Chopard Academy Tokyo: L.U.C Movement Craftsmanship

Chopard and Chronos Japan jointly held "Chopard Academy" at Chopard Ginza Boutique in Tokyo.  The teacher is, as always, Hirota-san.

"What attracts me to Chopard watches - simple.  1. you can use it for a very long time.  And 2. High quality.  These are the statement for all the great watches and nothing unusual.  But why?  That is what I want to talk about today.  Unlike many others, Chopard is an independent privately family owned and operated business.  What this means is that whatever the owner wants to do, it can be done.  Breitling is in this category.  So is Patek Philippe.  This makes it possible to the owner/ management to plan for the long run and can pour capital wherever s/he sees fit.  Look at the Champagne you are drinking today.  It is not cheapy one, but real high-end Champagne.  Chopard is not cheap on these small details.  Chopard likes first-rate things, and spare no expense, doesn't cut corners.  That is Chopard."

"Okay, let's go.  This first photo shows gold bullion melted and being readied to become the case and/or jewelry at Chopard's Geneva factory.  There are not so many brands who do start from here.  Perhaps Rolex may be doing this.  Chopard does everything from A to Z - a while ago, Chopard was making their business cards by themselves, too!"

"And they forge and machine by themselves.  Forging is tiresome process but very necessary to make the material harder and last longer.  It takes a long time, and many times forging.  This requires to have as many molds as the number of the models.  Patek, Breitling and Rolex do this.  But please note that Chopard forges Stainless cases, too.  Patek and Breitling do, too, but they do not have so many SS models.  Chopard has tons of SS case models.  But Chopard keeps ALL THE MOLDS ever made and therefore no matter how old your Chopard gets, Chopard can re-make the case for your watch (with cost, of course).  The current owner, the Scheufeles long time ago started as the case manufacturer in Pforzheim and that may be the origin of Chopard's high quality case."

"What is the condition of the high-end products?  I don't think that the answer is 'it is expensive', but it lasts for a long time.  It can be passed from one generation to the next - that is the true value."

"So, how L.U.C movements are different, then?  The parts are very expensive.  Let's take a gear inside, for example.  Cheap ebauche parts are made from brass, but L.U.C parts are made from 'Copper Beryllium (CuBe)' which are needed to last decades.  Having been plated, the appearance is almost the same as the cheapo brass parts.  They just do not cut the corners.  Also, the mechanical design is made to last longer, and the maintenance system is very robust, like the molds are kept forever, etc....  L.U.C is very, very high-end machine, not high-price thing."

"An interesting story about Chopard approach to watchmaking.  Chopard started making L.U.C movement from mid-90s.  What was interesting was Chopard made the factory first in the town, Fleurier.  Normal brands starts from the test phase buying materials, making parts, to decide whether it is a viable business idea.  But Chopard can make things happen faster.  Factory was built first, therefore, L.U.C movement was super high quality from the beginning."

"And the super movement 1.96 was born.  As I said before, THIS IS the BEST micro rotor automatic movement ever made.  By using micro-rotor, the movement can be made thinner, but the micro-rotor may not be efficient in winding.  So, Chopard came up with the 'Ratchet Winding system' to make it an efficient winding system.  Personally, this is the top three automatic movement in the world."

"The first two were made in 60s, when the cost of the watchmakers and designers were much cheaper than today.  And the third one, Chopard 96s was made in mid-90s when the cost of watchmakers are much much higher.  So, that means that all those movements that were made in or after 90s tend to be cheap and 'cut a lot of corners', but as I have been saying, Chopard spare no expenses to make the best of the best.  There is another wonderful micro-rotor movement today from Laurent Ferrier, but the price is almost twice."

"Now Chopard's pursuit of best led to the creation of the standard 'Qualite Fleurier'.  Normally, these thin, dress watch-like pieces tend to be 'fragile' in terms of its parts and case in order to make it look thin and elegant.  But, Chopard has gone much further."

"Qualite Fleurier requires - 5 sec per day in many, many positions.  Must pass the 'breaking test' where 5 out of 100, 10 out of 200 are actually broken.  And it must be 100% Swiss including everything.  Many brands have tried to pass this test, but so far, only L.U.C movements have passed."

"The high quality watches are not only L.U.C - one example, those Happy Sports series are high quality."

"You may not realize easily.  These tubes made of precious metal hold diamond.  But not only that, the jewelry craftsman at Chopard polishes inside the tubes like mirror and thus the diamonds shines brilliantly, much better than non-polished tubes.  Even many high-end jewelers don't do this.  Even the SS version, they do the same thing.  Again, they don't cut corners.  This is not L.U.C, but they do the best they can."  

"Let me say it again.  Chopard is the super first rate company.  Never to be underestimated.  Three points - 1. Superb finishing, 2. Excellent design/ architect, and 3. Relatively affordable considering how much time and efforts have been poured into it.  L.U.C machines are really THE movement to buy.  "

"Superb finishing.  Even where no one can see after assembly, hand finishing are done all over including perlages, chamfering, cote de Geneve, etc...." 

"See Perlages are put on by hand even where no one can see.  There are 1200 Perlages in some models, most of which cannot be seen."

"Please look at the chamfering.  By hand, nicely round and curby.  Black polish..... (Hirota-san was almost in ecstacy....)

"Now the design/ architecture.  Chorno 1 movement, for example, are made very, very robust."

"See the thickness of the parts.  The movement and the case became a bit thick, but it is meant to last for a long, long time."





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Qualite Fleurier on Hirota-san's wrist.

Nice!

Ah, attention to details....  Is this qualified as the "budget watch"?  ))

Very well made feel of the leather.....

... and it was delicious... )

Beautiful one taken from Ms. Chabata's wrist.

Ah.....

 

Special thanks to:

Chopard Japan: Mr. Dobeli (President), Ms. Chabata, Ms. Nonaka, and all the staff.

Chronos Japan: Mr. Matsuzaki, Mr. Hirota, and the gang.

I hope you enjoyed the Academy as I did.

I have to confess that there were parts where I could not post here in the lecture, and it was particularly interesting.  Damn, I can't say!!!!

Best,

Ken