Cuervo y Sobrinos pays tribute to the first official Formula One World Champion “Nino” Farina who gained the title in 1950.
“Nino Farina was the man of courage that bordered on the improbable. Capable of daring stunts that were often his winning move. A great driver, but one for whom one always had to be apprehensive..” – this the incipit with which Enzo Ferrari described Emilio Giuseppe Farina, also known as Nino.
The Historiador Nino Farina II follows the highly acclaimed first limited series that sold out in a very short time. It is a new chronograph, limited to 158 pieces, inspired by the historic race and featuring the colors of the iconic Alfa Romeo, but made for a modern audience.
Nino was born in Turin on October 30, 1906, to a family of coachbuilders; his father Giovanni had founded “Carrozzeria Farina,” while his uncle Battista joined him at a very young age in what would later become a unique and unmistakable brand of made-in-Italy style: the famous “Pininfarina.”
Racing is the sport he practiced from the 1920s to the 1950s, with the crowning achievement of winning the 1st Formula 1 World Championship. He became world champion at the Monza racetrack by winning the 21st Italian GP on September 3, 1950, in a 504-kilometer gallop at the wheel of the Alfa Romeo 158. The famous “Alfetta” with the number 10.
That September 3, 1950 remains in the annals of motor racing: not only because Nino Farina is the first Italian driver to boast the title of World Champion, but he is also the first pole-man and the first to set the fastest lap in the race. An achievement that is called with an English definition: “the hat trick” from cricket.
In 1930, Nino competed in the classic “Aosta – Gran S. Bernardo” in an Alfa Romeo 6C where he suffered the first of several fractures that marked his life as a racer. Despite accidents and injuries, in 22 seasons of racing, Nino continued to compete and always in Italian cars: Alfa Romeo, Maserati, Lancia and lastly Ferrari.
He was the absolute Italian champion from 1936 to1939 with the Alfa Romeo whose 1st driver he had been since 1938. He also won the last Tripoli Grand Prix in Libya in 1940. In 1936 he finished 2nd in the 10th Mille Miglia Cup, and again 2nd in 1937 together with Stefano Meazza and again 2nd in 1940 with Paride Mambelli.
No matter the displacement or category, for Nino the important thing was to master the thrill of flat-out speed.
After the war, Nino resumed winning with both Maserati and Alfa Romeo. In 1949 he landed at Ferrari and he won the GP of Rosario in Argentina, the first, historic success abroad of a single-seater from the Maranello company.
He returned to Alfa in 1950 and celebrated a world triumph at age 44. Subsequently, the state-owned Alfa decided to retire from racing and Nino returned to Ferrari where he remained until 1955, winning the 1000 km of Nurburgring, the German GP (1953) as well as the 1000 km of Buenos Aires (1954) in addition to achieving numerous placings.
He left the racing world at the end of 1950.
When he died on June 30, 1966 from a road accident on Route Nationale 6 at Aiguebelle, he was on his way to Geneva to visit his godson. That day with a wet road, Nino was not driving an Italian car but a Ford Cortina Lotus that skidded into a tree. The speedometer on the dashboard was stopped at 180 km.
At the Alfa Romeo Museum (Arese, Milan), there are photos, films and posters celebrating the champion along with an “Alfetta” 158 in fine display. An additional version, the Alfa Romeo 159, in which Farina won the Daily Graphic Trophy at Goodwood on Sept. 29, 1951, and Fangio the 1951 world championship, can instead be admired at the National Automobile Museum in Turin.
Cuervo y Sobrinos Maison wanted to put a few twists on the previous series, changing the colours and reducing the case size for even sportier use without sacrificing elegance.
With a diameter of 40 mm, the Cuervo y Sobrinos Historiador Nino Farina II is housed in a stainless steel case. The dial sits under a double-curved sapphire crystal with anti-reflective treatment.
The watch comes with a matte brown calf “racing style” strap with light blue stitching. It features numerous perforations, a detail inspired by racing gloves of bygone days. The case back is embellished with a dedication to the world champion (“El primer Campeon del mundo” – the first F1 world champion) and his signature.
The Historiador Nino Farina is a limited edition of 158 pieces, certainly inspired by the legendary Alfa Romeo 158. In fact, the colors are a reminder of it: the hands of the minute and hour counters of the chronograph are red like the color of the car’s exterior, while the central seconds hand and part of the tachymeter in the upper right corner are green like the four-leaf clover: the historical symbol of the Alfa Romeo company.
At the heart of the timepiece is a Swiss automatic movement, the CyS 8129 caliber. Based on the ETA 2894, the movement features an engraved oscillating weight and a 42-hour power reserve.
