Chopard

AndrewD
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The development of the L.U.C. 1963 Chrono PuristS Edition

It is very exciting to see the Chopard L.U.C. 1963 Chrono PuristS Edition come to fruition. I was able to speak with Guy Bove back in November 2012 during the early design and development stages. Guy is Director of Product Development and is deeply involved in every aspect of watch design at Chopard. Specifically we discussed the ideas and motivations behind the special PuristS Edition of the new L.U.C. 1963 Chrono and this is what I will present here.

Before we talk about the L.U.C. 1963 Chrono PuristS Edition, let me make some background comments to set the scene. 2013 marked the Fiftieth Anniversary of Chopard under the ownership of the Scheufele family. The original Chopard Company was founded in 1860 by Louis-Ulysse Chopard. The Scheufele family owned a jewelry, clock and watch making business in Pforzheim, Germany, and already had a business relationship with Chopard. The Scheufele family purchased the company in 1963 when the Chopard children decided not to continue the family business but the new owners continued trading under the Chopard name.

Since 1996, with the establishment of the L.U.C. Manufacture in Fleurier, Chopard has expanded the production of fine watches and in-house movements. This has set the scene for the release of a manual wind, column wheel chronograph to celebrate the Fiftieth Anniversary. Karl-Friedrich Scheufele has guided Chopard watchmaking with true PuristS principles and, along with designer Guy Bove, has taken a close interest in every aspect of the PuristS watch.

The dial of the L.U.C. 1963 Chrono PuristS Edition is a tricompax design without date. Legibility is designer Guy Bove's main criteria for a chronograph. So the dial is in bold black and white with a clean vintage military look. In Guy’s words: “Initially I had some red on the dial, but instead decided to use red hands for the chronograph functions. And the legibility of red hands against a black dial is excellent. Keeping with the minimalist design ‘Chronometer’ is not mentioned on the dial, but the movement is COSC certified.”

The case design is also similar to the L.U.C. Tribute pocket watch. It is 42mm in diameter. “We had considered 40mm, but the watch starts to look too thick and 42mm provides room for larger counters and a railway track and gives the least cramped and best layout of the dial with perfect proportions. We have used round instead of the oblong pushers used on the Chrono One.”

This stereolithography plastic prototype is built up in a vat of liquid resin using a focused laser to harden the material. The first cases in steel were made in December 2012.

The movement is in an amphitheater back which is also used on the updated 44mm L.U.C. Chrono One and displays the movement perfectly. “The bridges will be made in German silver, just as we do for the Tribute pocket watch, and hand finished to a very high standard. In fact the movement looks more like a pocket watch movement and is very purposeful and solid.”

The L.U.C. 1963 Chrono PuristS Edition will be a limited series of watches based on the Anniversary 1963 Chronograph. The case will be in stainless steel. The whole watch has the new L.U.C. design language and some of the influences of the pocket watch. For example the lugs are more claw-like and hug the wrist. The case sides are brushed vertically. “The lugs/horns are welded on which adds complexity to the case. Given the design we could not stamp it or turn it. So the case is made in 5 parts (4 horns plus case) and we have to guarantee 100% precision in these areas. We have developed a positioning tool and the lugs are spot welded onto the case and then finished. It’s a rather traditional approach and certainly not the easiest way to make a case, but we had no choice due to the complexity of the shape. The final outcome will be worth the effort.”

The watch will carry the Poincon de Geneve (the Geneva Seal) meaning that it is made in the Canton of Geneva, but also that it complies with a number of rigorous design, decoration and finishing requirements. The bee hive has not been forgotten and is engraved on the rear bezel. The watch will be mounted on a black crocodile strap with a cognac crocodile inlay.

“All the watches I design have readability in mind. This is particularly important for a chronograph but even more so for the PuristS Edition. The railway track displays the quarter seconds consistent with the 4Hz (28,800vph) escapement frequency.”

“The new hands have been a little controversial. However they are actually based on the traditional dauphine hand design but are superior and something unique to the L.U.C. range. They are very hard to make and so far no one has been able to copy them. The front part is conical and the back part (much to the dismay of the hand maker) is faceted. There is actually only one hand manufacture that is able to achieve this. Going from this height, down to the curve with the facet at the back is next to impossible.”

“The inspiration for the hands came from old compasses with the pointer coming out of the arm so the design is like a pincer holding a precise point. We talk a lot about precision of our movements (they are all COSC certified) and I wanted to express this on the dial side as well with this pointer hand design. The slender hand coming down to a point hides as little as possible of the counters compared to a traditional dauphine hand.”

“The new Poincon de Geneve requirements [which came into effect in June 2012] are rigorous. Everything from the plates to the screws to the bridles (that hold the movement in the case) are finished to high Geneva standards. This may sound easy, but the company that makes the bridles produces tens of thousands at a time for the watch industry, and ours have to be specially made. All Chopard's cases are made in-house to the highest standards. Each watch is pressure tested to 30m and each movement is tested for precision.”

“The manual wind chronograph may or may not be an ongoing line. We are planning a special Fiftieth Anniversary Edition of the Manual Wind Chronograph in gold, also limited to 50 pieces. We have previously only made limited editions in precious metals so this makes the steel PuristS Edition of the L.U.C. 1963 Chrono very unusual indeed.”

The original movement comes with a date at 4.30. The PuristS Edition was specified without a date display to keep the dial as clean as possible. A unique top plate has been designed the cover the movement which will be decorated in the same way as the movement and will feature a cutout to view the hand setting. This mechanism has also been redesigned so that the crown will only have one position for time setting. So aesthetically the movement will be perfect, but even this small aspect of the design will only ever be seen by the watchmaker who builds or services the watch.

The plan is to make the watch available to PuristS and then to special customers and then via the Chopard Boutiques. The manual wind chronograph will be shown at the 2014 BaselWorld Fair.

I will let Guy have the last comment: “The arena case back provides a wonderful view onto the three dimensional movement. We first saw it used on the updated Chrono One, but on the L.U.C. 1963 Chrono PuristS Edition, with its more interesting bridges in German silver and no automatic rotor to get in the way, this is one of my favourite aspects of the design.”

Actually I won’t let Guy have the last word as it’s my favourite aspect of the design too! I can’t wait to see and handle the completed watch and it has not been easy to keep all this information to myself for the last 18 months!

Andrew

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