Gold Standard

TIME Chopard deserves serious applause for combining ethics with aesthetics.

As a family-owned luxury company, Chopard is uniquely positioned to write its own rulebook of watch and jewellery making. This independent spirit allows Chopard to pursue and expand upon the concept of sustainable luxury.

Chopard is the world’s first luxury company to support and enable mining communities to achieve better work and living standards in what is called the Fairmined certification. This began in 2013 when it started to support the development of the Coodmilla cooperative.

Pledging to purchase a substantial part of the mine’s output, Chopard has also looked at other Fairmined gold stocks, or gold mines that are on their way to achieve the certification, with the objective to grow the reach of Fairmined certification.

With The Alliance For Responsible Mining, Chopard continues its pursuit of sustainable luxury with yet another impressive Green Carpet collection this year, as well as additional men’s timepieces cased in Fairmined gold. The Fairmined label ensures that the gold is extracted in a responsible manner and by small-scale mining communities. It is priced at a premium above the market value of gold, but that premium goes back to the community as improved living contributions and fairer returns for work. Fairmined gold is treated with the utmost reverence at the Chopard manufacture in Geneva. Its sheer scarcity necessitates a completely separate production line so that at no point does it come into contact with gold that is, for lack of a better word, ordinary. Even the waste generated from processing Fairmined gold is dealt with separately. At the moment, only watches in the LUC range have been made in Fairmined gold, which is fair, given that this extremely precious material is anything but found in abundance. They include high and grande complications like the LUC Tourbillon QF, the LUC Perpetual Chrono, and the superbly engineered LUC Full Strike, as well as more pared-down dress watches like the LUC XPS Fairmined and LUC XPS Twist QF Fairmined. As virtuous on the inside as it is on the

outside, the LUC XPS Twist QF Fairmined comes with a certification issued by the prestigious Fleurier Quality Foundation. Also known as Qualite Fleurier – hence QF – it is the most demanding quality certification in the watch industry and tests everything from the precision of the calibre and its reliability to its durability and the standard of its finishing. The movement, Calibre 96.09-L, is also a certified chronometer that had been put through the rigours of COSC, Chronofiable and Fleuritest. Unlike the case, however, the micro-rotor that winds the movement is made of non-fairmined gold.

Still, the LUC XPS Twist QF Fairmined is endowed with aesthetics that would stir the senses of any hot-blooded watch aficionado. The signature Twist crown at four o’clock, the ultra-thin XPS case, the QF logo on the dial, and the elegant contrast of rose gold with dark grey a ll contribute to its stately appeal. Its special slate grey dial is stamped with a sunburst finish in reference to the raw appearance of freshly mined gold, and of course to Chopard’s Journey to Sustainable Luxury, so this is the kind of watch that’ll put you on a gilt trip, not a guilt trip. www.chopard.com ≠

The LUC XPS Twist QF Fairmined is as virtuous on the inside as it is on the outside.