Introducing Chopard’s ‘Sound of Eternity’: A Trio Of Commemorative Chiming Watches

Up, close and personal with Chopard’s three new releases that are bound to sound like music to every classical collector’s ears

With the sound and fury of ‘Watches & Wonders’ firmly in the rearview – and what a return to form 2022 was! – we now have sufficient time and space to consider which new releases are most likely to resonate with collectors in a more permanent way. To be sure, there’s the iconic stuff from horological royalty (e.g. an entirely new generation of the Royal Oak ‘Jumbo’), bound to captivate the consumer for years to come, but today, we’re narrowing our focus to a specialized subset of fine watchmaking with a highly specific fanbase – that of chiming watches. Big grain of salt notwithstanding, I personally feel this was an area in which Chopard most definitely stole this year’s show. 

Building on its extremely strong debut appearance at Watches & Wonders in 2021, Chopard opted for a triumvirate of highly sophisticated limited editions this year, each paying tribute to the L.U.C. Full Strike. Crowned grand prize winner at the GPHG in 2017 – colloquially referred to by enthusiasts as the ‘Oscars of watchmaking’ – it was the watch that evinced, beyond a shadow of a doubt, just how fanatic Chopard is about complicated watchmaking. Today, the specialist studio in Fleurier bearing the L.U.C. name makes no more than 3,500 pieces annually (a mere seven percent of the brand’s total production), some 50 of which compose the new ‘Sound of Eternity’ collection. Together, these sound-emitting watches express the L.U.C. studio’s vigorous fascination with striking mechanisms; and are, moreover, a vote of confidence in classical leather-strapped aesthetics. 

The Full Strike Sapphire

Inarguably the headliner in the ‘Sound of Eternity’ trilogy, the Full Strike Sapphire was intended as a full-bore showcase for the L.U.C. studio’s technical expertise – on the 25th anniversary of its founding, no less. As such, it feels like a supercar shod with sumptuous leather trim: the defining characteristic (technically and visually) being a liberal application of sapphire crystal. 

As per its moniker, this release is a continuation of the innovative approach demonstrated with the creation of the original Full Strike minute repeater. In that watch – itself the subject of three patents and a 17,000-hour development curve – the primary talking point was the use of crystal gongs fashioned out of monobloc sapphire crystal. These are then set directly into the front of the dial (along with the repeater’s hammers and regulator) for superior noise amplification. The new Sapphire version takes this basic conceit and pushes it, Fast & Furious-style, to stratospheric new limits. 

Even in images, you can handily discern just how crystal-heavy the Full Strike Sapphire is. Visually, the supercar comparison is immediately evident in the transparency of the case: revealing a movement where every part of the repeater mechanism is visible – from the front, rear-view and side. This is, of course, all in aid of the Full Strike’s already-signature high-toned chime, which is augmented this time around with a case material that allows for a loud, rich, reverberating effect – right up there with best-in-class systems like the Supersonnerie. 

The Full Strike Tourbillon

The Full Strike Sapphire presents an aesthetic that is as punchy as the watch is loud, the new tourbillon-bearing model bears a much closer resemblance visually to its predecessor. As in 2016, the power reserve and chiming aperture are located at 2 and 10 o’clock respectively, whereas the titular tourbillon is to be found in the usual position. Still, in keeping with Chopard’s spotlight on monobloc sapphire, the upper bridge for the tourbillon is machined out of said material, drawing a neat (if very subtle) parallel with the fully transparent Full Strike model. 

At time of writing, this is one release I’ve yet to listen to in person –  gold’s sound-augmenting properties have long been familiar to fans of chiming watches – but I’d wager that the primary appeal is going to rest in wearability. The combination of a rose gold case and ruthenium dial is likely to endear the Full Strike Tourbillon to well-heeled fans of classical color codes, despite the watch’s palpable presence on the wrist (at 12.58mm, it’s the chunkiest of these new ‘Sound of Eternity’ watches). In addition, the dial’s execution doesn’t make the mistake of apeing the tourbillon movement’s complexity: instead, most of that surface is hand-finished with a classic guilloché motif, nicely punctuated at three equidistant points by the complicated bits and pieces. 

The Strike One

Right about now would be the ideal time to bust out a choice baseball pun – save for the fact that I grew up in the Southern Hemisphere and, thus, know sod-all about America’s favorite pastime. Instead, I’ll confine myself to simply saying that the L.U.C. Strike One is my favorite in the ‘Sound of Eternity’ line-up and easily one of the best executions of the humble dress watch we’ve seen in 2022. That it shares this headspace with the similarly underrated XPS ‘Officer’ is no coincidence: both designs benefit from an expert mixture of classic and contemporary design cues; to say nothing of the fact that (at 40mm) the Strike One does a highly convincing impression of a time-only daily wearer.

The prospect of a watch that is ‘all killer, no filler’ has long been appealing to collectors, and in the context of chiming mechanisms, the Strike One embraces that maxim to lethal effect. The acoustic set-up exploits the material science used in the making of the Full Strike, albeit distilled into its simplest, most essential form. Unlike its minute-repeating siblings, the chiming mechanism in the Strike One is constructed with singular components: one gong and one hammer, emitting one chime. The striking function occurs autonomously, every time the minute hand reaches 12, but again, in line with this release’s flavor (as the most versatile watch in the trilogy) that can be toggled to ‘silent’ at any time. Even so, strapped on the wrist, you can expect the overall quality of the watch’s finishing to strike the right chord – with or without backing music.