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LIVE REPORT: New L.U.C FULL STRIKE minute repeater watch launched to great accolade

7th November 2016: 16:00 CET

Fleurier, Switzerland

Karl-Friedrich Scheufele 
 

As the ultimate celebration of the 20th anniversary of L.U.C and Chopard Manufacture, the L.U.C STRIKE ONE minute repeater watch was presented at its birthplace today by Chopard co-President Karl-Friedrich Scheufele. Endowed with innovative, different and unique solutions to many of the weaknesses of other minute repeaters, it is a landmark leap forward for the genre.

Reporting Live from the global launch in Fleurier, my first report is only a summary of the key points why the L.U.C FULL STRIKE is now the King, nay, Emperor of Minute Repeaters through innovative technical advances, superlative Geneva Seal finishing and crystal-clear sound.

It is simply The Best.

L.U.C Full Strike 
 

A Striking Background

To understand the advances that Chopard made, we need to study the problems of previous striking watches.

The history of timepieces that could trigger acoustic signals indicating the time upon request dates back to the end of the 17th century. In 1686, King James II of England (a.k.a. James VI of Scotland) decreed that Daniel Quare was the inventor of the first repeater mechanism. The code of the sounds were refined from simple hour and quarter-hour strikes to include half-quarters and later, the 5-minute intervals after the last quarter struck. The final goal was a minute repeater with strikes denoting actual minutes after the last quarter struck; that was probably achieved by a cluster of watchmakers in Friedberg, Germany around 1720. They exported their pieces mainly to London. Those exports were "enhanced" with the names of famous London watchmakers, which makes historical verification of provenance difficult.

Eventually, the convention became low-pitch tones for hours, two-tones for quarter-hours and high pitch tones for the minutes after the last quarter-hour struck. At first, the sounds were generated by striking tiny bells but by the end of the 18th century, Abraham-Louis Breguet had invented gongs bent into rings that were smaller and louder. Although the convention for pitch and double tones were set, there was still scope for individual watchmakers to improve on pitch, loudness, cadence, phrasing, rhythm, double-strikes, harmony, timbre and "musicality" of the sounds and eliminate extraneous noise generated by the mechanism.

During the 1960s and into the 1980s, the minute repeater had fallen out of favour as we had electronic watches with displays that lit up and even those that chimed the hours, minutes and seconds. There was a resurgence of the complication in mechanical wristwatches from the 1990s. Even so, few watchmakers produce them in series production and even fewer produce good ones.

Good
Many case or gong variations were tried with different materials (titanium, magnesium, steel alloys) and resonating shapes. Some tried amplifying the sound from the gongs by linkages to the case or sapphire watchglass (dial-side or caseback). The role of horse urine to temper the forging of gongs is still the stuff of horological legend! Everyone wants a crystal-clear sound and rather paradoxically, also a warm sound that is contradictory.

Bad
On the other side of the equation, the reduction of extraneous noise from the regulating mechanism resulted in developments like the wind-vane governor, friction governor, centrifugal governor and inertial governor.

Ugly
Two other considerations that plague minute repeaters are power reserve and water resistance.

The first is required to drive the striking watch's timing and striking mechanisms. Obviously, the worst case scenario is to chime 12:59 that requires twelve hour strikes, three quarter-hour strikes (six strikes for the double tones) and fourteen minute strikes; totalling 32 strikes.
Most makers use conventional winding for the timing escapement and a user-generated power for the striking mechanism e.g. the action of pushing a slider or button stores the energy in a spring for immediate use upon release. This is usually sufficient for one cycle of the worst case scenario.

The presence of a slider mechanism makes water resistance a very challenging prospect, which is why minute repeaters have such a poor reputation of being "temperamental watch queens".  Push buttons are more robust but still vulnerable if they require long travel to garner sufficient power reserve for the striking sequence.

The other problem is the delicacy of mechanisms that can break if activated incorrectly or repeatedly when a sequence of chimes is not yet finished.

 L.U.C Full Strike pusher built into the crown

L.U.C FULL STRIKE KEY FEATURES

The new watch is named Full Strike because L.U.C introduced the Strike One model in 2010, which only indicated the passing hours.

L.U.C Strike One from 2010

In 2015, I was given a glimpse of a prototype striking watch that I nicknamed "Strike 1.5"....that may have been a test bed for secret new components.

