TIME TO CELEBRATE

Chopard LUC turned 20 in 2016 and the manufacture released three new models that reiterated the collection’s innovative spirit. The LUC Time Traveler One and LUC GMT One have been designed with the modern globetrotter in mind. As with all LUC watches, their movements are manufactured in-house, and feature integrated functions as opposed to separate modules. Dual time Calibre LUC 01.10-L is the simpler of the two, while Calibre 01.05-L offers a complete world time display. But the indisputable star of the show is the LUC Full Strike, Chopard’s very first minute repeater complication. It’s not a new complication, but Chopard’s version is nothing like what you’ve ever seen before. The LUC Full Strike chimes with the purest and most crystal clear tones because it literally uses crystal gongs (traditional minute repeaters come with steel gongs). The gongs and watch crystal are machined from a single piece of sapphire, so the entire component reverberates when the hammers strike. Its chimes are also uniformly paced and powerful from start to finish, thanks to a separate barrel dedicated to the repeater function. Finally, Calibre 08.01-L is extra robust and safeguarded from accidental mishandling. This extraordinary journey of the Chopard LUC collection started out with just a simple desire to produce beautiful and accurate timepieces—a lofty quest but one that it has long surpassed. Scheufele’s work is far from done, and if the LUC Full Strike is anything to go by, this venerable manufacture in Fleurier has much and more up its sleeve.