Oris Divers Sixty-Five 40 Social Club Edition

There’s a new Divers Sixty-Five Chronograph on the market today and – to the delight of many – it’s been downsized to 40mm in diameter.

Oris debuted the non-limited edition Oris Divers Sixty-Five Chronograph all the way back in 2019. The watch had a mix of steel and bronze and played into the popular vintage-inspired feel of the time. Since then the brand has been relatively quiet with the line. The feedback from watch lovers seemed to be that despite an attractive package, the watch – at 43mm wide and around 16mm thick – was just a bit too big.
Instead of leaning into a fully vintage aesthetic with the gilt/bronze accents and bezel, the new Divers Sixty-Five chronograph leans slightly more modern (within the 1965-inspired framework) with an all-black and white color palette. The case is fully stainless steel with a mix of brushed and polished edges and can come with a faux-riveted bracelet or Cervo Volante deer leather strap. Inside is the same self-winding Oris 771 movement – based on the Sellita SW 510 – that was in the last release, with 48 hours of power reserve. That goes to show you that just because a watch is a certain size, doesn’t mean that the movement is always a limiting factor to shrink it.
Nearly every Oris Divers Sixty-Five 40 release convinces me to switch my pick for my favorite line of its watches. A new Aquis reminds me how solid the Aquis is. A new Big Crown reminds me of classic Oris Styling. This new Divers Sixty-Five Chronograph hits the same note. Classic, simple, solid, legible – everything you’d expect from Oris.
As ever, I’m going to reserve my final judgment on fit and value for when I see the watch in person. Generally, I find it rare that Oris has any missteps, but I don’t think that the original Divers Sixty-Five chronograph was a standout success for the brand. My gut reaction is that this new edition is still pretty thick with a domed caseback, but shrinking the case width-wise will hopefully lead to a watch that feels and looks smaller on the wrist.

Audemars Piguet Royal Oak Perpetual Calendar 41

If you want to play the hits like AP, sometimes you have to consider a special remix, and the band from Le Brassus has just announced a special expression of the concept-only RD#2. This new model, which builds upon the success of a recent sibling sets the town with more titanium, less platinum, a new dial, and limited production. I’m in love.
Allow me to elaborate. The ultra-thin 41mm RD#2 was launched in platinum as a concept in 2018 (that watch can be seen below, it is supremely rare, equally cool, and very heavy on wrist). In 2019, AP announced the AP Royal Oak Selfwinding Perpetual Calendar Ultra-Thin RD#2 reference 26586IP.OO.1240IP.01, which featured a new non-tap dial design, and a blend of materials, in which much of the watch was titanium, save for the bezel and intermediate links in the bracelet – those are platinum and production was very limited but not part of a specific numbered edition. With this latest release, the world gets a second “production” take on the RD#2, this time it’s limited to 200 units.

If you can imagine these three watches in a sort of Animorphs-esque transformation. The AP Royal Oak Selfwinding Perpetual Calendar concept RD#2 is platinum, the next RD#2 26586IP is platinum and titanium, and now the transformation has hit the next stage, full titanium. Measuring 41mm wide and just 6.2mm thick, the new 26586TI weighs just 75 grams, with the only non-titanium element of note being the screws for the bezel (which are made of white gold).
Aside from shedding a few grams of precious metal, the 26586TI sticks largely to the formula but adds in a new blue-to-black dial with black subdials, a red date accent, and the same blue aventurine moon phase. While I wasn’t wild about the look of the smoky blue dial in the press images, it strikes a lovely balance in person that sees a wide variety of saturation in the blue depending on available light but no loss of contrast for the subdials.

Inside, we find the same record-setting ultra-thin movement as that found in the previous examples mentioned above, the AP Royal Oak Selfwinding Perpetual Calendar 5133, which is a full perpetual calendar automatic movement with moon phase and day/night indication that is only 2.9mm thick. Pricing? Well, at a cool CHF 137,000, the price is neither lightweight nor thin.
I mean, I said it up top. I’m in love. Just as I was with the two preceding versions. High-end watchmaking that is light and wearable despite housing one of my all-time favorite complications, you couldn’t have slapped the smile off of my face when I tried on both the RD#2 and the new 26586TI in the span of just two minutes. The smile faded when I had to give it back, but I digress.

