L.U.C QF Jubilée – Sporty touch in steel with vintage design.

Text: Britta Rossander

Two days before Watches & Wonders we look at the L.U.C QF Jubilée, the watch that Chopard is releasing in connection with Chopard Manufactures in Fleurier celebrating its 25-year junbilee. You could say that the L.U.C. collection rests on three core values: technical performance, aesthetic refinement and certified movement manufacturing. That it exists is down to Karl-Freiderich Scheufele's engagement in watchmaking. Since the 1980s he has been responsible for the men's collections and developed the family company's sports watches.

With the establishment of Chopard Manufacture in Fleurier in the 1990s, the start of movements for watches that were given the added name L.U.C. could begin and it became Kar-Freiderich's baby. Since 2015 he has another baby, Ferdinand Berthoud, with even more complicated movements and very limited production. Those watches we will have to come back to on a later occasion

The L.U.C. collection's added name comes from the initials of Louis-Ulysse Chopard (1836-1915). A farmer's son from Sonvilier a small village in the Jura district in the canton of Bern (today the inhabitants number 1 237). He trained as a watchmaker and conquered both Switzerland and the world at the age of 24. Louis-Ulysse created works of art that found customers in all the way over in Russia. Precision and reliability were sought-after qualities and with his chronometers and pocket watches Louis-Ulysse Chopard managed to fulfil his customers' wishes.

L.U.C QF Jubilée

The new QF Jubilée is made in a limited edition of 25 pieces, the movement is L.U.C 96.09-L with a 65-hour power reserve which sits in a steel case with a 39 millimetre diameter, which is the first steel watch for L.U. C. The movement is chronometer tested and tested, as the icing on the cake, also by the Fleurier Quality Foundation which goes a little further than COSC.

The model differs from what we are used to seeing from L.U.C. It is much sportier and with relaxed – if you can say that about a watch? The inspiration comes from a model from the 1950s. It is a bit Art Deco and a bit Bauhaus when it comes to the dial. Making several circles in this way was something that began in the 1930s. It is said that naval officers in particular were fond of that design because it was so easy to read.

The watch has an outer silver ring with a ”Chopard blue” inner ring, hour markers in ”chevron shape”, small seconds at 6 o'clock and Super-LumiNova® on four of the hour markers. A 22 carat micro rotor and Côtes de Genève are visible through the watch's sapphire back. A brown band in calfskin with stitching and lining in blue rounds off the design that makes it both good-looking and an important carrier of the heritage from the founder. The only thing I have to complain about is that it should be written L.U.C. with dots between the letters – it is so fiddly when you write…