Each year Chopard dedicates an elaborately decorated L.U.C XP ultra-thin watch to the sign of the Chinese zodiac year. For 2022, the Year of the Water Tiger, Chopard unveils the L.U.C XP Urushi Year of the Tiger timepiece, an 88-piece limited series dedicated to the beast of honor. The Year of the Water Tiger will begin on February 1, 2022.
The new Chopard L.U.C XP Urushi Year of the Tiger.
With its ultra-thin case, and powered by Chopard’s excellent L.U.C 96.17-L movement, the watch glows thanks to its dial adorned using the Urushi Maki-e technique combining lacquering and gold dust.
Chopard teamed with the workshops of the century-old company Yamada Heiando and Master lacquer artist Minori Koizumi to create the new series. Koizumi, who requires no less than 160 hours to decorate the dials, followed the traditions of the Maki-e technique. Koizumi places gold flakes between layers of lacquer made from tree sap to create the background. Then, the artisan adds the tiger into the image above a bay surrounded by cliffs.
The gold mined to create the 39.5mm rose gold case is sourced from an ethical supply chain pioneered by Chopard. The thin case takes full advantage of the caliber inside, which measures a wispy 3.30mm thick. This is why Chopard can size the entire watch at a mere 6.8mm thick.
Chopard’s thin L.U.C movement 96.17 boasts a gold micro-rotor and two barrels.
And despite its small size, the L.U.C 96.17-L with its strong micro-rotor and two stacked barrels, offers the wearer an impressive 65-hour power reserve.
A. Lange & Söhne is not content to update an existing model by simply expanding the watch’s case metal options, a tactic frequent among even the world’s finest watchmakers. We often see an existing model from this famed German watchmaker updated with a new movement, an updated dial treatment or even an entirely new case size.
The new A. Lange & Söhne Zeitwerk Honeygold Lumen.
So yes, the new A. Lange & Söhne Zeitwerk Honeygold Lumen, as its new name signifies, is newly draped in the watchmaker’s own warm-hued Honeygold alloy, the first time we’ve seen a Lumen watch cased in Honeygold.
But it should also surprise no one that the newest edition of one of A. Lange & Söhne’s most spectacular watches hosts several technical updates, in addition to its namesake new case metal.
Longer power reserve
The new watch also boasts Caliber L043.9, a new movement iteration. A. Lange & Söhne has updated the movement with a 72-hour power reserve, doubling the reserve of its predecessor model. This extends the operating time as it powers Zeitwerk’s three-disc jumping digital numerals mechanism.
Caliber L043.9, with an extended power reserve and a new constant force escapement.
A. Lange & Söhne has also heightened the caliber’s stability by adding a (patented) constant-force escapement to control the time display’s complex switching processes. As the watchmaker explains, the newest escapement generates the impulse for the jumping time display while also “drives the balance with nearly uniform power across the entire run time.”
The pusher at 4 o’clock is also new. This allows the hour indication to be separately switched, which makes setting the time quite a bit simpler.
And as the newest Lumen model in a series dating to the first Zeitwerk ‘Lumious’ from 2010, the Zeitwerk Honeygold Lumen employs the watchmaker’s specially developed light-permeable dial coating. This means all the numerals on the digital time discs – even those not visible on the dial – will absorb enough light needed to make them glow in the dark.
As you might expect from any watch leaving Lange headquarters Glashütte, this 41.9mm watch is finished to perfection. You’ll find hand-engraved balance and escape-wheel cocks, sunray-pattern winding wheels and filigreed, straight-grained constant-force escapement bridge that accommodates two recessed, screwed gold chatons.
Limited to 200 watches, the A. Lange & Söhne Zeitwerk Honeygold Lumen is attached to a handsome dark-brown leather strap. Price: $145,000.
IWC adds two Ceratanium models to its Top Gun collection, and each debut also represents a specific technical breakthrough for the Schaffhausen-based watchmaker.
The new IWC Pilot’s Watch Timezoner Top Gun Ceratanium is the first Top Gun model with a Timezoner complication.
One of the pair, the Pilot’s Watch Timezoner Top Gun Ceratanium, includes a Timezoner complication, marking the first time IWC has placed its unique world time display system into a Top Gun watch. The second debut, The Big Pilot’s Watch Perpetual Calendar Top Gun Ceratanium, marks the debut of IWC’s first Ceratanium bracelet.
The Big Pilot’s Watch Perpetual Calendar Top Gun Ceratanium features IWC’s first Ceratanium bracelet.