As a further expression of the RD#2, I think that the 26586TI speaks directly to the merits of the RD program and its ability to produce a Royal Oak that blends tradition with modern cutting-edge production. The watch looks incredible, feels amazing, light, and very special on wrist. And to my eyes represents a halo for the entire scope of the modern AP Royal Oak Selfwinding Perpetual Calendar .
If the pricing even matters – and for the target audience with this watch I’m not convinced it does– this titanium creation does come in a hair less dear than the proceeding titanium and platinum RD#2 26586IP, which launched at CHF 140,000. To my eyes, it’s a great remix of the original and a direct, distinct, and appealing evolution of the 2019 ref 26586IP.

Audemars Piguet’s New Watches Of 2024

It’s that time of year. We’re all eagerly awaiting (or, in some instances, bracing for) the deluge of new releases at Watches & Wonders. But things don’t stop for the brands not participating in the show. For instance, Audemars Piguet took to Milan, Italy, this week to celebrate the opening of the brand’s new AP House Milan, located in the famed former Garage Traversi. It was also the perfect moment for the brand to introduce the first of its semi-annual major releases.
Yes, the John Mayer Royal Oak Perpetual Calendar got top billing at the announcement, but there was a lot of ground to cover. At the press preview, watches were passed around at such speed that you couldn’t do much more than get a photo or two, examine the watch, and move on to the next release passed your way a minute later. In several cases, there were innovations to unpack. I hope to get a chance to spend more time with a few of these. But instead of inundating you with multiple stories, I’ll do my best, to sum up (nearly) every release. But before we start, here’s a primer:
First, how often do you see a new suffix at the end of a reference for a new material? It was cool to type “SG” for Sand Gold for the first time. And if not for John Mayer QP, this would have been the headliner. But what is it? As representatives for the brand explained, they’re always experimenting with new materials (and studying old materials from the 1800s to see the combination of elements used to get colors like “green gold”). Pure gold is almost always combined with other materials to create stronger alloys, and the materials you use can often change the color. Pink gold has slowly taken a prominent place in their model lineup since its introduction in the mid-1980s, but this is not pink. By removing silver from the mix and replacing it with palladium, they achieved a very beige 18k gold 41mm by 10.6mm case. Then they applied that same sand gold finishing to the bridges of the caliber 2972, released in 2022 for the Royal Oak’s 50th anniversary.
Without overstating it, the RD#3 in 37mm is one of the most impressive things Audemars Piguet has done in a long time. It took intense effort to create such an elegant self-winding movement with a tourbillon and place it in the iconic 39mm by 8.1mm “Jumbo” case. Then they went and shaved an extra 2mm off the width. Impressive. This new model has a smoked blue Petite Tapisserie bezel and 12 baguette-cut diamond hour markers. The white gold case (a new material perfect for gem setting) is still 8.1mm thick and has 50m of water resistance, and the bezel is set with 32 baguette-cut diamonds. This complements the 37mm RD#3 with the purple dial, but I would have loved to see an option without the diamond bezel. Diamond hour markers without diamonds on the bezel are a great low-key flex.
Here’s a great two-for-one (though don’t try to get that deal at the boutique). The brand introduced two new yellow gold models, which in some ways is par for the course for Audemars Piguet. Many other brands are still slow to get yellow gold back into their lineups after rose/pink gold took over in the early 2000s, but not AP. AP has a good spread of the material in a bunch of colors and they certainly do interesting things with texture as well. The yellow frosted gold on the 37mm Selfwinding Royal Oak is a hand-hammered texture we’ve seen used back all the way to the first Carolina Bucci edition. The 41mm RO Chronograph is a bit more straightforward, but just like the 37mm model, it has a hand-sprayed dark burst finish on the gold sunburst dial.
