Jumping hours and dancing hearts from Chopard
Haute horlogerie and joaillerie marque Chopard presented a bouquet of high complication watches, jewellery watches and jewellery at the 2021 digital edition of Watches and Wonders. “Day & Night” magazine brings you a quick round-up of what Chopard has on offer….
WATCHES
L.U.C Quattro Spirit 25
To celebrate the 25th anniversary of its creation, Chopard Manufacture presents its first jumping-hour timepiece: the L.U.C Quattro Spirit 25. Housed in a 40-millimetre case featuring the L.U.C collection’s characteristically sleek lines and crafted from ethical 18-carat rose gold, its innovative and ultra-sophisticated L.U.C 98.06-L movement is equipped with four barrels based on the exclusive Chopard Quattro technology enabling up to eight days of power reserve. This makes it one of the rare jumping-hour watches with such a degree of autonomy.
From the movement to the white Grand Feu enamel dial on which the hours aperture appears at 6 o’clock, the entire watchmaking creation, issued in a 100-piece limited series, is produced in-house thanks to the artistic crafts mastered by the artisans of the Manufacture, thus ensuring a high level of finishing duly rewarded by the prestigious Poinçon de Genève.
With its L.U.C Quattro Spirit 25 timepiece, Chopard Manufacture is introducing its first-ever jumping-hour watch. Much prized by collectors, this horological complication is given an extremely pure interpretation in this 100-piece numbered limited edition combining an understated design with the technical boldness typical of the L.U.C. collection. Combining tradition and modernity, its ethical 18-carat rose gold case features rounded shapes inspired by the hunter-type cases of the pocket watches once designed by Louis-Ulysse Chopard.
The L.U.C 98.06-L movement equipping this timepiece is one of the few in this category of watches – which generally consume a great deal of energy – to offer up to eight days of power reserve. Thanks to the four stacked and series-coupled barrels based on the unique Chopard Quattro technology – which usually allows up to 216 hours of autonomy – the L.U.C Quattro Spirit 25 maintains a reserve above 190 hours despite the amount of energy required for the rotation of the hours disc.
Visible through a transparent arena case-back, this highly complicated mechanical movement with manual winding guarantees reliability and precision within an overall thickness of just 4.85 millimetres. The balance-spring is equipped with a Phillips terminal curve that precisely controls the oscillations of the regulating organ – a feat of which only a few manufacturers are capable. The movement is also fitted with a swan’s neck regulator enabling fine adjustment of this calibre.
IMPERIALE Moonphase
A star-studded sky extends its hold on the IMPERIALE collection, as the new 36 mm-diameter IMPERIALE Moonphase timepiece appears crafted from ethical 18-carat white gold studded with precious stones. The dial of this technically refined and supremely feminine jewellery model is entirely made of aventurine. Naturally sprinkled with stars, this delicately spangled glass is graced with the five main northern hemisphere constellations. Together, they serve as a backdrop for the most feminine watchmaking complication of them all: an astronomical moon-phase display, orchestrated by the Chopard 96.25-C movement. Thus attired in deep blue and lit up by the fire of diamonds, IMPERIALE Moonphase offers a delicately shimmering interpretation of the lunar cycles.
The highlight of this new version lies in the introduction of an aventurine glass dial with a celestial touch. Alongside the moon, the Big Dipper, Little Dipper, Cassiopeia, Cepheus and Draco constellations stand out against dozens of sparkling diamonds representing the stars at night.
Chopard’s masterful flair for detail enables it to offer an unmistakably poetic vision of the lunar cycle. The dial of the IMPERIALE Moonphase timepiece consists of two blue plates made of aventurine glass, also known as goldstone and recognisable by its typical sparkling inclusions or spangles. This long-lost know-how was first discovered in Murano, where legend has it that a glassmaking artisan accidentally dropped iron and copper filings into his molten glass. Once cooled, the molten glass revealed unique, shimmering reflections, reminiscent of the night sky.
IMPERIALE’s characteristic bezel, lugs and lug-covers are set with diamonds totalling three carats, as are the central decorative fillets rimming the moon phase and the small seconds disc, both adorned with the collection’s iconic quilted motif. Like all the watch and jewellery creations emerging from Chopard’s workshops since July 2018, this new watch is crafted in ethical gold.
