Chopard has unveiled its first minute repeating watch, and the manufacture hasn’t gone for the least complicated design. The Full Strike is a crown-operated minute repeater with sapphire gongs and a slew of patents on security devices to make sure the watch does not break if (and when) it is mishandled. Lucky for us, we received a demonstration from its creators during a recent visit to the Chopard manufacture (which is celebrating 20 years in 2016), and we were there just in time to shoot a video at 12:59. What were the odds.
We have heard a Chopard chiming watch before, but only once, and in a watch that chimed every hour (the Chopard Strike One). This is the first time we’ve heard a Chopard minute repeater (as most H. readers will know, a minute repeater strikes the hours, quarters and minutes, usually on two gongs), and it sounds wholly different. That’s because the hammers of the Full Strike are hitting sapphire gongs. That’s right. Stainless steel against synthetic sapphire gongs. If you’ve ever struck a knife against a glass before a toast, you’ll know that uneasy feeling you get just before the impact. Well, Chopard has decided to construct a device that does that repeatedly, and on demand, on an even smaller surface.
There are many ways of adjusting the tone of a minute repeater but one of the most basic, is through the choice of case material. The same movement will often sound “warmer” in a rose gold case, and “colder” in a platinum case. More recently, titanium has also been used to achieve great results. Many prefer the warmer tone of rose gold but of course, this is all a matter of taste in the end. (The Full Strike uses rose gold.)
Changing the material of the gongs is a more unusual step. Minute repeater gongs are usually made of hardened steel, but the Full Strike represents a first: the gongs and the watch crystal are all cut from a single block of synthetic sapphire. It’s taken Chopard three years, and the development of new tools to create the shape of those gongs (tuned to the C and F key) as well as make sure they can withstand thousands of hits without breaking. At this point, you’re probably curious to hear the watch for yourselves. Here you go:
The Full Strike is fully operated at the crown, and we think that’s pretty neat (the usual slide that arms and releases a minute repeater is absent). The crown winds the barrels, and a single push of the button located coaxial with the crown will kick the striking mechanism into motion. The hammers and governor are on the dial side, unlike most repeaters – and the bell-shaped hammers can be seen hitting the gongs at 10 o’clock (you’ll have to imagine the latter, though; because they are made of transparent crystal they’re basically invisible).
A double power reserve at 2 o’clock, with superimposed hands, indicates how much energy the minute repeater spring barrel, and the main timekeeping train’s mainspring barrel, have left. There is a separate spring barrel for each, and each is recharged by winding the crown – in one direction for the minute repeater, and in the other for the movement – and each has its own dedicated power reserve hand (the power reserve hand for the repeater is blue).
About the spring barrels: a conventional repeater also has two spring barrels – one each for the timekeeping gear train, and one to power the striking train – but normally, the spring barrel for the strike train is wound up for each activation of the repeater, by operating a slide set in the case band. The barrel for the striking train in the Full Strike is wound up at the crown and can power multiple activations – the same system is used for a grande sonnerie watch.
A major concern for Chopard is the wearability of its minute repeater, because it doesn’t matter how impressive the volume and purity of the striking mechanism is, if the watch isn’t wearable (the temptation to make a watch that sounds good at the expense of wearability is a big one in making repeaters, because a bigger watch offers larger gongs and more powerful striking system, and a bigger case offers more internal volume to amplify sound; that’s partly why vintage pocket repeaters often sound so much better than wristwatch repeaters).
First off, and because wearability is so often about size, let’s take a look at the dimensions. The case of the Full Strike is 42.5mm wide and 11.5mm thick. There are smaller minute repeaters, both in diameter and thickness, but most of them are made with miniaturization in mind, and in the hope of setting new records in that department. Instead, this is just a well-proportioned watch, plain and simple, that can be enjoyed beyond the technical innovations it offers. (Much smaller vintage wristwatch repeaters with almost unbelievably good sound exist but these are great rarities, and of course, they have no water resistance whatsoever.)
The more a watch is handled, however, the more likely it will be mishandled at some point. Repeaters can be easily damaged (for instance, trying to set the time while the repeater is in operation is usually a very bad idea). It’s become common practice for modern high-end chiming watches to have mechanisms that decrease the chance of accidental damage, and Chopard is no exception; the crown of the Full Strike is blocked when the striking train is activated. To help maintain a sufficient power reserve in the spring barrel powering the striking train, the centrifugal governor that determines the tempo of chiming is not engaged until striking actually begins. Finally, the spring barrel for the striking train is fitted with a mechanism to disable the repeater function when there is not enough torque left in the barrel to power a full striking sequence.
In addition to the safety features, and the world-first monobloc sapphire watch crystal and gongs, the Full Strike uses a striking system different from that of conventional repeaters. While the system of racks responsible for “reading” the time from the position of the hour and minute hands is still present, they do not directly trigger the hammers, as is the case in standard repeaters. Instead, they indirectly activate toothed wheels, which, Chopard says, helps ensure a regular tempo and uniform volume. (You can see the wheel that trips the minute hammer in the image above, at 10:00; it has fourteen teeth, to enable it to strike up to fourteen minutes after the nearest quarter hour). Chopard’s design also ensures that there is no silent interval between the striking of the hours, quarters, and minutes.
Since the hammers and gongs reside on the dial side, you have an uninterrupted view of the movement bridges on the back; the plates and bridges are made from German silver (maillechort) and are decorated traditionally with techniques like Côtes de Genève. Chopard says it took approximately 17,000 hours to develop the manufacture-made Calibre 08.01-L. It’s a COSC-certified, double barrel movement with a 60-hour power reserve and slipping springs (as used in automatic movements) to ensure there is little risk of breakage when it is manually wound.
The Chopard L.U.C. Full Strike is a numbered, limited edition of 20 pieces. It comes in 18k Fairmined rose gold only at this time, and is available for CHF 265,000 – about $ 261,715 at the time of publication – which is somewhere between the Audemars Piguet Supersonnerie and the Bulgari Octo Finissimo Minute Repeater.
For more information, visit Chopard online.
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