Prototype Striking Watch on the wrist of Mr Karl-Friedrich Scheufele in June 2015

L.U.C Full Strike sketch

Today, we can reveal the key features of the L.U.C FULL STRIKE:

1) Sapphire Crystal Gongs integrated with the sapphire watch-glass for pure tone generation and maximal transmission.

2) Independent spring barrels for the striking mechanism and timekeeping escapement.

3) Power reserve 60-hours going train/escapement and energy for “the longest time” (12:59) for twelve times in-a-row: indicated by two displays.

4) Three security devices protecting it from any handling mistakes

a. The striking mechanism power reserve is coupled with a semi-toothed wheel. When the reserve drops too low, it deactivates the minute repeater chime, thus ensuring that the watch cannot sound fully, due to the lack of energy.

b. To maximise the striking mechanism power reserve, a patented device incorporated into the coupling-clutch of Calibre 08.01-L stops the regulator from rotating during coupling and uncoupling. Only when everything is in its correct position does the striking mechanism actually consume energy.

c. During the chime sequence, the crown is disconnected from the movement, thus making it impossible to perform any time-setting that could damage the movement. The activating pusher built into the crown is also deactivated during the vulnerable period, because a second attempt to trigger the mechanism could jam the striking mechanism coupling-clutch.

5) Chiming Perfection assured with additional security devices ensuring the regularity of each chime sequence.

a. Information is picked up from the snails via the beaks on each rack, but the information is not directly transmitted in the traditional manner. Instead, ratchet-wheels that activate gathering-pallets transmit the information. This introduces a "gear ratio", serving to increase security and ensure a regular tempo. This arrangement has been used for the hour strikes before but Chopard extended usage to the quarters and minutes, despite added complexity.

b. Irregular sound intensity has be resolved. To avoid the last strikes being too weak, the ratchet-wheels are coaxially arranged so as to ensure the hammers are smoothly and consistently raised to maintain their constant striking force on the gongs.

c. Also, a flexible link between the hours and quarters ratchet-wheels induces a constant tempo between the last hours stroke and the first quarters stroke, independent of the actual number of quarters that need to be sounded.

With seven security devices, the L.U.C Full Strike achieves superlative performance and is protected from breakages.




L.U.C Full Strike front

Elegant and Thin Timepiece 


Innovative new Calibre 08.01-L has 533 components with the watch-glass being part of the striking mechanism construction. The extremely thin new L.U.C calibre enables the L.U.C FULL STRIKE to measure only 11.5 mm in height, despite the complexity.




L.U.C Full Strike exploded view

Hammers

The Chime System and hammers can be observed at 10 o'clock position on the dial.

L.U.C Full Strike Chime system

Setting minute hammer

Crystal-Clear Gongs

Other typical minute repeater gongs are made of steel or gold segments which vibrate when struck with steel hammers to produce their characteristic sound.

The biggest innovation is the use of sapphire crystal for the two gongs and integrating them with the watch-glass that acts as an amplifier.

L.U.C Full Strike sketch

The gongs and watch glass integrated component is hewn from a single sapphire block. Without welding, glue or screws, the construction is totally unique in watchmaking history and for which, a patent has been filed. Without any breaks or additional linkages in the sound path, there is no detriment or interference in the transmission of acoustic waves. The perfect physical integrity between the gongs and the watch glass transmits the sound directly outside the watch.  

The sound is literally crystal clear and loud.

Stress testing of up to 1.5 Million impacts with steel hammers has not caused breakages in the gongs. More than three years of development were required to refine tools and methods to produce these gongs.

Musicality

Chopard worked with musicologists at Lyon University (France) to refine the chimes.

The L.U.C FULL STRIKE has a unique sound signature. By definition, the sound is not metallic, cold nor abrupt. 

It is full-bodied and truly crystal-clear with two pure notes: C and F. (+/- 12Hz)

Their chime lingers pleasingly, with a very low sound-deadening factor. The tonal richness enjoys amazing amplitude because this is the first time that sapphire is used as a tone generator. Sapphire is also plays the acoustic amplifier.

The intensity of chime is the lasting impression. Although the goal was primarily sound quality, the bonus intensity was a gift of the sonic gods. It takes 16 seconds for the watch to strike 12:59. It chimes in a uniform manner, the perfect horological accomplishment and you are never left guessing if the sequence has faltered or stopped.

