As Chopard’s manufacture in Fleurier celebrates the advent of its 30th year, the brand has introduced the L.U.C Grand Strike, its most complicated chiming watch.
Chopard has been crafting timepieces since 1860, when Louis-Ulysse Chopard founded his high-precision watch manufactory—and the brand has upheld his exacting standards ever since. In 1996, the brand invested in building a complete watchmaking manufacture in Fleurier, Switzerland, to craft watch movements fully in-house under one roof. In addition to the brand’s in-house movement workshop, the facility “has mastered every element of production,” in the ensuing years, according to the brand, including hand-finishing and artistic crafts techniques. The first movement produced fully in the Fleurier location was the L.U.C 96.01-L in 1996, its name paying tribute to the brand’s founder. The ultra-thin automatic movement with an impressive 65-hour power reserve measured just 3.3mm thick, and powered the brand’s new L.U.C 1860 watch (its name another nod to Louis-Ulysse Chopard).
The new L.U.C Grand Strike is a testament to Chopard’s 165 years of watchmaking excellence. “It has always been our intention to conceive a grande sonnerie at Chopard. If you look at the L.U.C Grand Strike, what you see is the cumulative impact of 30 years spent creating and innovating in the domain of fine watchmaking. When you listen to its chime, you are hearing the rhythm of Haute Horlogerie at Chopard Manufacture,” said Karl-Friedrich Scheufele, Chopard’s co-president.
The new Chopard L.U.C Grand Strike approaches producing its sound in an unconventional way. Instead of the more traditional technique of employing tiny metal hammers striking a metal gong (which is usually a ring located on the inner periphery of the case), the Chopard L.U.C Grand Strike’s gongs are crafted of sapphire crystal and are carved, along with the watch’s dial, from a single block of sapphire crystal. “This unique gong construction, using the horologically unprecedented material of sapphire crystal, is what gives the L.U.C Grand Strike its matchless acoustic character,” according to the brand.
Third Time’s a Charm
The new watch not only chimes the time on demand, but can be set to three modes: a Grand Sonnerie, which chimes the hour and quarter-hour, a Petite Sonnerie, which chimes the quarter hours, and the full hours on the hour only. A third mode, which silences all chiming, can also be activated. All three modes are set via a sliding selector switch on the right side of the watch’s 18-k white-gold case. The watch also features a 60-second tourbillon.
The Art of Sound
Chiming watches, and the chiming clocks that preceded them, were invented for purely practical purposes in the time before electricity. By sounding the hours, quarter-hours and, in some cases, minutes, the watches allowed the owner to tell the time in the dark. In today’s world, while chiming timepieces, also called repeaters or minute repeaters, are no longer necessary, they are highly coveted by collectors and connoisseurs. They combine mechanical precision with the art of sound.
The L.U.C Grand Strike’s sapphire crystal gongs have been awarded a patent, one of 10 proprietary technical patents incorporated into the new timepiece. Five other patent applications have been filed for Chopard’s additional mechanical inventions employed in the watch. L.U.C Grand Strike is also COSC certified for timekeeping accuracy and has received the Geneva Seal for movement finishing and decoration. In all, the L.U.C Grand Strike draws upon 11,000 hours of research and development at the manufacture, a testament to Chopard’s 165-year-old tradition of watchmaking innovation and excellence.