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chopard_calibres

Chopard calibres

History

Once Chopard established their own watchmaking manufacture in 1993, they began a program to develop a calibre of their own. The company proudly launched calibre L.U.C 1.96 in 1996, re-establishing the watchmaking credentials that had once belonged to the Sonvilier company. The movement was extremely successful, an excellent combination of modern technology, and remains in production to this day. The original L.U.C movement was developed with Michel Parmigiani and shares some design aspects, including its micro rotor and bridge design, with his line of movements for Vaucher Manufacture and Parmigiani Fleurier, located in the same town.

Chopard now has two in-house movement facilities in the town of Fleurier in Switzerland. Chopard Manufacture is devoted to high-end watchmaking under the L.U.C name and employs under 150 people, while Fleurier Ébauches focuses on volume production of watch movements. These facilities are located quite close to each other, at rue des Moulins 20 and 24, respectively.

Chopard Manufacture is located in the older of the two buildings, opened in 1903 and used for watchmaking since 1920 under the name, Fabrique d'ébauches de Fleurier, part of Ebauches SA. The movement producer became part of Chopard in 1996 and the historic building was purchased in 2000. Chopard Manufacture produces all of the L.U.C watches, including the movements, along with casing some other Chopard watches. The Manufacture building also houses Chopard Technologies, a small R&D unit for the company.

Chopard purchased the building at rue des Moulins 24 in 2007 and Fleurier Ébauches began production two years later. This facility has a smaller workforce but is designed to produce as many as 15,000 movements per year. It is highly modern and automated, with specialty machines for most production stages both for watches and jewelry.

L.U.C Calibres

The L.U.C calibres are produced largely by hand at Chopard Manufacture. This line of manufacture movements is properly abbreviated and punctuated L.U.C for Louis Ulysse Chopard, founder of the company. It is sometimes written simply “LUC”, but “L.U.C.” would be incorrect. Chopard named their movements after the year of introduction, for example releasing the L.U.C 1.96 in 1996. The naming scheme was flipped a few years later, with that movement renamed L.U.C 96.01-L, and many movements were not released in the year they were named.

In 2000, Chopard introduced their second in-house calibre, L.U.C 1.98, with 4 barrels to supply up to 9 days of power. Calibre L.U.C 3.97 was released in 2001, a tonneau-shaped movement with an offset micro rotor. The next calibre from Chopard was a tourbillon with 4 barrels and 9-day power, L.U.C 1.02, released in 2003. 2005 and 2006 saw two related column wheel automatic chronographs, L.U.C 10CF and L.U.C 11CF, respectively.

2010 was a big year for Chopard. To celebrate the company's 150th anniversary, they launched three new calibres: L.U.C 01 is a simple three-handed movement, L.U.C 04 is a shaped tourbillon, L.U.C 05 is grand complication with a 4-barrel 7-day tourbillon, perpetual calendar, equation of time, sunrise and sunset, and celestial calendar, and L.U.C 06 is a Lepine pocket watch movement.

Chopard Calibres

The Chopard calibres are produced in greater volume in the Fleurier Ébauches facility. Production of these movements began in 2007. As of 2018, Fleurier Ébauches produces 11,000 to 15,000 movements per year but is capable of reaching 60,000 units if demand warrants.

  • Chopard 01 - Automatic chronometer
    • Chopard 01.01-C - 40 jewels
    • Chopard 01.01-M - 31 jewels
    • Chopard 01.02-M - 37 jewels, small seconds, power reserve indicator
    • Chopard 01.04-C - 27 jewels, small seconds, not a chronometer
    • Chopard 01.08-C - 40 jewels, central seconds, power reserve indicator
    • Chopard 03.05-M - Flyback chronograph
    • Chopard 03.05-C
  • Chopard 09 - Ladies automatic
    • Chopard 09.01-C
chopard_calibres.txt · Last modified: 03.07.2022 15:33 by 127.0.0.1

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