I’ve never been the biggest fan of the Royal Oak Offshore, probably because I didn’t come up in the era where they were “hot.” The Offshore Diver in “khaki” was one of the few exceptions. Funny enough, they brought this new 43mm Offshore out on a tray to tease me, and maybe that did a little extra to convince me, but this new Offshore with a rubber bezel is kind of cool. The 43mm by 14.4mm case is a bit big, and since it’s not a diver, the watch only has 100m of water resistance. But making it a non-diver, non-chronograph ROO makes it kind of uncommon. The smoked blue dial has the new generation Méga Tapisserie pattern, rhodium-toned gold applied hour-markers, Royal Oak hands with luminescent material, and a blue inner bezel (which does not rotate since, again, it’s not the diver). The exterior rubber blue bezel is reminiscent of the Royal Oak Offshore Rubberclad ref. 25940 launched in 2002, the first watch to use rubber anywhere but the bracelet, and it’s fun to see it come back.
Can you believe it? Five years already. And while the collection might have been slightly (okay, more than slightly) maligned at launch, it seems to be finally hitting its stride. With the release of smaller 38mm Codes last year, plus better dial textures and indices, AP seemed to crack the – you know what, I’m not going to say it. This year, there are a few changes to the collection. First, you’ll no longer see Code 11.59 in white gold for chronographs and time-only pieces. Complications are still theoretically fair game, but we were told that steel and white gold seemed too close to each other and tended to cannibalize their own market. So expect to see more pink gold – the only gold variant the brand is doing on the Code for now.
I nearly had a heart attack during my first hands-on session. The presenter was handing around watches, and while I tried to snap photos, I heard the words: “The steel Jumbo is discontinued.” I immediately started texting coworkers, preparing for a breaking news story. Well, thirty minutes later, my dream of owning a 16202 was (somewhat) revived when I found out that it wasn’t the 16202ST that got the boot, but the 16204ST – the “Jumbo” Openworked. Instead, we have the 16204BC (white gold) to match last year’s 16204BA (and yellow gold). A reminder: “Jumbo” is 39mm by 8.1mm, not the (paradoxically) larger 41mm. It’s all about historical models for the nickname, so 39mm is Jumbo – got it?
One of the most interesting things I saw in Milan was a prototype of the AP Royal Oak Offshore Chronograph Tourbillon in a camouflage ceramic case. If you didn’t already think that AP was leading the cutting edge of ceramic technology in watchmaking, I don’t think you could argue otherwise now. Technologically, it’s advanced. Aesthetically, it’s wild. Sure, I wear camo occasionally. I grew up in the Midwest and spent much time in rural areas where camo is practical for hunting. But the camo I think of is not this kind of camo. This is pure, intense, loud streetwear camo. And I love it.
I was standing there with the inimitable fellow workwear/military clothing lover Kristian Haagen when we were shown this watch, and I think you could have seen both our eyes light up. I immediately had a ton of questions. “Can you do other colors?” They pulled out a tray, including a UV reactive puck, where certain parts of the pattern glowed. “Other patterns? Could you do a duck camo on one and a tiger cam on another?” Sure, they told me, no problem. The implications are also wild when you realize that if AP is the only one doing this, it essentially could guarantee, at least for a time, that these printed watches are never replicated or faked on the secondary market. Finally, the brand teased in the press release that the technique can be done in multi-color gold, which will be shown in prototype form in the coming months. Gold camo? Bring it on.

