visited this theme before, but the new Raticosa leans more deliberately into period detail.

Lucent Steel, a glass-box crystal and an engraved caseback

The case measures 40.5mm across and 12.88mm thick, giving the watch a contemporary wearability without losing the profile of a classic mechanical chronograph.

It is made from Lucent Steel, Chopard’s proprietary alloy noted for its brightness, durability and high recycled-material content.

Polished and brushed surfaces keep the case from feeling flat, while the glass-box sapphire crystal adds the right amount of vintage pressure to the silhouette.

The motorsport references are present but not overplayed.

The crown carries an engraved steering-wheel motif, the chronograph pushers have a piston-style character, and the welded lugs reinforce the watch’s old-rally stance.

The closed titanium caseback is where the Raticosa theme becomes most explicit, with an engraving of a historic race car on the pass, framed by spectators.

Water resistance is rated to 50 metres.

An eggshell dial with classic rally timing cues

The matte eggshell dial is the detail that most clearly separates this edition from more modern-looking Mille Miglia chronographs.

Beige Super-LumiNova hour markers and rhodium-plated hands create a warmer tone, while black printed scales keep the layout crisp and legible.

The tri-compax arrangement places small seconds at 3 o’clock, a 30-minute counter at 9 o’clock and a 12-hour counter at 6 o’clock.

A date aperture sits between 4 and 5 o’clock, and a tachymeter scale runs around the outer edge of the dial.

The red-tipped central chronograph seconds hand adds just enough competition colour, echoed by the Mille Miglia red arrow logo on the dial.

It is worn on a brown perforated calfskin strap that nods to vintage driving gloves and racing equipment, secured by a Lucent Steel pin buckle.

COSC-certified chronograph movement

Inside is an ETA A322-11 base automatic chronograph movement certified by the COSC as a chronometer.

The calibre runs at 28,800 vibrations per hour, uses 37 jewels and provides a 54-hour power reserve.

A stop-seconds function allows more precise time setting, while perlage and Côtes de Genève finishing bring a traditional decorative finish to the movement architecture.

Details & Specifications

The Mille Miglia Classic Chronograph Raticosa works because its nostalgia has a precise destination.

Rather than simply borrowing racing codes, Chopard has built the watch around a road that helped define the Mille Miglia’s legend, making this one of the more evocative recent entries in the collection.