Article: Tazio Nuvolari Chronographe – a tribute to a legendary pilot
Tazio Nuvolari Chronographe – a tribute to a legendary pilot
Tazio Nuvolari. To know the name is to know a legend. The Mantua-born racing driver remains, to this day, one of the most gifted and daring pilots in the history of motorsport. Through the 1930s and 1940s he secured victories his contemporaries believed beyond reach – among them his famous victory at the 1935 German Grand Prix at the wheel of an Alfa Romeo that no one expected was going to win. He was bold to the edge of recklessness, precise to the point of perfection, and he always wore his cherished yellow – the colour that renders him instantly recognisable still today.
In 1992, the centenary of his birth, Eberhard & Co. honoured this exceptional sportsman in the most fitting manner: with a chronograph that distils his spirit. The Tazio Nuvolari was an immediate success. With its sporting dial enriched with refined details that evoke the world of historic motoring, the watch immediately reveals its character: Its tachymeter scale and the distinctive ‘TN’ monogram that recalls the lucky charm gifted to Nuvolari by poet Gabriele D’Annunzio, bearing the dedication ‘To the fastest man, the slowest animal.’ From the very beginning of the collection’s history, this chronograph spoke a language understood by many.
The current generation of the Tazio Nuvolari collection was newly presented at Watches and Wonders in Geneva in 2026, drawing a continuous line from past to present. The new Tazio Nuvolari Chronograph features a 40 mm case and a dial worked in the Clous de Paris pattern – a finely guillochéd structure that lends the dial both depth and character. References to the world of vintage motorsport, of which Nuvolari was a leading figure, can be found in various details of the timepiece: the brezel with ‘perlage’ finishing that recalls the dashboards of vintage cars, the miles-per-hour scale, the large counters, and the caseback.
The model is offered in two variations: an allblack version, and a second interpretation featuring contrasting coquille d’oeuf counters for a more classic, vintage inspired character. The ‘TN’ monogram enclosed within the stylised tortoise shell appears on both executions. In the blackonblack configuration, the ‘TN’ is rendered in yellow – Nuvolari’s lucky colour – and is echoed by the central chronograph seconds hand.
The Tazio Nuvolari Legend, with its vintage-inspired design, is another chronograph paying truíbute to a man who became a legend for his boldness and courage. And the Tazio Nuvolari Desk Clock carries the spirit of the collection even to the desk.
