The Best Steel Material? The Chopard Lucent Steel A223

Jan 12, 2025,21:32 PM
 

Moderator Patrick_y explores the advantages and disadvantages of the Chopard Lucent A223 steel in a frank mini-review.  


Here's a question nobody has ever asked.  Who makes the best steel case and bracelet material in a steel watch?  

Chopard Lucent A223 steel.  It's a double refined steel (it goes through the refinery process twice which enhances its purity).  Made from 70-80% recycled steel, percentage to increase.  Extra hard.  Extra white, the steel looks like palladium or platinum!  Made in the Voestalpine foundry in Austria.  Typical steel is around 150 vickers, Chopard's Lucent steel is over 200 vickers in hardness; significantly harder and much more scratch resistant.  The hardness also partially allows it to be polished to a higher albido.  

Most watch brands use a 316L steel.  Rolex uses a 904L steel that is whiter than most steels because of the higher nickel content.  In a practical sense, the Lucent A223 steel will have less scratches than typical steel watches and will have greater tensile strength; the Chopard Lucent A223 steel will also be more chemically resistant, brighter, whiter, less likely to cause allergies, and be overall more appropriate for jewelry than 316L and 904L steel.

The A223 Lucent steel will also be significantly many times more expensive to buy (Chopard buys about 20 metric tons of steel a year, so not a huge deal at the end) and significantly more expensive to machine.  Tools used to machine the steel will have significantly more wear.  So there is a real added cost to employing the material.  

With little doubt, this is likely the most expensive and most appropriate high end steel to be used in the watch industry today as a case and bracelet material.  There are also real tangible benefits for the user.  

Chopard uses a surprisingly high amount of steel per year - around 20 metric tons (they certainly don't make even half weight in products in all materials per year).  In other words, one mostly full truck load of steel.  It won't save the world, but it probably does reduce overall emissions from Chopard as a corporation by a reasonable percentage.  Thus, I applaud Chopard's employment of this steel - from a practical standpoint and from an environmental one.  

I'm a fan of steel watches.  While I like gold and platinum watches (very much), I don't like the use of gold on watches, especially bracelets, since gold bracelets sometimes stretch and wear over time.  Steel bracelets retain their shape.  I applaud Chopard's use of this steel.  Most features touted by watchmakers aren't a real benefit to the user.  This Lucent A223 steel is a true feature that has true benefits to the user.





The PuristSPro ABR watch uses 316L stainless steel with a black PVD coating!  




The Blancpain 50 Fathoms uses a 316L stainless steel!  







Rolex uses a 904L stainless steel with a higher nickel content for a shinier and whiter steel.  




This Chopard dress watch is made of steel!  Not white gold or platinum!  The Chopard Lucent A223 steel is so white that it is mistaken to be palladium or platinum sometimes.  

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Comments: view entire thread 

It's important to note.

 
By: patrick_y : January 12th, 2025-22:22
Generally, most companies order their steel off a catalogue. 316L or 904L. Chopard and Seiko probably got slightly involved with the steel foundry and specified a steel that met their needs; both from a performance standpoint (hardness, aesthetic polish q... 

Grand seiko everbrilliant steel

 
By: Tomba : January 13th, 2025-04:50
GS has made ever-brilliant steel which is whiter and more corrosion resistant. Also GS high intensity titanium when Zaratsu polished, eg on evolution 9 family watches, looks very refined. Otherwise titanium by default looks industrial. I too am not a big ... 

Thanks for detailing the advantages of lucent steel.

 
By: quattro : January 12th, 2025-21:58
There’s just one thing that I can say, unfortunately, owning a regular 41mm grey dial Alpine Eagle: it is quite prone to scratches. It would maybe be even worse with an other steel (I don’t have enough experience with steel watches) and maybe some part of... 

Uh oh!