Audemars Piguet Can Do Camouflage Ceramic Now – And I Hate How Much I Love It

One of the most interesting things I saw in Milan was a prototype of the AP Royal Oak Offshore Chronograph Tourbillon in a camouflage ceramic case. If you didn’t already think that AP was leading the cutting edge of ceramic technology in watchmaking, I don’t think you could argue otherwise now. Technologically, it’s advanced. Aesthetically, it’s wild. Sure, I wear camo occasionally. I grew up in the Midwest and spent much time in rural areas where camo is practical for hunting. But the camo I think of is not this kind of camo. This is pure, intense, loud streetwear camo. And I love it.
By my understanding, Audemars Piguet has figured out how to do basically any camouflage design in ceramic in a new Spark Plasma Sintering (SPS) technology process. In the process, the team carefully placed different colored ceramic powders in a circular graphite mold, which is sintered using a powerful electric current conducted through the graphite. The temperature rises rapidly while pressure is placed on either side of the mold, creating a ceramic disc. While the patterns are slightly different each time, they look similar at a glance enough to be serially produced. But AP can also easily change the pattern or design for endless potential custom unique pieces and patterns. They told me the brand carefully chose designs and colors in testing so the pattern showed up best. Sometimes, an idea works great on the created ceramic puck, but once you carve out the case shape, it’s hard to see. The discs are machined into the shape, pre-polished, and pre-satin-brushed before being hand-finished to get the satin finishing and polished chamfers.
I was standing there with the inimitable fellow workwear/military clothing lover Kristian Haagen when we were shown this watch, and I think you could have seen both our eyes light up. I immediately had a ton of questions. “Can you do other colors?” They pulled out a tray, including a UV reactive puck, where certain parts of the pattern glowed. “Other patterns? Could you do a duck camo on one and a tiger cam on another?” Sure, they told me, no problem. The implications are also wild when you realize that if AP is the only one doing this, it essentially could guarantee, at least for a time, that these printed watches are never replicated or faked on the secondary market. Finally, the brand teased in the press release that the technique can be done in multi-color gold, which will be shown in prototype form in the coming months. Gold camo? Bring it on https://www.perfectwrist.co.

BLANCPAIN Villeret Quantième Perpétuel

Following the release of the Villeret Traditional Chinese Calendar to commemorate the Lunar New Year, Blancpain now unveils another iteration of the model: the Blancpain Villeret Quantième Perpétuel.

Faithful to the roots of the model, the new reference continued the Maison’s longtime inspiration from its home base. Its sunray-finished dial boasts a calming dark green, which is a direct reference to the scenic forests of Le Brassus Manufacture in Switzerland.

Adorning the dial are Roman numeral indices, a leaf handset, and three subcounters that make up the Gregorian calendar, alongside Blacnpain’s iconic moon phase at 6 o’clock. Its sapphire exhibition caseback provides an unobstructed display of its incredible 5954 self-winding movement, which is made up of 351 components, 32 jewels, complete with 72 hours of power reserve. Sitting on top of this exquisite piece of mechanical engineering is a stunningly crafted honeycomb oscillating weight crafted from red gold.

The exquisite watch face is housed in a polished-finished 18k red gold case, measuring 40.3mm in diameter. To complete the subtle warm hue in its materiality, the wristwatch is paired with an elegant brown leather strap.
Every four years — a.k.a. when the Summer Olympics happens — February gets a novel change-up, in the form of a 29th day, and watch collectors around the world are able to pick up their perpetual calendars, and adjust them on the basis of this slightly inconveniencing astronomical phenomenon.

To mark the leap year of 2024, the watchmakers at Blancpain Villeret Quantième Perpétuel have revealed a new take on the classic Villeret Quantième Perpétuel — decked with a particularly lush green dial.

It’s not necessarily a new watch for Blancpain Villeret Quantième Perpétuel , which currently has close to a dozen different perpetual calendar references in its catalogue. However, the contrast between the red gold case and darkly sunburst green is bang-on: doubling as a nod to the coniferous forestry that surrounds the Blancpain manufacture in Le Sentier — one of Switzerland’s cradles of fine watchmaking.

BREMONT Bamford Aurora Limited Edition

In a collaboration between Bremont and Bamford, the limited edition Aurora watch has been unveiled. This unique timepiece, inspired by the quest to witness the Northern Lights, is designed to embody a spirit of adventure and discovery.