You may recall that IWC introduced its black Ceratanium titanium-ceramic alloy in 2017 on its Aquatimer Perpetual Calendar Digital Date-Month Edition “50 Years Aquatimer.” IWC then added the proprietary alloy to the Top Gun collection two years later in the Pilot’s Watch Double Chronograph Top Gun Ceratanium.
IWC explains that Ceratanium combines titanium’s inherent lightweight and strength with a hardness and scratch-resistance similar to ceramic. The alloy is also skin-friendly and highly resistant to corrosion. Plus, the material is black, which makes for a perfect livery hue on any adventure or sports watch.
The Perpetual Calendar
IWC places its excellent 52615 caliber with Pellaton winding system (visible through the tinted sapphire caseback) into the new Big Pilot’s Watch Perpetual Calendar Top Gun Ceratanium (Ref. IW503604). The watch’s two barrels, in combination with its Pellaton winding system, offer an impressive seven-day power reserve.
The perpetual calendar is a complication that IWC has pioneered over decades. This example features a mechanical program that automatically recognizes different month lengths and leap years and will require no correction until 2100. The watch’s moon phase display, which depicts the moon as it is seen from the Northern and Southern Hemispheres, is also unusually precise. It will deviate by one day after 577.5 years, according to IWC.
Price: $48,000 (Big Pilot’s Watch Perpetual Calendar Top Gun Ceratanium, ref. IW503604). A limited edition of 150.
The Worldtimer
As noted earlier, IWC’s new Pilot’s Watch Timezoner Top Gun Ceratanium (Ref. IW395505) is the first model in the collection with the Timezoner complication. The technology makes it particularly easy to set the watch to a different time zone. When pressing down and rotating the bezel, the watch’s hour hand, the 24-hour display and the date will move forwards or backwards in one-hour increments.
IWC has printed this dial in grey and generously coated the numbers 12, 3, 6 and 9 with a luminescent material. Here IWC uses its 82760 caliber, also with the Pellaton winding system, which boasts a healthy sixty hours of power reserve. The wearer can view the movement via the watch’s tinted sapphire glass caseback.
Price: $16,900 (Pilot’s Watch Timezoner Top Gun Ceratanium, ref. IW395505). A limited edition of 500.
Last year producer and talent scout Swizz Beatz challenged De Bethune to create a “totally different Dream Watch 5.” This week, De Bethune debuted its response to that challenge with a watch worthy of the futuristic Dream Series.
The new De Bethune Dream Watch 5 Tourbillon Season 1 is a spectacular deltoid-shaped, blued-titanium and sapphire wrist rocket regulated by a De Bethune high-velocity tourbillon.
The new De Bethune Dream Watch 5 Tourbillon Season 1 .
The inventive Swiss company, lead by pioneering watchmaker Denis Flageollet, has built on its own Dream Watch legacy by refining its pointedly curved Dream Watch 5 case, first seen in 2014, into a skeletal sculpture that both showcases an open-set dial while also protecting it with two dramatic blued titanium bridges.
As De Bethune points out, there is nothing straight or flat about this latest Dream Watch 5 case, which is composed of seven different sapphire components ingeniously embedded into a polished blue titanium frame.
At the center, gripped by the watch’s titanium exoskeleton, is a three-dimensional orb that indicates the moon phases. Adjacent, and just below the blue bridges, the wearer eyes the hours and minutes directly through a hand-cut cabochon-shaped crystal.
The back of the watch (below) is almost as dramatic, especially since the ultra-clear sapphire back seems to magnifying the beauty of De Bethune’s mirror-polished DB2149 high-speed tourbillon caliber. The 30-second tourbillon oscillates at 36,000 vibrations/hour, set just beneath a slightly blued sapphire window. See specifications below for additional details about this expertly engineered, highly tuned movement.
De Bethune notes that to enhance the interior of the DW5 Episode 1, it collaborates with Swiss engraver Michèle Rothen, who has ‘retouched’ each surface with added micro-detail and greater dimension.
The De Bethune Dream Watch 5 Tourbillon Season 1 is a ten-piece limited edition.
Price: $520,000.
Specifications: De Bethune Dream Watch 5 Tourbillon ‘Season 1’
(Reference DW5TSB, a ten-piece limited edition)
Functions: Hours, minutes, central spherical moon-phase indication, 30-minute indication on the ultra-light silicon and titanium De Bethune tourbillon cage (appearing on the back).