 
By: patrick_y : January 12th, 2025-22:20
I'm very careful with my watches, so I generally don't have a problem. Even my 316L steel watches still look in good shape. Overall, the design of the Alpine Eagle bracelet with the polished bits sticking out is just asking for scratches on the most visib... 

My Eagle only flies!!! The Fleurier Quality test has a running component as part of the test!

 
By: patrick_y : January 13th, 2025-22:46
While the 96 movement was developed to pass the FQ test, I don't know which movement you have in your Eagle. I don't wear watches when I am doing sporty things.

The caliber of my regular 41mm AE is the 01.01-C.

 
By: quattro : January 14th, 2025-09:36
It's a 4 Hz COSC caliber. And, yes, I take this watch swimming and hiking (not running: this activity isn't mechanical-watches friendly and the watch is too heavy on the wrist). credit: omniluxe ...  

I don't think any versions of this movement has ever been tested with the FQ test.

 
By: patrick_y : January 14th, 2025-17:54
But yes, very nice watch. And yes, very bad to go running with your watches. I once met a lady with a Rolex who did kickboxing. And she did it with her watch on! Needless to say, the watch showed its displeasure by not running well.

I like this bracelet too

 
By: quattro : January 13th, 2025-21:01
and don’t mind the light scratches as wearing this watch casually is more important for me than being super careful. I don’t wear my gold watches the same way: even if I wear them daily, obviously I don’t do sporty activities with them.

Thanks!

 
By: patrick_y : January 12th, 2025-22:42
A lot of steel is generic. Some people think Rolex invented 904L steel - they did not. And most steel is ordered off a catalogue - the watch company just buys it (or their case supplier just buys it). Chopard, Seiko, and a few other brands probably got sl... 

Thank you for reading!

 
By: patrick_y : January 12th, 2025-22:44
Nicer steel is probably not a big deal to most. But I'm just hoping more consumers pay attention to it so this way more watch companies realize consumers are paying more attention it and the watch companies themselves start paying more attention it. Watch... 

I'm okay even with thin watches in steel...

 
By: patrick_y : January 12th, 2025-22:46
I've got some ultra-thin watches in steel, gold, titanium, and platinum. I like them all. I don't own the Vacheron Constantin though. Sadly. ...  

Interesting read, but the judgement will be out on the superiority of this particular alloy in twenty years time.

 
By: ZSHSZ : January 12th, 2025-23:02
Personally I think it’s mostly a marketing stunt(which is okay), but I still swear by the 904L all day everyday. As for the sourcing, personally don’t care, as long as is not Lithium or Diamond, sourced from Congo, Zimbabwe or Botswana. If memory serves m... 

It is definitely a marketing stunt.

 
By: patrick_y : January 13th, 2025-03:22
I don't think steel resonates with people - so I think it's a failed marketing stunt. And also, watch companies don't really pay that much importance to the steel. They generally order the steel off a catalogue if they make their own cases. Or they let th... 

Thanks Patrick for this informative post on steel!

 
By: Mach : January 13th, 2025-16:03
Personally, I prefer steel over precious metal. I’m on the hunt for a potential dress piece in steel. Unfortunately, most that truly sing to me are in precious metal.😔

I do like precious watches too.

 
By: patrick_y : January 13th, 2025-22:48
I just hope they put steel sleeves in the bracelets. If it's gold pins in the bracelet, with hollow links, then they sometimes don't endure wear and tear well.

After my experience with GSOTM

 
By: myles721 : January 13th, 2025-16:29
I sometimes wonder if I will ever go back to steel again. So much progress has been made with injecting ‘flex” molecules into ceramic that you essentially have a tough enough case that is for all practical purposes scratch proof. When I wear GSOTM almost ... 

It seems to be getting overlooked that 316L & 904L are already specialty steels.

 
By: Steve E : January 13th, 2025-19:40
Formulated to meet specific end use requirements that exceed anything a watch is likely to encounter. Still, it would be interesting to know what Chopard is doing to formulate Lucent, rather than piling on adjectives.