Chopard

In honor of Emmanuel and his musings on the Heritage Grand Cru. There were a lot of thoughtful observations on this piece. I suspect we might all agree that a relatively large shaped watch like this is not going to be to everyone's taste, and is certainly not going to sit well on every wrist. 

For all that the date window will be an understandable deal-breaker for many, there are other aspects of the dial to admire. The white lacquer finishing approaches grand feu enamel in its purity and texture, and the printing is exceptionally detailed. I admire in particular the way the intermediate hash marks on the minutes track stop just short of abutting the "rails" and the depth of even the tiny red printed numerals on the subsidiary seconds subdial. Bravo to Chopard, too, for compressing, rather than truncating, the Roman numeral "VI" below the date window. I'm also a sucker for the distinctive, Art Deco-ish Dauphine fusée hands used on this and other contemporary LUC models.

Prior to the Heritage Grand Cru, I owned an early production LUC Regulator GMT in white gold and a more recent LUC Quattro in rose gold with a brown dial. Shaped watch fan that I am, the Heritage Grand Cru is the LUC I eventually kept.

(Image: European Watch Company) 

I give Chopard plenty of credit for housing the rather large caliber 97.01 L in an elegant manner. As the rear view reveals, the movement fills the large case well, and this presentation feels to me more refined and distinctive than most of the earlier LUC tonneau models. Opinions will obviously vary. 

(Image: Christies)




(Image: Arloren)

LUC XP Tonneau, circa 2011:

  login to reply