Chopard

decksurgeon
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Event Pics: Chopard Masters Dinner in Singapore (23 Oct)

I had the pleasure of attending a dinner hosted by Sincere Watch & Chopard LUC last evening.

Here's a little photoessay.........

The Chopard Masters Dinner


The dinner was hosted at Blu on the 24th story of the Shangri-la hotel

Here's the view from up there


The dining room at Blu


with guests seated, views from both ends of the room:



The location impecccable and service top notch.
The Chopard beehive was omni-present too
(* how many bees do you have on your Chopard caseback?)


nothing was left to chance, top notch presentation including "Sincere" napkin rings and wine glasses



a number of highlights were shown during the evening over the course of dinner.....we'll start off with the food first


the fabulous food was definitely a highlight too *grin*


drink flowed freely to lubricate the tongue and facilitate the deep horological discussions


macro shot of the scallop *yum*


Out very gracious hosts for the lovely evening:

Mr Maxime Labey, Managing Director Chopard Asia


Mr Daniel Bolognesi, Expert Watchmaker from Chopard LUC


Mr Patrick Tan, Head of Sincere Watch Academy


this I'm is told is the only stealth picture in existence of one of the world's top Chopard enthusiasts in action
we shall dub thee Sir K, Sir K came armed with a deadly SLR camera.


Here's Mr Patrick Tan sharing a horological moment with one of the guests


lovely dinner indeed, the menu was superb......


next up the watches:

A showcase of Manufacturing par excellence and technical perfection was the order of the evening.

We begin with the LUC LUNAR ONE:

The Chopard L.U.C. Lunar One watch is a superb complicated timepiece that combines the perpetual calendar mechanism with an utterly unique and extremely accurate orbital moonphase display. Chopard's watchmakers have created a masterpiece of haute horlogerie in a Chopard Manufacture movement that comprises more than 354 individual pieces, and has earned the prestigious Geneva Seal.



The moonphase indicator is the most visually striking indication on the dial this exquisite Chopard timepiece, and it is composed of a rotating sapphire discs beneath the subsidiary seconds display. As these sapphire discs slowly turn, they indicate the proper phase of the moon as it appears throughout the 29.5 day cycle. Equipped with extremely precise gearing, this moonphase display will only show an error of 1 day after 122 years have passed. Another sign of the thought that Chopard has invested in this exceptional watch is the highly legible grand date display, which has been given prominence in the center of the dial, in the form of a large dual disc indicator.



The Chopard L.U.C. Lunar One watch is animated by the L.U.C. 96 QP caliber; it is derived from the famous Chopard L.U.C. 1.96 caliber movement which is then elaborated to support the complex perpetual calendar functions.

The dials of the Chopard L.U.C. Lunar One watches offer a remarkable level of detail and on the pictures shown here, you can just make out that the dial is composed of 3 different types of Guilloché



The LUC TOURBILLON TITAN S.L.



SL for Super Leggero (Super Light)! ....think Lamborghini clad in full carbon fiber race trim.

This is the 3rd model in the Trilogy of LUC Toubillons and the SL designation is for the ultra-light tourbillon cage.
The entire rotating carriage weighs 0.16 grams and if it were similarly executed in steel it would have weighed 2.5 times more.
The complete Toubillon assembly of 62 parts weighs in at a grand total of 0.39 grams



The Sapphire crystal dial affords an unobstructed view of the rotating masterpiece.
“Dauphine” style hour and minute hands



Movement is a LUC Cal 4TSL with quattro 4 staked barrels and a 216hr (9day) power reserve.
33 jewels and 222 parts in total.
COSC certified



The balance wheel used on this watch is a patented variable inertia Variner® balance.
i.e free sprung (more on that later)



The LUC TOURBILLON STEEL WINGS


Here are a couple of pics of LUC Steel wings as Piece Unique Executions.
Handpainted oil on the dial.
the level of detail is amazing! Just see for yourself







Now on to the movements.....

Close up of the Tourbillon on the LUC Cal 4TSL


Mainplate



Picture of the tourbillon bridge on the back of the Cal 4TSL


The backplate of the Cal 4TSL


Backplate & toubillon bridge assembled


Cal 4TSL movement, this time the lightweight aluminum tourbillon cage has been anodized in a bright red/blue color for clarity


Reverse view of the anoodized colored aluminum tourbillon cage


0.16 grams of unabated pure aluminum tourbillon cage



Comparatively here are some parts from the LUC Quattro Tourbillion / Steel Wings Tourbillon

Entire assembled tourbillon from the Steel Wings.
(i.e. this is not the aluminium super light toubillion, shown for comparison)




The front side bridge from the LUC Quattro Tourbillon


The Variner® balance explained!
Shown here in actual size and a model that is 10x the actual size.


Basically this is free sprung balance. That means that the adjustment of the oscillations of timing is done by changing the inertia of the balance wheel
You can just make out in the picture the 4 'C'shaped balace weights at the ends of crosses.
If the gap of the 'C' faced inwards this would mean increased inertia of the wheel - therfore loss in timing (slower)
If the gap of the 'C' faced outwards this would mean decreased inertia of the wheel - therfore gain in timing (faster)

in a traditional balance wheel construction [Trivois] (i.e. the timing is not adjusted by changing of the inertia)
the timing is changed by adjustment of the active length of the balance spring.
this spring is fixed between 2 curb pins usually. The fixing positions are critical as a small 0.1mm deviation can cause up to 30s of error per day.
If you removed this index assembly from the equation (i.e go free sprung), the active length of the balance spring remains unchanged and you have removed one
potential source of error.

Finally may i leave you in the good hands of the LUC Cal 4TSL
Enjoy the pics!






Thanks for viewing and i hope it entertained you

kind regards