Hands-On With Chopard's Half-Million-Dollar Full Strike "Día de los Muertos" Minute Repeater

I don’t think Día de los Muertos (The Day of the Dead) needs much in the way of an introduction, as the Mexican celebration transcends geographic and cultural boundaries. The beautiful symbols of this 3,000-year-old event with roots in Aztec and Mesoamerican traditions are intractably a part of popular mainstream culture in the United States and elsewhere abroad. Chopard has been making special pieces commemorating Día de los Muertos for several years now and they are always highly creative and well-thought-out designs, typically featuring the Calavera skull motif. This year we see the eleventh Chopard celebrating All Souls’ Day in Mexico with the L.U.C Full Strike "Día de los Muertos" pièce unique that is nothing short of a work of art housed within one of the finest minute repeaters in production today. 

This isn’t the first Full Strike "Día de los Muertos," but, wow, does it impress. Considering only one of these is being produced, I was lucky to be able to handle it earlier this year. This iteration is done in an 18k yellow-gold case that measures 42.5mm wide and 11.55mm thick, boasting hand-engraved work throughout the bezel. That said, the dial is where one’s eyes immediately land. It takes over 100 hours to prepare and assemble the dial, which is a take on the aforementioned Calavera motif, done here using stone marquetry. The skull is surrounded by a lovely, hand-done asymmetric guilloché pattern, as well.

Here I'd like to briefly explain how Chopard’s minute repeater works, and why it’s special. A minute repeater chimes the time on demand, so activating the pusher tells the time as such: first the lower-tuned gong tells the hours, followed by a double-strike of both gongs for each quarter past the hour, followed by the number of minutes past the quarter. So, 8:48 would be eight low-tune gongs, three double-strikes, and then 3 more strikes. And while most gongs are done in steel and found on the back of the movement, Chopard uses patented sapphire crystal gongs on the front of the dial. I’ve handled and heard a lot of minute repeaters and Chopard’s Full Strike performs excellently in volume, tone, and clarity.

The complexities of the watchmaking components are masterfully and seamlessly integrated into the artistic design aspects, making for a masterpiece that is unburdened due to an embrace of its own inherent whimsy. I love how the gong mechanism takes the place of the right eye on the Calavera, while the left eye has the power reserve and strike-work power-reserve indicator. The marquetry making up the rest of the skull is comprised of pieces just a few millimeters in size and 0.4mm thick. This rich mosaic is achieved using milk opal, pink opal, orange and red carnelian, orange and red aventurine, and golden obsidian and black jade. There are solid-gold details scattered througout, on parts like the mustache and some of the teeth, that just add so much personality to the whole ensemble.

Turning the case over reveals the manual-winding L.U.C Calibre 08.01-L movement, which is comprised of 533 parts. In addition to housing the chiming mechanism, this movement is made from nickel silver that is finished with Geneva Stripes throughout and operates at 4Hz with a 60-hour power reserve. Also of note is the patented disengagement system which allows you to push the activator while the watch is striking without damaging the mechanism, something which is a risk with many chiming watches. There is also the dedicated ratchet-driving mechanism which ensures no awkward pauses during the chiming, instead making for a smooth and seamless series of chimes.

The Chopard L.U.C Full Strike "Día de los Muertos" is a unique piece that is priced at $462,000.