The L.U.C Perpetual Chrono is a model that has made appearances in the Chopard lineup before, but in white gold, rose gold, and platinum forms. Now, it comes in a new grade 5 titanium case.

The dial is solid gold, black rhodium-toned, and has a hand guilloché solid gold dial with a radiating pattern. There is a snailed silver-toned inner bezel ring with red and black transfers, rhodium-plated hour-markers, chronograph and perpetual calendar function counters with black rhodium-based galvanic treatment and ruthenium-treated appliques. The day/night and leap year counters are snailed and have black rhodium-based galvanic treatment. The theme continues with the hands for the main and sub dials, also rhodium-plated.

One stylistic difference of note when compared to previous version is the absence of Roman numerals for the hours, now replaced by applied markers. I like this change; it freshens up the dial and makes it visually less heavy.

The watch has a dial that is clear and legible. Let’s first look at the perpetual calendar. The months are at 3 o’clock and the days of the week, at 9 o’clock. The small seconds are a 6 o’clock. At 12 o’clock is a large dual aperture date that operates instantaneously, there is an off-centred day/ night display at 10 o’clock, and an off-centred leap year display at 2 o’clock. The moon phase display is at 6 o’clock.

For the flyback chronograph part of the watch, there is a 30-minute counter at 3 o’clock and a 12-hour counter at 9 o’clock.

The case is 45mm (15mm thick) and has a titanium crown with the L.U.C logo, titanium pushers, a vertical satin-brushed middle case, polished bezel and case back, and is water resistant to 30m.

Beneath the open case back can be seen the manually wound COSC-certified Chopard in-house Calibre L.U.C. 03.10-L which beats at 28,800VPH and has a power reserve of 60 hours. It features a patented perpetual calendar and an integrated column-wheel chronograph with a patented ‘return-to-zero’ reset system for the counters and sweep seconds hand via a vertical coupling clutch. Finishing-wise there’s nickel silver main plate and bridges and Côtes de Genève.

The new L.U.C. Perpetual Chrono comes on a grey nubuck calfskin strap with a grade 5 titanium clasp and is in a numbered 20 piece limited edition.

[Photo credit: Chopard]

Categories: Chopard, chronograph, Limited Editions, Watch Profile, watches, Watches & Wonders Geneva 2021

Tags: Perpetual calendar