Silence is Golden

The musical boffins determined that in music, silence is as important as the notes themselves. For a minute repeater, silence is equally important and Chopard developed the L.U.C Full Strike with this in mind. The rotations of the strike governor determine the rhythm of the strikes. This vital component is ideally silent but visible at 8 o'clock position on the dial.

Setting inertia wheel drum

Noting that in some minute repeaters, the governor may sometimes emit a humming sound, Chopard ensured that the inertia wheel drum of calibre L.U.C 08.01-L is entirely inaudible. While the striking mechanism sometimes make a clicking sound at the end of the tune, the L.U.C Full Strike does not. Finally, it eliminates one of the most disturbing problems faced by a minute repeater: the silence between the last hours stroke and the first quarters stroke, which may vary in duration according to the specific quarter-hour to be struck.

In the past, minute repeater sequence comprises one time-window for the hours, another for the quarter-hours and a third for the minutes. Traditional chime sequences were punctuated by long silences, during which the user was left wondering if the watch was still working. They were tempted to activate the request slider or button again that resulted in damage.

The structure of calibre L.U.C 08.01-L enables it to skip these silences automatically. Its hours, quarters and minutes gear trains are superimposed and mutually drive each other. When one has completed its task, it automatically triggers the next, maintaining a constant cadence however many strokes are needed.

L.U.C Full Strike – technical details

L.U.C Full Strike case back

Case:
- 18-carat “Fairmined” rose gold
- Total diameter: 42.5 mm
- Thickness: 11.55 mm
- 18-carat rose gold crown with L.U.C logo: 8.50 mm
- Vertical satin-brushed caseband
- Polished bezel and case-back, hand-engraved case-back
- Exhibition back fitted with glareproofed sapphire crystal

Caliber L.U.C 08.01-L

Movement:
- Mechanical hand-wound: L.U.C 08.01-L
- Number of components: 533
- Total diameter: 37.20 mm
- Thickness       7.97 mm
- Number of jewels 63 jewels
- Frequency: 28,800 vph (4 Hz)
- Power reserve      60 hours
- Mainplate and bridges in non-treated nickel silver
- Bridges adorned with the Côtes de Genève motif
- Chronometer-certified (COSC)
- “Poinçon de Genève” quality hallmark

Dial and hands:
- Gold dial with opaline silver-toned base
- Finely snailed small seconds
- Blue and black transfers
- Gilded Roman numerals
- Gilded Dauphine-type hours and minutes hands
- Gilded baton-type small seconds and watch movement power-reserve hands
- Blue baton-type striking mechanism power-reserve hand
- Railway-type minute track engraved under the sapphire crystal

Functions and displays:
- Minute repeater striking on the sapphire crystal and sapphire gongs (patented system)
- Central display of the hours and minutes
- Small seconds display at 6 o’clock
- Concentric display of the watch movement and striking mechanism power reserves at 2 o’clock

Strap and buckle:
- Strap in hand-sewn double-sided CITES-certified alligator leather, dyed with plant pigments
- 18-carat rose gold pin buckle

20-piece limited edition
Ref. 161947-5001 – In 18-carat “Fairmined” rose gold

********************************************************************************************************************************************************************

Some of you may be wondering if Chopard has any vintage experience of striking watches before the new Chopard Manufacture in Fleurier.

Wonder no more, for I refer you to this photograph I captured in the Chopard Museum c.2014.

I've had to keep it quiet until now......

Chopard Striking Pocket watch top right




Chopard Striking Pocket Watch with slider activation

I must make special mention of Precision and Compassion:

L.U.C FULL STRIKE is the only Haute Horlogerie mechanical minute repeater that I know to be subjected to two independent assessors of precision and quality, to whit: the C.O.S.C. and the Geneva Seal. Furthermore, the case is made of Fairmined® gold, thus assuring ethical and compassionate mining conditions and rewards for the miners. Chopard is the first major brand to support Fairmined® and has agreed to buy every scrap of gold that they produce. In future, all L.U.C Grande Complication watch cases will be with ethically produced precious material.

The lucky owners of the launch 20-piece limited edition Ref. 161947-5001 will be able to join this compassionate endeavour and pay a small premium that goes towards Fairmined® activities.

What is the true cost of Luxury for the Choice that it affords?

Speculations amongst Collectors and Media representatives ranged from CHF 250,000 to 300,000.

Finally, the most astonishing revelation was the true cost of the Ultimate L.U.C watch to date, is only CHF 245,000.

Dr M. Teillol-Foo, 2016.

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