Limited to 500 pieces, the Aurora watch emerges from the Supermarine collection, known for its ruggedness and reliability. It features a 43mm stainless steel DLC-coated Trip-Tick case, enhanced by a bi-colored polished sapphire 24-hour bezel for clear day and night indication. The watch is distinguished by its luminous qualities, with green Super-LumiNova accents mirroring the ethereal glow of the Aurora Borealis. This effect is achieved through a sophisticated “layered” dial construction, which enhances visibility and adds a captivating depth to the watch’s appearance.

The Aurora is also equipped with GMT functionality and anti-shock protection, making it an excellent companion for any exploration. Its design includes a California sandwich dial, matte black and gloss green hands filled with Super-LumiNova and a durable black nubuck leather strap with green stitching.

Davide Cerrato, CEO of Bremont, expressed his enthusiasm about the collaboration with George Bamford, stating “Joining forces with George following the sell-out success of the first collaboration between Bremont and Bamford Watch Dept has been an exciting adventure. I have always been fascinated by the challenge of creating a timepiece that is as compelling in the dark as it is in the light. Working with George I am thrilled that we have achieved a luminous show which mirrors the magic and spectacle of the Aurora Borealis.”

The Bremont x Bamford Aurora is set to become available for purchase this Thursday, February 22, via both brands’ official sites, for a retail price of $220 USD.

Elton John Shows Us That Vintage Chopard Is Worth A Revisit

Last Wednesday saw the opening sale of Elton John’s “Goodbye Peachtree Road” auction at Christie’s. Some very Elton John-looking things included a pair of silver platform boots emblazoned with large red E and J initials that went for $94,500 and a leopard Rolex Daytona that sold for $176,400. The 900+ lots (some of which are yet to be auctioned off this week) are a largely opulent mix of personal belongings that span from Versace porcelain dinnerware to sequin embellished stage costumes and into one of the most comprehensive modern collections of photography to ever be sold by a sole owner. All of this preamble to say that Elton John is not just a kooky lover of camp but an unduly curious collector. A bon vivant who embraces his eccentricity and with no calculated agenda for (fashionable) irony. He earnestly likes what he likes. It’s a liberated approach.
Having attended the preview a couple of weeks back and sifting through a sapphire-set Cartier Tank Normale, a diamond-set Lange Saxonia, a Vacheron shutter watch, and about 20-odd other very exuberant timepieces, I happened upon my favorite of Elton’s watches – a yellow gold sapphire and diamond-set Chopard Imperiale chronograph. It was so ornate, so frivolous, so Liberace, that it triggered my I-remember-why-I-do-what-I-do-professionally alarm. Suddenly, I wanted all watches to be mildly gaudy and gem-set and obscurely shaped (Pasha shaped in this instance). I wanted glamor, not restraint.

Speaking of frivolity, there was a large diamond skull adorned Chopard watch from Elton’s collection that could be perceived as a flagrant disregard for tasteful, dare-I-say-it quiet luxury. I prefer to think of it as a wondrous ability to lean into an aesthetic of which others might be naturally disdainful —sort of like how kids are happy to wear costumes in public on days other than Halloween.

These very eccentric Replica Chopard watches led me down a very long late-night Chopard-themed internet trawl. I needed to find out what other precious nuggets were hiding in the Chopard jewelry watch crossover archive. I had seen geometric stone dial watches from the ’70s and Happy Diamond heart-shaped watches from the ’90s, but I figured there must be more undiscovered and little-talked-about gems out there. Cartier, Bulgari, Piaget, and Boucheron have all, until fairly recently, been nose snubbed as “jewelry brands.” Is it time for a similar watch-enthusiast light to hit Chopard?
In 1984, in the wake of the original Saint Moritz model, Chopard launched a St. Moritz Rainbow watch set with diamonds and colored gemstones. This was incredibly early to the mark for rainbow setting. Of course, the rainbow Rolex Cellini likely came before at the very beginning of the decade.

Chopard played with a lot of the same design ideas as our favorite brands in the ’70s and ’80s. Massively under-appreciated and often denigrated to a league Toretto likes to call “Fantasy watches,” these watches were legitimate executions of gem-setting like Rolex and metal smithing on bracelets and cases like Piaget and Patek. I encourage you to go on a Chopard hunt and embrace your eccentric side, like Elton. Look for a little vintage freedom in the face of modern conformity.

