Quality, beauty and rarity are the three core pillars of Chopard’s LUC watches. One of Swiss watchmaking’s best‑kept secrets, this collection began as a tribute to the brand’s founding father—watchmaker Louis-Ulysse Chopard—by its present day business owners. Co-president Karl-Friedrich Scheufele, who oversees the entire range of Chopard men’s watches and its manufacturing facility in Fleurier, was compelled by the motivation to elevate Chopard’s timepieces and recapture the horological legitimacy it once possessed.

He set out to accomplish two things: create an in-house mechanical movement and establish a true manufacture. Today, 21 years later, the letters LUC have come to be synonymous with exquisite watchmaking characterised by superlative finishing and unique technical achievements.

All Chopard LUC timepieces are fitted with in-house movements designed, developed and produced by the manufacture. To date, there are 10 distinct families of LUC calibres, all of which are COSC-certified chronometers (awarded by the Contrôle Officiel Suisse des Chronomètres) and beautifully hand‑finished in accordance with the criteria of either the Poinçon de Genève or Qualité Fleurier hallmarks—or both, in the case of the LUC Triple Certification Tourbillon. The annual production output of 4,500 watches means that these timepieces remain relatively exclusive, which is always a plus for haute horlogerie collectors.

ONLY THE BEST

The very first LUC movement is the Calibre LUC 1.96. It took Scheufele and his team of watchmakers three years to fabricate this movement literally from ground up, as Fleurier in those days had been struck badly by the quartz crisis. Scheufele chose to establish his manufacture in Fleurier because of the historical importance of this region in fine watchmaking. He also knew that there still remains a vast range of watchmaking competencies waiting to emerge from the shadows. His foresight paid off but Scheufele wasn’t the sort to rest on his laurels. Somehow, the simple solution of a regular movement with a central rotor and a single barrel appealed neither to him nor the Scheufele family. This was to be Chopard’s very first in-house movement; it had to be special.

Guided by the Scheufele family’s sharp entrepreneurial acumen and an almost pervasive attention to detail, it was imperative that priority went to quality and excellence. The company was looking only for exceptional solutions and finally arrived at the decision to produce a movement with a micro-rotor. This idea fit perfectly with Scheufele’s vision of quality timepieces that respect the tradition of fine watchmaking.

Says Scheufele, “Since the founding of the Chopard Manufacture in 1996, our LUC Haute Horlogerie collection has set itself the objective of offering unique solutions, whether in terms of research and development or design. The decision taken in 1993 to opt for a self-winding micro-rotor movement is entirely in line with this wish. Coupling the oscillating weight with two stacked barrels represented a complex technical solution that also expresses our passion for horological complications.”

The resulting Calibre LUC 1.96 (later renamed LUC 96.01-L) debuted in 1996 with a slim, elegant profile thanks to the micro-rotor set into the bridges and a very impressive 70-hour power reserve stored in the twin stacked barrels. COSC-certified and marked with the Poinçon de Genève, Calibre LUC 96.01-L was equipped within the very first timepiece of the collection, LUC 1860.

Big Steps
Calibre LUC 96.01-L paved the way for many more innovative technical solutions to come. Foremost, in 2000, Chopard presented the LUC 98.01-L Quattro calibre with four spring barrels providing an astounding nine days of power reserve. Moreover, this movement also came with COSC certification and the Poinçon de Genève. Three years later, the collection’s first tourbillon was made.

Chopard is seldom the first to make a complication, but when it does, it always offers a unique solution. Tourbillon Calibre 02.01-L received both COSC certification and Poinçon de Genève, a rare feat attesting to its immaculate precision and inimitable aesthetics respectively. The manufacture went on to produce more complications such as the Calibre 96.13-L with a perpetual calendar and orbital moonphase indication.

On its 10th anniversary in 2006, the manufacture premiered the LUC Strike One with a massive 300-part Calibre 96.14-L that can chime the hours on demand. At the same time, Chopard also inaugurated its heritage museum named LUCeum to chronicle its weighty heritage. 

In the years between 2007 and 2012, the LUC manufacture continually exceeded itself, showcasing its very own in-house developed and produced integrated chronograph, plus a grand complication dubbed the All-in-One, which was packed with all of its proprietary features (four barrels, COSC-certified tourbillon, perpetual calendar, orbital moonphase) and the equation of time function. Next, it broke new ground in terms of watch certification with the 2011 LUC Triple Certification that is COSC-certified and awarded with the Poinçon de Genève as well as the Qualité Fleurier. Technical achievements followed swiftly in 2012 when Chopard presented the LUC 8HF, its first high frequency watch oscillating at a frequency of 57,600vph.

The LUC collection was also the perfect platform with which to commemorate 50 years of the Scheufele family’s stewardship of Chopard. In 2013, the LUC 1963 gave pride of place to simple yet beautifully finished manually wound movements done in the pocket watch style. Chopard collaborated with the Geneva Watchmaking School to produce the COSC-certified Calibre LUC 06.01-L with stunning nickel silver plates and bridges and exquisite finishing endorsed by the Poinçon de Genève. And at Chopard, even the case material is space: the 2014 LUC Tourbillon QF Fairmined was made with ethically sourced gold—the first of its kind. Scheufele’s long-term goal is to eventually use only Fairmined gold for the LUC collection, something he says will take at least five years to come to fruition.

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.