Chopard returns to Brescia in Italy for the 36th time in succession as the World Sponsor and Official Timekeeper of the 1000 Miglia, slated to begin June 13.
Chopard co-president Karl-Friedrich Scheufele will compete in the race from Brescia to Rome and back, having first taken part in 1989 with six-times Le Mans 24 Hours winner Jacky Ickx in the navigator’s seat.
Karl-Friedrich Scheufele & Jacky Ickx before departing in 2022.
The pair will team-up again this year (as on more than a dozen previous occasions), once more tackling the gruelling course in the instantly recognizable‘metallic raspberry’ Mercedes-Benz 300SL Gullwing in which they made their 1000 Miglia debut.
Karl-Friedrich Scheufele at the wheel of his Mercedes-Benz 300SL in 2022.
Chopard will continue its tradition of introducing new Mille Miglia timepieces, with four Mille Miglia Classic Chronographs, plus an additional, very special ‘Italian Limited Edition’ of the Mille Miglia GTS Chronograph – some of the proceeds from which will be donated to victims of the recent Emilia-Romagna flood disaster.
—Source: Chopard
We’ll take a closer look at the new Mille Miglia GTS Chronographs in an upcoming post.
Zenith donates a pink El Primero Chronomaster for a June 10-11 Phillips auction in support of the Susan G. Komen breast cancer awareness organization.
The Zenith Chronomaster Original Pink, Unique Piece for Susan G. Komen.
The auction will be held in person in New York City or online, with 100 percent of the proceeds donated to Susan G. Komen to help fight breast cancer and raise awareness. Komen advocates for patients, drives research breakthroughs, improves access to high-quality care and offers direct patient support and information.
The upcoming auction continues Zenith’s advocacy for breast cancer awareness. It follows the launch of the Chronomaster Original Pink edition in October 2022, which raised funds for Susan G. Komen, and enhances awareness to the cause also championed at the recent Zenith Meet the DreamHers event held in Singapore.
“Supporting Komen, with its rapport and incredible impact, is a partnership of great significance for Zenith,” notes Zenith CEO Julien Tornare.
“The Chronomaster Original Pink unique piece will help fund impactful research and support for patients undergoing treatment, a cause we are proud and eager to be a part of over the coming years.”
The Zenith Chronomaster Original Pink, Unique Piece for Susan G. Komen watch is a one-of-a-kind 38mm steel edition of the famed El Primero-set watch and includes diamond-set lugs similar to the Zenith A386. Inside Zenith fits itsAutomatic El Primero 3600, with the unusual 1/10th-of-a-second chronograph function.
The watch’s metallic pink dial honors the color globally associated with breast cancer awareness. Zenith will add an additional strap (of the winner’s choice) to the package and will supply a certificate stating the watch’s uniqueness.
Phillips is estimating an $8,000 to $16,000 auction price.
The new TAG Heuer Monaco Skeleton Chronograph extends TAG Heuer’s partnership with the Monaco Grand Prix while adding a contemporary titanium-cased model to its classic square chronograph series.
The Racing Red edition of the new TAG Heuer Monaco Skeleton Chronograph.The TAG Heuer Monaco Skeleton Chronograph Turquoise edition with blackened dial and case.
The new models feature contemporary titanium cases, still sized classically at 39mm by 47.4mm, creating a lighter option to the Monaco’s traditionally steel case.
TAG Heuer accents the rotor of the Heuer 02 chronograph movement with an engraved oscillating mass, always visible through the sapphire case back.The Blue version, echoing the colors of the original Monaco.
And within the new case TAG Heuer opens up the dial to expose the excellent in-house Heuer 02 chronograph, creating the first skeletonized dial for a serialized, unlimited Monaco model (not including the unusual Monaco V4).
TAG Heuer launches three versions of the new Monaco Skeleton Chronograph, each glowing with a different dial, rotor and column-wheel accent colors (blue, red and turquoise) chosen to draw historical connections to earlier Monaco watches.
The blue model, which TAG Heuer calls Original Blue, echoes the debut Heuer Monaco blue dial, with blue and red dial colors, a blue column wheel and rotor. These blue tints are pay homage to the original Heuer Monaco from 1969.
The red option, called Racing Red, references racing sparks, with black and silver accents on the dial and a red column wheel and oscillating mass.
The Turquoise piece is a nod to the coast of Monaco, mixing a red-accented dial with a turquoise subdials, column wheel and rotor. This model also differs from the other two with its black DLC-coated titanium case and a sandblasted black skeletonized dial.
To extend the contemporary feel of the new series, TAG Heuer adds a healthy amount of SuperLuminova on the dial’s carved indexes, hands and —in another Monaco debut — on the date window.
Similarly, modern bi-material straps, which meld rubber and leather and offered in blue or black, are attached to each TAG Heuer Monaco Skeleton Chronograph.
Prices:$10,750 and $11,250 (Turquoise edition with blackened titanium case)
The newly revived Swiss watch brand Edouard Koehn is now being distributed in North America by the New Jersey-based Totally Worth It, which also distributes Ressence, Trilobe, Scatola del Tempo and Swiss Kubik.
The Edouard Koehn Tempus I, skeleton model in a 43mm steel case with black PVD coating and black ceramic bezel.