MB&F LM Perpetual EVO Blue

Max Büsser might have a fervent imagination, capable of dreaming up spaceships to relay time in the most unusual way to his fellow earthlings, but he also has his feet firmly on the ground. Following the buzz surrounding the launch of the brand’s first perpetual calendar in 2015, a groundbreaking movement with a mechanical processor created by independent watchmaking wizard Stephen McDonnell, Max decided to take the complication out of the safe and adapt it to everyday life. Fitted with shock absorbers, water resistance and a redesigned case in lighter, more resilient materials, the newly christened 2020 LM Perpetual EVO was ready for action – perhaps not kickboxing, but certainly robust enough for an active lifestyle. The fifth LM Perpetual EVO in the all-terrain saga is this titanium version with an attractive icy blue dial plate, a new colour that replaces the titanium model with a green dial.
The MB&F LM Perpetual EVO (which stands for Evolution) has appeared in three limited-edition zirconium versions, followed by a titanium edition with a green CVD dial plate. Replacing the titanium case/green dial model, the fifth MB&F LM Perpetual EVO is also crafted in titanium and shares the 44mm case diameter and 17.5mm thickness of its predecessors. The no-bezel construction means that the domed sapphire crystal is directly bonded to the case, increasing the viewing pleasure. In a departure from the pushers on the classical LM Perpetual, the EVO has enlarged, easy-to-use oblong actuators, and its screw-down crown ensures the 80m water-resistance of the case. An annular steel dampener – called FlexRing – is placed between the case and movement. to protect the vertical and lateral axes from shocks and increase robustness.
The novelty here is the attractive light blue CVD colour of the dial plate, contrasting effectively with the calendar indications and the time. Smack in the centre of the dial is the mirror-polished V-shaped bridge arching above the spectacular 14mm balance wheel beating at 18,000vph – a signature element of the MB&F LM Perpetual EVO Series. The hours and minutes are at noon on a black galvanic disc with luminescent-tipped hands and light blue markers. Using black galvanic rings, luminescent hands and light blue markings, the days of the week are at 3 o’clock, the months at 6 o’clock and the date at 9 o’clock. At 5 and 7 o’clock, there are two small, rounded tracks: the one on the left indicates the retrograde leap year, and the one on the right is the power reserve indicator.
Visible on the dial is Stephen McDonnell’s revolutionary perpetual calendar. Turning the conventional perpetual calendar movement upside down and inside out, McDonnell’s QP relies on a mechanical processor consisting of a series of superimposed discs. This groundbreaking processor takes the default number of days in the month at 28 – because, logically, all months have at least 28 days – and then adds the extra days required by each individual month. This ensures that each month has precisely the right number of days and removes the possibility of the date jumping incorrectly. An inbuilt safety feature disconnects the quickset pushers during the date changeover so that even if the pushers are accidentally actuated while the date is changing, there is no risk of damage to the 581-component movement.
While most of the horological treats are revealed on the dial, the reverse side reveals the escapement, the double barrels – providing the movement with 72 hours of autonomy – and the superlative hand finishings. Embracing 19th-century decorative traditions, the reverse side is a trip down memory lane with gorgeous internal bevel angles, polished bevels, large gold chatons, Geneva waves on the darkened bridges and handmade inscriptions.

FRANCK MULLER Vanguard Dragon Slim Skeleton

Swiss luxury watchmaker Franck Muller has prepared two special limited-edition models to celebrate the Lunar New Year. The Maison presents the Cintrée Curvex Ryoko Kaneta Dragon alongside three iterations of the Franck Muller Vanguard Dragon Slim Skeleton to welcome the Year of the Dragon.

Created in collaboration with Ryoko Kaneta, a young Japanese artist known for her paintings that depict dreamy and ephemeral landscapes that appear as an extension of cutesy anime-style girls. Dressed in a Tiffany blue, the 33mm-wide timepiece is presented in the Cintrée Curvex’s signature curved tonneau-shaped case.

