At Chopard, 2026 marks 30 years because the founding of its in-house motion workshops in Fleurier, Switzerland. Representing the haute horlogerie division inside the firm, the revealing of the L.U.C assortment the next 12 months was a serious milestone within the historical past of a enterprise based in 1860 by Louis-Ulysse Chopard, and owned since 1963 by the Sheufele household.
To mark its thirtieth anniversary, in November Chopard’s co-president, Karl-Freidrich Sheufele, unveiled its most advanced wristwatch but. The 686-component L.U.C Grand Strike options grand and petite sonnerie settings and a minute-repeater operate regulated by a 60-second tourbillon, all housed in an moral white gold case measuring 43mm in diameter.
(Picture credit score: Chopard)
Constructing on the gathering’s explicit affinity with chiming watches – particularly the award-winning Full Strike, which one the best honour on the 2016 Grand Prix d’Horlogerie Geneve – the Grand Strike is the end result of ten years of analysis in supplies, acoustics and micro-mechanical engineering, starting with the progressive use of sapphire gongs in opposition to which tiny metal hammers strike the hours, quarters and minutes.
For the reason that introduction of artificial sapphire crystal – technically known as monocrystalline aluminium oxide – in watchmaking, its function has grown, from serving because the ‘glass’ defending the dial (and infrequently the porthole by means of which you’ll view the marvel of a motion by means of the rear caseback) to forming the case and bracelet itself: no imply feat with a cloth recognised for it relative fragility. At Chopard, nevertheless, since 2016 sapphire crystal has been deployed in a wholly new enviornment: serving because the gongs by which a chiming watch creates its tell-tale acoustic file of the passing time.
Chiming watches often deploy hardened metal within the fabrication of gongs, additional amplified by the selection of case materials (judgements fluctuate on which produces one of the best sound, with rose gold usually profitable out for the softness of its tone) to which they’re connected. At Chopard, nevertheless, additional innovation has produced a chiming watch that requires no additional transmission as its gongs kind a ‘monobloc’ with the dial crystal itself.
(Picture credit score: Chopard)
To create a chime each enticing and, as Mr Scheufele demonstrated on the launch in central Geneva, crystal clear even above the hum of passing visitors, the atelier in Fleurier labored with Romain Boulandet, an acoustic engineer on the Haute Ecole du Paysage, d’Ingénierie et d’Structure (HEPIA) in Geneva – to review the psycho-acoustic properties of its chiming mechanism. Accordingly, the notes performed by the L.U.C Grand Strike are tuned to provide a C# – F♮ chord, a musical interval which, it’s mentioned conveys stability and unity. Different epithets used to explain the ensuing tonality had been ‘Ethereal’, ‘highly effective’, ‘sensible’ and ‘resonant’.
As befits its most advanced timepiece Chopard has but created, the L.U.C Grand Strike unites two sonnerie (ie computerized) capabilities: grand – which sounds the hours and quarters; petite which marks solely quarters; along with a minute repeater operate that provides all three measures on demand. Toggling between all three requires a substantial amount of energy – furnished within the Grand Strike by means of two barrels, one for timekeeping, and the opposite for its chiming mechanisms. A number of of the ten patents granted or pending cope with enhancements across the activation and safety of the motion, and embody the night out of the gaps that may happen between the putting hours, quarters and minutes, and the means by which these might be silenced, achieved by the deployment of a sliding mode selector swap.
(Picture credit score: Chopard)
As the top of watchmaking at Chopard, it’s no shock to search out that the L.U.C Grand Strike is each COSC licensed and the recipient of the Poincon de Geneve (or Geneva Seal’) and the Qualite Fleurier, hallmarks of its superior meeting and ending in addition to its precision and reliability.
Given it takes a watchmaker a mean of two months to assemble a Grand Strike, Mr Scheufele predicts manufacturing is presently restricted to between two and three watches a 12 months. Value on software.
chopard.com
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