Named for master watchmaker Edouard Koehn, who in 1891 developed his eponymous watch brand in Geneva after decades at Patek Philippe, the new Edouard Koehn Master Watchmaker Manufacture is based in La Chaux-de-Fonds and offers three watch collections: Tempus I, Tempus II and World Heritage.
A Tempus I model, with blue Clous de Paris dial.
The Chronographs
The two Tempus collections feature contemporary automatic chronographs with movements developed by Edouard Koehn in collaboration with famed Swiss movement maker Concepto. Tempus I is a sporty tri-compax chronograph in a PVD blackened steel case with a black ceramic bezel, offered in four dial colors and two skeleton versions.
One example of the Edouard Koehn Tempus II Monopusher self-winding mechanical Chronograph.
Tempus II is a Bi-Compax mono-pusher chronograph, and is much more ambitious, with a technical design that exposes an inverted escapement at the top of each dial.
This“Open Heart” design, also framed by a black ceramic bezel, displays chronograph time via a central seconds hand and a large thirty-minutes chronograph subdial at the 3 o’clock position. Four dial colors are available.
Back view of Tempus II, showing back of the automatic monopusher chronograph caliber.
Prices: $7,950 (Tempus I) and $9,950 (Tempus II)
The Edouard Koehn World Heritage combines a world time function with an alarm function.
World Heritage
As the most traditional series in the Edouard Koehn collection, the World Heritage model is nonetheless technically challenging. The watch, built using a Concepto base caliber modified for Edouard Koehn, includes an alarm function, combining two complications highly useful to travelers.
While the world time function allows the wearer to see the world time in any of twenty-four time zones, the alarm function allows the wearer to set an alert that, for instance, might note an upcoming flight time. The double barrel EK-MVTWTA01 caliber simultaneously winds the watch and the alarm functions.
Edouard Koehn offers these World Heritage models as limited editions, with each of five dial options available in editions of eighty-eight pieces.
At 42mm in diameter, these World Heritage models are somewhat smaller than the chronographs. They are lighter too, cased in titanium rather than steel. All told, this makes for a lightweight watch with heavyweight technical functions.
This weekend, Ulysse Nardin unveiled its latest dive watch, the Ocean Race Diver Chronograph, as the watchmaker joined the six-month-long Ocean Race during a stopover in Newport, Rhode Island.
The new Ulysse Nardin Ocean Race Diver Chronograph.
Ulysse Nardin launched the limited-edition watch in collaboration with The Ocean Race in part to celebrate the historic race’s fiftieth anniversary. In addition, the watch pays tribute to both partners’ commitment to protecting the oceans.
The Ocean Race, which was first launched in 1973 from Portsmouth, England, was originally known as the Whitbread Round the World Race, then The Volvo Ocean Race. The global competition is now known as The Ocean Race.
Water-resistant to 300 meters, the Ocean Race Diver Chronograph’s 44mm sandblasted black DLC titanium case houses the superb in-house chronograph caliber UN-150, which is visible through the sapphire crystal case back and bears the number ‘50’ in tribute to this race’s anniversary.
Ulysse Nardin has also placed the Ocean Race logo to the ceramic component on the rubber strap’s pin buckle. (See additional technical specifications below).
Recycled finish
Referencing Ulysse Nardin’s eco-friendly aims, the watchmaker created the watch’s unidirectional bezel with a Carbonium finish, which contains fibers recycled from airplane fuselage offcuts.
As the Official Timekeeper of the race, Ulysse Nardin is responsible for the official timings of the various legs and the start countdowns, but it is also a partner of the 24-Hour Speed Challenge, in which the crew that covers the greatest distance in 24 hours wins.
In addition to this role as Official Timer, Ulysse Nardin is also a partner of Time to Act, a program that aims to reduce the devastating impact of pollution, climate change, and industrial overfishing on our oceans.
As part of this program, and alongside the Racing with Purpose and 11th Hour Racing organizations, The Ocean Race is undertaking a sustainability program. During the race, the teams will gather data on the impact of climate change and plastic pollution. Ulysse Nardin notes that the initiative will result in “the most data ever collected as part of a sporting event.”
The Ocean Race crews sail from Newport on May 21, continuing to Aarhus (Denmark), the Kiel Fly-By (Germany) and The Hague (Netherlands) before the grand finale, which is set to take place in Genoa (Italy) at the end of June.
Ulysse Nardin will offer the Ocean Race Diver Chronograph as a limited edition of 100 timepieces. Price: $15,700.
Movement: Calibre UN-150 self-winding Manufacture Chronograph, silicon escape wheel, anchor and balance-spring. Frequency: 4 Hz / oscillating at 28,800 vph.
Dial: Sandblasted black, 30-minutes counter at 3 o’clock, 12-hours counter and date at 6 o’clock, small seconds at 9 o’clock. Rhodium-plated indexes and hands with Super-LumiNova.
Case: 44mm sandblasted and satin-finished black DLC titanium, Carbonium concave unidirectional rotating bezel with domed sapphire crystal, black DLC titanium open sapphire case back, ‘50’ logo in tribute to the 50th anniversary of The Ocean Race, 300 meters of water resistance.
Strap: Black rubber strap with black ceramic element at 6 o’clock, engraved with The Ocean Race logo, black ceramic pin buckle.
