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Chopard and Mille Miglia Celebrate 36 years

Chopard returned to Brescia for the 36th time in succession as the World Sponsor and Official Timekeeper of the famous 1,000-mile Mille Miglia.

The pair teamed-up again this year (as on more than a dozen previous occasions), once more tackling the course in the instantly recognizable ‘metallic raspberry’ Mercedes-Benz 300SL Gullwing in which they made their 1000 Miglia debut.

Karl-Friedrich Scheufele & Jacky Ickx at the starting line in Brescia.

This year’s event was won by reigning champions, Andrea Vesco and Fabio Salvinelli.

In addition to the Mercedes 300SL Gullwing crewed by Karl-Friedrich Scheufele and Jacky Ickx, Chopard Ambassadors Zhu Yilong, the acclaimed Chinese actor, and Romain Dumas, the celebrated endurance racing driver, also competed under the ‘Team Chopard’ banner in a 1955 Porsche 356 Speedster.

The 2023 Mille Miglia watches 

Chopard also continued 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 are being donated to victims of the recent Emilia-Romagna flood disaster.

Comprising four new models crafted in Chopard’s own Lucent Steel, which is fifty percent more resilient than regular steel and incorporates material recycled from the medical, aerospace, car and watch industries.

The 40 mm chronographs are fitted either with Chopard’s signature rubber strap based on the pattern of a 1960s Dunlop race tire or a brown calfskin leather strap evoking traditional driving gloves.

What makes this year’s Mille Miglia Classic Chronographs extra-special, however, are their dials: each of the four variations is based on the paint hues and interior finishes typically found on the type of pre-1957 cars eligible for the 1000 Miglia.

This means a choice of Rosso Amarena (cherry red), Grigio-Blu (grey blue), Verde Chiaro (light green) and Nero Corsa (racing black). In keeping with a 36-year tradition, each watch carries a miniature ‘1000 Miglia’ route marker on its dial and case back. Prices start at $8,830.

In addition to the Mille Miglia Classic Chronographs, Chopard has also produced a very special version of its larger Mille Miglia GTS Chrono.

The Chopard Mille Miglia GTS Chrono Limited Edition Italy 2023 .

Also made from Lucent Steel in just 100 examples, part of the proceeds from each sale are being donated to victims of the devastating floods that swept through the Emilia-Romagna region in early May. 

This 44 mm edition carries the green and red colors of Italy, with its olive green bezel featuring a tachymeter scale for speed and distance calculations. Further marking-out the ‘form and function’ nature of Chopard’s Mille Miglia watches, the Mille Miglia GTS Chrono Limited Edition Italy is also fitted with substantial ‘mushroom’ pushers and a large diameter crown to provide a firm grip and ease of use while on the road. 

Source: Chopard

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The Watches

Blue Duo: Bell & Ross and Oris 

Two recently debuted blue-dialed watches, the Bell & Ross BR 05 GMT Sky Blue and the Oris Aquis Small Second Date 45.5mm, demonstrate how versatile —and attractive — the azure tint can be when perched on a wrist. And both debuts sport serious specs and can be worn anytime and in any workday or playtime environment. 

Oris

If your typical day takes you in or near the water, the Oris Aquis Small Second Date 45.5mm ($2,900) is your best bet here given its much-greater-than-average 500-meter water resistance rating.

The new Oris Aquis Small Second Date 45.5 mm.

Oris notes that the watch’s water resistance rating is actually greater than the standard model within its Aquis dive series, which typically includes watches rated to 300 meters of water resistance.

The watch, with its ocean-inspired deep-blue dial, represents a new size the Oris Aquis time-and-date-only series. It retains all the dive-ready specifications you’d expect from Oris, including a small seconds indicator (at the 9 o’clock position) with a luminous hand, a screw-down crown with protection, a uni-directional rotating bezel with a ceramic insert, and either a metal bracelet or rubber strap equipped with the Oris-patented extendable security folding clasp.

 

Oris has launched an impressive selection of colorful watches in recent years, especially within its Big Crown series. Even the watchmaker’s ProPilot collection now includes hues unexpected within such a technical series.

The new Oris Aquis Small Second Date 45.5mm revels in its ocean-colored dial, bezel insert and rubber strap. (See below for detailed specifications).

 

Bell & Ross

Inspired by summer skies, Bell & Ross finishes its latest BR 05 GMT with a sky blue sun-ray pattern dial. Earlier BR 05 GMT models have only been available with a  black dial or a white dial.

The new Bell & Ross BR 05 GMT Sky Blue.