On the tonal and stamped guilloché dial, the dragon is reinterpreted as 12 individual anthropomorphic, each hiding behind its designated Arabic numeral. In terms of power, the reference is equipped with the MVT FM 2536-SC self-winding movement, which is geared with a bidirectional rotor system and 42 hours of power reserve.

As for the limited-edition Franck Muller Vanguard Dragon Slim Skeleton , the reference is offered in three versions: Rouge, Vert and Color Dreams. Each variant sports a dragon engraving on its caseback along with its namesake hue on the dial. Rouge and Vert are also attired with tinted sapphire crystals on their caseback, meanwhile, Color Dreams features multicolored numerals and a clear caseback. All three colorways arrive in dazzling tonneau-shaped cases set with pavé diamonds, complete with openworked dials that showcase their intricately crafted in-house skeletonized movements.

The Cintrée Curvex Ryoko Kaneta Dragon Limited Edition is limited to 500 examples, while only 10 pieces are produced per colorway for the Vanguard Dragon Slim Skeleton. Both models are released as exclusives for the Asia Pacific region. For more information, visit Franck Muller’s official website.
Franck Muller has unveiled three additional timepieces themed on the mythical dragon in the Vanguard Dragon Slim Skeleton Limited Edition.

Just 10 pieces of each reference will be available exclusively at Franck Muller boutiques in the Asia Pacific region. The Franck Muller Vanguard Dragon Slim Skeleton Rouge and Vanguard Dragon Slim Skeleton Vert are accented in red and green respectively, with the pops of colour coming from their tinted sapphire case backs, as well as infilled hands. The third reference, the Franck Muller Vanguard Dragon Slim Skeleton Color Dreams, comes with a transparent case back, but brings a riot of bright hues to the dial with its indices instead.

CHOPARD Mille Miglia Classic Chronograph French

On the occasion of Salon Rétromobile dedicated to classic cars, held in Paris from January 31st to February 4th, Chopard reinterprets its Chopard Mille Miglia Classic Chronograph French Limited Edition with an exclusive edition for French ‘gentlemen drivers’. The Swiss Maison has been associated with Italy’s 1000 Miglia since 1988, becoming the world sponsor and official timekeeper for the race. The Mille Miglia collection captures the essence of what Enzo Ferrari deemed ‘the most beautiful race in the world’. Issued as a numbered 100-piece limited edition and available in France, the new Chopard Mille Miglia Classic Chronograph French Limited Edition features a 40.5 mm x 12.88 mm case made of Lucent Steel, Chopard’s high-quality alloy with a recycling rate of at least 80%.
Lucent Steel, named for its luminous appearance, is surgical-grade and 50% harder than conventional steel. The bezels, crowns, and pushers share this material, showcasing contrasting polished and satin-brushed finishes. The pushers are knurled, reminiscent of brake pedals, and the crown features additional notches for an enhanced grip.

The silver-toned dial incorporates midnight blue, white, and red transfers, serving aesthetic and technical purposes. These transfers symbolize national colors and enhance legibility. The white minutes track and tachymeter scale remain prominent for speed and distance calculations. Grade X1 Super-LumiNova coating on hour-markers and hands ensures night-time readability. The red chronograph seconds hand complements the iconic 1000 Miglia logo. Protected by a glass-box sapphire crystal and a slim bezel, the dial gains perspective and depth, creating shimmering effects with incoming light.

The sapphire crystal case-back is adorned with crossed flags, one a black and white chequered racing flag and the other in the French national colors. It showcases the self-winding chronograph movement certified by the Official Swiss Chronometer Testing Institute, operating at a frequency of 4 Hz (28,800 vibrations per hour), with a 42-hour autonomy. The watch is water-resistant to 50 meters / 165 feet. Fitted with a perforated calfskin strap matching the blue hues of the dial and reminiscent of traditional driving gloves, the new Chopard Mille Miglia Classic Chronograph French Limited Edition