Its entirely in-house made 96.25-C movement with automatic winding is certified by the Official Swiss Chronometer Testing Institute (COSC) and features a generous 65-hour power reserve. Its moon-phase display offers astronomical accuracy, reducing the precision error in the duration between two successive new moons (known as a lunation) to just 57.2 seconds, and hence taking 122 years to accumulate a mere one-day difference between the measured and actual lunar cycle. It betokens the resolutely horological care that Chopard devotes to the creation of its timepieces endowed with complications.
Haute Joaillerie watches
Dancing diamonds take the lead in Haute Joaillerie watches from Chopard. They are the ultimate emblem of the maison. Invented in Chopard’s workshops in 1976, they have never ceased to distil their daring through multiple watch and jewellery creations. Through the talent of the artisans in Chopard’s haute joaillerie workshops, they now lend their signature touch to three unprecedented jewellery watches crafted in ethical 18-carat white gold. Each features a dial set with five dancing diamonds and framed by a tiara of marquise-cut precious stones.
Within Caroline Scheufele’s creative repertoire, jewellery watches stir very special emotions: the grandfather of the current Co-President and Artistic Director of Chopard was already famous almost a century ago for the gemset timepieces in which he specialised. This gives an idea of the expertise cultivated by the artisans in the maison’s haute joaillerie ateliers, which are now unveiling three new creations in ethical white gold, diamonds and sapphires.
These jewellery masterpieces also nurture the heritage of dancing diamonds, skilfully perpetuated since the maison invented this revolutionary concept in 1976: five setting-free diamonds spin joyfully on their own axis as well as whirling around the watch dial. In passing, they offer infinite shimmering reflections of the light illuminating their facets, bringing to life a show that upends our vision of time. The artisans of the maison’s haute joaillerie workshops have set an array of carefully calibrated marquise-cut precious stones forming a ‘laurel wreath’ around this hypnotically charming dial. The first all-diamond version is complemented by two others graced with blue or pink sapphires. They are respectively fitted with matching grey, blue or pink satin straps.
JEWELLERY
Happy Hearts Flowers
The unmistakable emblem of Chopard jewellery, the Happy Hearts collection blossoms in an all-new design as Happy Hearts Flowers plays on the symbol of the Maison by arranging a corolla of five diamond-set hearts around a dancing diamond. Fashioned in ethical 18-carat white gold, a bangle bracelet, a ring, a pair of earrings and a pendant enrich the garden of this new line for Big-Hearted women.
Since its creation, the Happy Hearts collection has been constantly orchestrating encounters between two Chopard symbols: hearts and dancing diamonds are constant features, alternately placed face to face in a delicate pas-de-deux, arranged in a line or forming butterfly wings. With Happy Hearts Flowers, these two emblems provide a new chance for the collection to bloom by forming delicate and extremely feminine flowers.
Nestling at their heart, a dancing diamond diffuses its joyful aura much as the pistil of a flower exhales its fragrance. All around it, five ethical white gold hearts set with diamonds symbolise its petals. This floral motif, inspired by an age-old jewellery trend, is picked up in a must-have bangle bracelet from the Happy Hearts collection, a ring, a pair of earrings and a chain pendant, designed to be worn solo or stacked with other colours.
From casting ethical gold to setting precious stones, Happy Hearts Flowers jewellery is entirely crafted by the artisans in Chopard’s jewellery workshops, veritable conveyors of emotions endowed with expertise passed down from generation to generation.
Above and beyond its aesthetic qualities, each piece of jewellery encapsulates values testifying to the wearer’s personality and individual story. The choice of a Happy Hearts creation is that of a Big-Hearted woman, who sees in Chopard’s commitments an echo of her own generosity. Combining colourful hearts with the legendary dancing diamonds – two elements chosen as symbols of the maison – the Happy Hearts collection offers these women a range of ethical gold creations to accompany them like true talismans, whether in the small joys of everyday living or in the radiant glow of splendid evenings.