Movement: DB2149 hand-wound, three positions (for winding, spherical moon phase and time setting), titanium balance-wheel with white gold inserts, De Bethune balance-spring with flat terminal curve, silicon escape-wheel, spherical moon-phase display accurate to within one lunar day every 1,112 years, De Bethune ultra-light silicon and titanium 30-second tourbillon, 36,000 vibrations/hour.
Dial: Blued grade-5 titanium aperture frame.
Case: 58mm by 47mm by 17mm tapered hand-polished and blued grade- 5 titanium, open-worked with sapphire blue inserts and hand-engraved motifs, cabochon-cut blue sapphire crown.
Bracelet: Blue canvas/leather with an additional rubber strap, titanium clasp with polished and blued titanium pin buckle.
One of Chopard’s most impressive debuts from its wide-ranging late 2021 roster is the Alpine Eagle Cadence 8 HF, a limited-edition titanium watch tricked out with Chopard’s own ultra-high frequency escapement.
The Chopard Alpine Eagle Cadence 8 HF.
Operating twice as fast as a conventional escapement, Chopard’s L.U.C 8HF in 2012 was among the very first such calibers with an ultra-high speed escapements to be serialized into production. The escapement, which Chopard builds with lubrication-free silicon components, vibrates at 57,600 (8 Hz), and keeps the Caliber 01.12-C in this new model operating at a higher rate of precision over a longer period of time than traditional calibers.
Because the movement’s escapement is faster than usual, each vibration has statistically less impact on the timekeeping rate. In addition, the high frequency allows for a steadier beat and quicker rate recovery from any shocks.
The Automatic Chopard 01.12-C boasts a frequency of 57,600 vph (8 Hz).
And with a smaller balance wheel, which requires less energy, the new caliber maintains the same sixty-hour power reserve found in the standard-frequency calibers throughout Chopard’s sporty Alpine Eagle collection. Not surprisingly the watch holds chronometer certification as issued by the Official Swiss Chronometer Testing Institute (COSC).
The watch’s caliber features a lubrication-free silicon silicon impulse-pin, pallet-lever and escape-wheel.
Titanium case, bracelet
At first glance, Chopard’s Alpine Eagle Cadence 8 HF looks outwardly similar to its Alpine Eagle brethren, all of which share the same fully integrated metal bracelet design. Its 41mm diameter echoes watches already in the collection.
But Chopard cases the new watch in titanium, a first for the Alpine Eagle collection. Chopard until this model has cased all its Alpine Eagle models from the custom Lucent Steel A223, in ethical gold, or in a combination of both metals.
The dial here also differs from those found in the existing collection.
While the new watch dial also features the Alpine Eagle’s “eagle iris” sunburst pattern, here it displays a hand-colored dial in a slightly darker hue than we’ve seen in the collection. Chopard reports that grey quartzite roof tiles found in the Swiss village of Vals inspired its artisans to create the dial finish.
In addition, Chopard has simplified the dial iconography, which has been very sensibly minimized to simple baton-type hour markers at 3, 6 and 9. The dial maintains the same Roman numeral 12 seen throughout the collection, but here joined by the logo atop ‘8 HZ Chronometer’ and the cool retro-style arrow logo found on all Chopard high frequency watches.
Case: 41mm by 9.75mm grade 5 titanium, water resistance to 100 meters, steel screw-down crown with compass rose, vertical satin-brushed bezel with eight indexed screws, sapphire crystal, sapphire crystal exhibition case-back with the words “Cadence 8HF.”
Movement: Automatic Chopard 01.12-C with a frequency of 57,600 vph (8 Hz), power reserve of 60 hours, annual balance-spring with flat terminal curve, patented high-frequency regulating organ, silicon impulse-pin, pallet-lever and escape-wheel, chronometer-certified (COSC).
Dial: Brass stamped with a sunburst pattern in a patinated Vals grey. Rhodium-plated applied hour-markers and numerals, painted with Grade X1 SuperLumiNova, rhodium-plated baton-type hours and minutes hands painted with Grade X1 SuperLumiNova. Rhodium-plated arrow-type seconds hand with eagle feather counterweight.
Bracelet: Tapering in grade 5 titanium, wide links with satin-brushed sides and polished central cap, triple folding clasp in grade 5 titanium with steel blades.
The pusher at 4 o’clock is also new. This allows the hour indication to be separately switched, which makes setting the time quite a bit simpler.
