stromer
2381
I must have been a good boy in 2019
Why? Because on the morning of Christmas Eve Santa (in disguise of a DHL delivery guy) stopped by and left a very nice Christmas ornament for our tree.
I had been eyeballing the L.U.C. 8HF CHronometer since I came across MichaelC's here on PuristS. Later our Ken (KIH) gave me the chance to play with his when we met at a PuristS lunch in Vienna that had been origanized by KMII.
The High-Tech appeal of the 8Hz(!) movement had fascinated me from the begining and was enhanced by the pitch black ceramics/titanium case with its clean circilar and straight lines. Just my cup of tea. Such a kind of watch was missing in my small collection which tends to consist of more classical pieces.
Ken wrote an excelllent review of the 8HF Chronometer in 2015 which you can find here. And there are only few things to add to his report:
The thing I never understood is why Chopard decided to put an alligator strap onto this thoroughly modern watch. Maybe the designers could not convince marketing to sell a watch at this price point with anything less than an alligator? Just because Alligator is expensive? No idea.
Anyway, the first thing I did was to swap the strap against a clean and pure coutchouk strap that does the job way better than the original. At least that is my two cents.
Anyway, the first thing I did was to swap the strap against a clean and pure coutchouk strap that does the job way better than the original. At least that is my two cents.
And then there is another thing that is different in my 8HF Chronometer compared to its 249 siblings. Can you spot it?
The seconds hands and the power reserve hands are swapped. Usually you find the red hand on the small seconds and the polished one on the PR display.
The fun fact is that the watch has been serviced by the Chopard Service Center Germany three months ago. (I received the service card as an evidence.) And according to the seller no further action has been taken since then.
So am I the lucky owner of an official Piece Unique now??? Just kidding. But I must say that I like it this way. To have the small seconds hand in a finish that matches the one of the minute and hour hands makes sense to me. Even if that polished little hand it is really hard to find and to read against the black dial. But the same is true if the same hand is used for the power reserve display. So would I like to have it changed to "original"? No! It is very original this way 
The case back brings up an obvious question: Why is there only this small window on top of the balance and not an entire sapphire case back?
My personal take on that question is that the movement working within the 8HF Chronometer basically is a Chopard 01 movement upgraded with the high frequency escapement. (The idea was to develop the escapement is a way that could easily be integrated into more existing Chopard movents.) However the 01 movement looks a litte bit "usual" and not as spectacuar and as High Tech as you might expect from an 8Hz "prototype" watch. (A few years later the "Superfast" Chronometer got an 8Hz movement with a design that matched the High Tech appeal of the watch.)
Btw.: The ceramics caseback wears extremely comfortable because it feels is absolutely smooth on the skin.
The ultra light anchor wheel made of silicon is a b**** to photograph. (Note to self: Finally buy a macro lens!)
I
am adding this (admittedly poor quality) picture anyway because you
can still see the holes in the wheel and the ultra thin spoke. If you
want your anchor wheel to start and to stop 16 times per second then you
need to make sure that the inertia of the thing is as low as it will
ever get.
And because it is safe to assume that one of you would ask for a wristshot I add it here before you need to ask
There was no intention here to buy another watch in 2019, but sometimes the stars are aligned just right...
Best regards and have a happy and good new year everybody!
Martin
