The Gran Premio de Cuba Trilogy: Three Chronographs for Three Legendary Races

At the end of the 1950s, Havana was not only the Pearl of the Caribbean: it was the racing capital of the region. Three times — in 1957, 1958 and 1960 — the fastest cars in the world thundered along the Malecón, the seafront promenade that embraces the city, past vast crowds and names that would write the history of motor racing. Cuervo y Sobrinos now dedicates the Gran Premio de Cuba Trilogy to that unrepeatable chapter of motorsport: three automatic Swiss chronographs in limited edition, three dials inspired by the original race posters, one spirit. Swiss precision, Latin soul.

Three races in four years, then silence: no permanent circuit, no modern revival, only black-and-white photographs, newsreels and posters. That rarity places the Gran Premio de Cuba among the most fascinating chapters of 1950s motorsport, alongside names such as the Targa Florio and the Carrera Panamericana — with one difference: here the track ran, quite literally, along the seafront of a capital city.

The track itself was pure spectacle: no purpose-built circuit, no modern run-off areas, just the ribbon of asphalt along the seafront, the low wall separating the city from the ocean and improvised grandstands along the avenues. The cars swept past colonnaded buildings and pastel façades, with the spray of the waves occasionally reaching the roadway. A circuit like that could never be drawn today: which is precisely why it continues to fascinate.

For the Maison, those seasons carry a familiar flavour. In the very years when engines roared along the Malecón, the Cuervo y Sobrinos boutique — founded in 1882 in Havana by Ramón Fernández Cuervo and his sobrinos, the nephews — welcomed travellers, artists and champions drawn by the golden years of the Cuban capital: from Hemingway to Churchill, from Einstein to Caruso. Celebrating the Gran Premio de Cuba is therefore a way of telling part of the brand’s own story, not merely signing a tribute to motorsport.

A story in three acts, not three unrelated watches

The trilogy was conceived as a single project: three chronographs designed together, to be read in sequence like the three acts of one story. The mechanics are shared and the proportions identical, yet each reference carries its own chromatic identity and its own production run. Choose one, and you wear a specific race on your wrist; collect all three, and you reassemble the entire arc of the Gran Premio de Cuba, from the debut of 1957 to the farewell of 1960. It is an approach closer to publishing than to cataloguing: the story first, then the product.

Three dials, three original posters

Each chronograph in the trilogy borrows the colours and graphics of the original poster of the race it honours. It is a deliberate design decision: not a generic racing style, but the actual poster art of those years, with its typography, its contrasts, its graphic optimism — the same mid-century aesthetic the brand has always inhabited, from the shop windows of Calle de la Muralla to today’s dials.

The Gran Premio de Cuba 1957 wears tones of warm brown and mustard yellow, faithful to the artwork of the inaugural edition: refined, adventurous and unmistakably Cuban. The mustard stitching of the strap picks up the dial, like a body colour matched to the interior of a sports car.

The Gran Premio de Cuba 1958 opts instead for a bold yellow dial with green counters, a contrast that recalls the dashboards and sports cars of the period; it is the most daring of the three, dedicated to the most storied race of the series. Completing the trilogy is the Gran Premio de Cuba 1960, graphic and modern: a white dial with red counters, inspired by the geometric poster of the final race ever held in Havana. A farewell in two colours, as clean-cut as a chequered flag.

Across all three models, the leaf-shaped hour, minute and small seconds hands converse with the red-tipped chronograph seconds hand and the arrow-shaped minute and hour counter hands, striking a balance between sporting legibility and retro elegance that is the signature of the Maison’s chronographs.

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Numbered on the miles of each circuit

The most compelling detail of the trilogy lies in its production numbers. Each edition is limited to a number of pieces matching the miles covered in the original race: 162 pieces for 1957, 174 pieces for 1958, 202 pieces for 1960. Every timepiece is individually numbered, and the see-through sapphire caseback is engraved with the year of the race it commemorates.

It is a tangible way of binding the watch to its history: the wearer carries on the wrist not a mannered nod to motorsport, but the exact distance of a race that now exists only in memory and in the archives. And the contained production — 538 pieces in total across the three references — places the trilogy among the most focused limited editions the brand has ever proposed.

Explore all timepieces in the official Cuervo y Sobrinos online shop.

The mechanical heart: the Valjoux 7750 calibre

Powering the trilogy is the Valjoux 7750, the most proven automatic chronograph calibre in Swiss watchmaking: half a century of service, 28,800 vibrations per hour and a 48-hour power reserve. It is a choice consistent with the theme: like the cars that raced along the Malecón, this is a robust, dependable mechanism built to last. The oscillating weight has been customised in the shape of a classic steering wheel and decorated with a gold-coloured Cuervo y Sobrinos emblem, visible through the sapphire caseback: every automatic wind is, quite literally, a turn of the wheel.

The dial reads like a dashboard: small seconds at 9 o’clock, the minute counter at 12, the hour counter at 6, next to the date display. The rectangular start/stop and reset pushers add a graphic touch that sets the trilogy apart from more conventional pump-pusher chronographs.

Every choice reflects the Swiss savoir-faire of the Capolago atelier, on the shores of Lake Lugano, where Helvetic precision and Latin soul have lived side by side since 2008: careful assembly, finishes checked one by one, and a five-year warranty on every timepiece.

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For those who live time as a race

The Gran Premio de Cuba Trilogy speaks to two passions that often share the same wrist: the love of the mechanical chronograph and the fascination with racing history. It is the timepiece of the collector who understands the value of a meaningful production run, of the heritage enthusiast who recognises in the Malecón a circuit that can never be repeated, of anyone browsing the latest novelties of the Maison in search of a piece destined never to return. On the wrist it works with equal ease beneath a shirt cuff and above a suede sleeve: a chronograph that is sporting in its references, elegant in its proportions.

Like every Cuervo y Sobrinos watch, these chronographs arrive in the signature humidor box, a nod to the Cuban cigar culture that has accompanied the brand since its birth. Three races, three posters, three numbered editions: Cuban time is racing again.

Discover the Gran Premio de Cuba Trilogy