Framed by the Bell & Ross’s own circled-in-a-square case shape, the dial allows the wearer to determine time in a second time zone thanks to the blue-tinted GMT hand. With its easy-to-read large white arrow-shaped tip, the hand allows means wearer can quickly determine the hour in any of 24 timezones emblazoned along the graduated inner bezel.

Bell & Ross enhances this flange with a sky blue and silver color treatment. The colors allow the wearer to further differentiate whether the second time zone hour is in the daytime (silver) or nighttime (blue). Bell & Ross coats the hands and the rhodium-plated baton-shaped indexes with a healthy amount of SuperLuminova.

Inside Bell & Ross fits its bedrock BR-CAL.325 movement, a Sellita-based automatic caliber. And, for all-weather wear, Bell & Ross supplies a screw-in crown to guarantee water resistance to 100 meters. (See below for detailed specifications.)

Bell & Ross offers two types of attachment for the BR 05 GMT Sky Blue. The first is a stainless-steel bracelet and second is a blue rubber strap tinted to match the dial color.

Price: $5,000 (rubber strap) and $5,500 (steel bracelet). 

 

Specifications: Oris Aquis Small Second Date 45.5 mm

(Ref. 0174377334155–0742469EB)

Case: 45.5 multi-piece stainless steel with ceramic bezel insert, sapphire domed crystal, anti- reflective coating inside, screwed steel back with special engravings, stainless steel screw-in security crown, water resistance to 500 meters.
Movement: Oris 743, Sellita-based automatic with center hands for hours, minutes and seconds, date, Oris fine timing device and stop-second. Power reserve is 41 hours.

Dial: Ocean Blue with SuperLumiNova applied indices.

Bracelet/strap: Multi-piece stainless steel metal bracelet with folding clasp with extension. Also available on a blue rubber strap with stainless steel security folding clasp with extension.

Price: $2,900.

 

Specifications: Bell & Ross BR 05 GMT Sky Blue

Movement: Calibre BR-CAL.325 Sellita-based automatic mechanical.

Functions: hours, minutes, central seconds, date and second 24-hour time zone. Quick setting of the GMT hand, independently of the hour hand. 

Case: 41 mm wide. Satin-polished steel. Satin-finished rhodium-plated and blue two-color flange, with 24-hour scale. Screw-down crown. Crown guard. Sapphire case-back with 360° oscillating weight. Crystal is sapphire with anti-reflective coating. Water-resistance to 100 meters.

Dial: Blue sun-ray finish with numerals and indices coated in white SuperLumiNova,, metal skeletonized SuperLumiNova-filled hour and minute hands. 

Strap: Blue rubber or satin-polished steel with satin-polished steel folding buckle.

Price: $5,000 (rubber strap) and $5,500 (steel bracelet). 

 

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The Watches

Parmigiani Fleurier Launches Tonda PF Sport 

Parmigiani Fleurier launches a pair of sporty models within its Tonda PF collection, adding the Tonda PF Sport Chronograph and Tonda PF Sport Automatic, two models that effectively replace the watchmaker’s Tonda GT collection.

The new Parmigiani Fleurier Tonda PF Sport Chronograph, available in a 42mm steel or rose gold case.

Both watches extend the watchmaker’s Tonda PF collection, first introduced two years ago as a slate of knurled platinum-bezel dress models with clean dials and revamped bracelets.

The new Parmigiani Fleurier Tonda PF Sport Automatic is available in a 41mm steel or rose gold case.

The new ‘tailored’ approach to the design drew has drawn strong collector acclaim. The watchmaker has responded with a series of high-profile rattrapante designs and complicated models within the expanding Tonda PF collection.

Parmigiani Fleurier offers the new models in both steel and rose gold. As sporty watches within a fairly dressy collection, both the Tonda PF Sport Chronograph and Tonda PF Sport Automatic display design touches that confirm their sportier appeal, including a bolder bezel and broader guilloché dial pattern.

The knurled bezel on each Tonda PF Sport watch features 160 cuts rather than the finer 225-incision bezel found on the dressier Tonda PF collection.

The new dial features a hand guilloché ‘triangular nail’ pattern known as clou triangulaire, a sportier look when compared to the guilloché grain d’orge of the existing Tonda PF collection.

In addition, Parmigiani Fleurier coats the applied hour markers here with black SuperLuminova while also supplying each watch with a rubber-treated textured and stitched strap. Both watches are water-resistant to 100 meters.

For the 42mm by 12.9mm ‘panda’-style chronograph, Parmigiani Fleurier has removed the large date found on the firm’s previous GT chronographs in order to leave space for the PF logo.

