Building an industry-leading watch brand is no small feat. Even for someone at the helm of one of Switzerland’s most respected brands, there’s no simple formula for creating watches that will earn the respect of the world’s most discerning watch aficionados. That takes creativity, vision, commitment, and — most of all — time. Such has been the case with Chopard, which was founded by Louis Ulysse Chopard in 1860 and has been owned by the Scheufele family since the 1960s. The brand’s newest halo piece, the L.U.C Grand Strike, is perhaps the greatest example yet of what decades of single-minded focus on this goal can achieve.
The L.U.C Grand Strike is a chiming timepiece featuring a grande sonnerie (a complication that automatically chimes the hours and quarter-hours as they pass), a petite sonnerie (a complication that only strikes the hours), and a minute repeater (a complication that chimes the time at the press of a lever.) The most complex watch ever created by Chopard, it took 11,000 hours of research and development to bring it to life, and resulted in five watchmaking patents.
“It has always been our intention to conceive a grande sonnerie at Chopard,” explains Karl-Friedrich Scheufele, the brand’s co-president since 2001. “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. If the chime moves you, it’s because you resonate with our way of making watches.”
It’s not an exaggeration. Scheufele has been talking about creating Chopard’s first grand sonnerie since soon after launching its original forebear, the Chopard Strike One, in 2006. Since long before then, Scheufele has been focused on bringing Chopard’s watchmaking into line with the greatest names in the business, and the new L.U.C Grand Strike is a proud testament to the achievement of that goal. It is certified by both Poinçon de Genève and the Contrôle Officiel Suisse des Chronomètres — bodies that recognize high-level hand-finishing and mechanical accuracy, respectively — but the real proof of its finesse is in the chimes themselves. Instead of the conventional steel, Chopard’s are crafted from sapphire crystal, a material that’s extremely difficult to work with on such a small scale but lends the gongs an exceptionally crisp, clear sound and unequalled resonance.
While this isn’t the first time Chopard has employed this material in a chiming watch, the L.U.C Grand Strike is by far its most impressive use so far. It’s a marvel to look at, but it sounds even better.
Learn more about the Chopard L.U.C Grand Strike here.
