In 2016, Chopard launched their first ever minute repeater, the L.U.C Full Strike. What most people still aren't aware of is that it was thus named because it was the next logical step in the evolution of Chopard’s chiming watches. Several years prior, for another celebration, the 10th anniversary of Chopard Manufacture, the brand had launched their first chiming piece, the L.U.C Strike One. It was a sonnerie au passage, which strikes at the top of every hour, just the one time, hence the name. In 2022, Chopard Manufacture is celebrating again, this time their 25th anniversary, with three significant evolutions of the two aforementioned timepieces.
These three limited series make up a trio called the Sound of Eternity. They rely on Chopard Manufacture's most advanced innovation. They all produce sound thanks to a unique patented device. Their crystal and gongs are one single component, milled in one piece from a single block of pure, transparent, synthetic sapphire. When one of the gongs is hit by a hammer in order to tell the time, it is not alone in its vibrating. The entire crystal covering the watch is the main vector of its dispersion. A dispersion that is intense, crystal-like, faithful and most of all full, which gives these three pieces a unique personality.
For the first piece, fifteen years after the first series, Chopard offers a new generation of the L.U.C Strike One. Twenty-five pieces are being made in rose gold with a solid gold, guilloché dial. At one o'clock, a single hammer strikes and the gong chimes once. Contrary to popular belief, this type of chiming is more demanding in acoustic terms even though it is less complicated on the mechanical level as it has to release a longer, fuller, more intense note in order to create a musical emotion, which is all the harder as it is alone.
With the second piece, after releasing several versions of the L.U.C Full Strike made of rose gold, and with cones in white gold, platinum and even cemented steel, Chopard climbs all the way to the top of exclusivity and materials consistency. The L.U.C Full Strike Sapphire is the only minute repeater timepiece to be made entirely and solely of sapphire including its entire case, dial, gongs, caseback and even its crown. Whichever way you look at them, these five pieces will be utterly transparent.
For the third and last piece in the series, Chopard has created a new piece sitting at the top of its line of highly complicated watches – the L.U.C Full Strike Tourbillon. Essentially, the Full Strike original calibre has been heavily modified in order to welcome a tourbillon, going at its own rhythm under a sapphire bridge. This collection is limited to 20 pieces and is marked with the Geneva Hallmark, as are all the others in the Sound of Eternity series.
But the birthing of these watches wasn't achieved with the sole hands of skilled watchmakers. As a music lover, Chopard Manufacture's CEO Karl-Friedrich Scheufele called upon the expertise of brothers Renaud et Gauthier Capuçon, classical artists of world renown in their respective fields, one being the violin and the other, the cello. When the Full Strike was launched in 2016, one of the highlights of the celebration was a solo recital by Renaud Capuçon. Sound of Eternity is therefore in the same vein as baroque music composition – at the intersection of counterpoint and harmony, built on a sophisticated and constantly evolving motif.