This mimics the dial on the current, dressier, Tonda PF chronographs. The (smaller) date is now found between the 4 o’clock and 5 o’clock position. In addition, the new design features shorter indexes and a somewhat smaller flange.

Similarly, on the 41mm by 9.8mm Tonda PF Sport Automatic the watchmaker places a small date aperture at the 6 o’clock position to allow for a clean dial marked only by a logo at the 12 o’clock position.

The PF Tonda Sport Chronograph displays its Caliber PF070 movement via a clear sapphire back.

Inside the Tonda PF Sport Chronograph Parmigiani Fleurier fits its stunning Caliber PF070, a superb high-frequency (5Hz – 36,000 vph) manufacture movement with an integrated column wheel chronograph and a vertical clutch. The COSC-certified chronometer offers a power reserve of sixty-five hours.

A view of the caliber PF770 from the back of the Tonda PF Sport Automatic.

Inside the Tonda PF Sport Automatic you’ll find a Caliber PF770 with a serial-mounted double barrel and a power reserve of sixty hours. To extend the sporty design, the watchmaker also created a new, skeletonized oscillating weight for both watches. The watchmaker says the rotor now looks somewhat like the steering wheel of a Ferrari 250 GTO. 

Prices: $50,200 (chronograph in rose gold), $29,000 (chronograph in steel), $38,200 (automatic in rose gold) and $21,300 (automatic in steel). 

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Citizen Expands Series 8 with GMT Models

Citizen expands its Series 8 collection of automatic watches with a highly anti-magnetic GMT model. Offered in three contemporary designs, including one limited-edition gold-colored model, the new watches add a highly practical function to the offerings within this much-acclaimed Citizen collection.

One of three new Citizen Series 8 automatic GMT models.

With their traditional GMT function, the new watches allow the wearer to read the time in up to three time zones via the bi-directional rotating bezel.

The bezel colors are split into daytime and nighttime hues, represented by blue and black on the black-dialed model and red and light blue on the model with the dark blue dial.

Citizen created a dial designed to mimic Tokyo at night with a pattern meant to recall skyscrapers and windows of different sizes. The pattern updates a classic checkerboard design, which in Japan are said to represent prosperity.

Citizen finishes the 41mm by 13.5mm steel case on the two ongoing models with both mirror and brushed finishes with multiple patterns. Automatic caliber 9054 is visible through the clear caseback. Citizen adds strong magnetic resistance to the caliber and case, which helps the watch maintain average daily accuracy of-10 to +20 seconds and a fifty-hour running time.

The yellow-gold-colored Series 8 GMT is a limited-edition of 1,300 pieces worldwide. Citizen explains that its designers were inspired by the “warm golden rays of the autumn sun in Japan” when coloring the case, bracelet and dial.

The embossed dial pattern here is particularly impressive. Meant to recall the appearance of light and shade created by long autumn grass during the sunset, it elevates the visual appeal of this limited edition with an artisanal approach not typically seen at this price level.

Here, Citizen frames the dial with a pleasing brown and cream-colored GMT bi-directional bezel. And like the ongoing GMT models, this limited edition also exposes its Caliber 9054 movement through a clear caseback. 

Prices: $1,795 (limited edition) and $1,695.

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Bulova Adds Two to Marine Star

Bulova expands its nautically inspired Marine Star collection with a dramatic automatic model and an eye-catching orange-dialed quartz chronograph.

The new Bulova Marine Star Series A watch.

The 45mm steel-cased automatic Marine Star Series A watch shows off its mechanical heart by exposing the Miyota Caliber 82S5 movement’s escapement through an aperture on the dial and its rotor though the clear case back.

Bulova surrounds that ticking space with a sunburst-finished central dial and a sun-ray textured hour track. Orange accents enliven the dial even more on the running sub-seconds dial and the Arabic minutes markers.

The sporty watch is water resistant to 200 meters with the assistance of a screw-down crown.

Bulova pairs the watch with a matching silver-tone stainless steel bracelet with a push-button deployant clasp. Price: $650. 

The new Bulova Series B Marine Star Chronograph features a silver-tone 43.5mm stainless steel case with brushed and polished facets framing a bright orange dial that some collectors may recognize from Bulova’s famed Devil Diver.

The new Bulova Series B Marine Star Chronograph.

Black accents pair with silver-tone polished stainless steel hands and applied markers, all treated with luminescent material.

Bulova completes the dial with an internal rotating 60-minute timing case ring operated by the 10 o’clock crown.

Bulova fits the new watch with a matching silver-tone stainless steel bracelet with brushed and polished finishing and an extendable sport fold-over clasp with pushers and a safety bar. Price: $525. 

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