Good things come to those who wait. Karl-Friedrich Scheufele, Co-President of Chopard, knows this better than most. Whether reviving the art of high-precision Swiss watchmaking or nurturing vines in the French countryside, his pursuits embody the value of patience, precision, and respect for time’s rhythms.
Scheufele’s journey with Chopard follows this principle. In 1996, three decades after his father acquired the brand, he founded the Chopard manufacture in Fleurier, a bold step dedicated to independence and producing high-precision Swiss watch movements. This move was more than a business decision; it was an act of faith in time-honoured artistry.
“To be more authentic and add credibility to the Chopard name, it was necessary to launch a complete in-house production of movements,” he explains. The move was a calculated risk, requiring significant investment and a long-term vision. However, this proved transformative, ushering the brand into what many consider its golden era of watchmaking.
Within a year, Scheufele unveiled L.U.C 1860, the first model in the L.U.C collection, named after the brand’s founder, Louis-Ulysse Chopard. At its heart was the L.U.C 96.01-L, a micro-rotor movement that has become a defining feature of the collection. To say progress was swift in the years that followed would be an understatement.
In the following 27 years, the L.U.C collection mastered horology’s most complex complications, including chiming systems and perpetual calendars. The brand earned 22 patents as a result, each demonstrating its dedication to innovation and craftsmanship. Chopard evolved from a respected jeweller to a powerhouse of haute horology under Scheufele’s leadership. Once a sleepy outpost in the watchmaking world, the town of Fleurier also emerged as a thriving hub of innovation.
Naturally, his passion for craftsmanship extends beyond horology to viticulture. A childhood memory with his grandfather inspired Scheufele to co-found Le Caveau de Bacchus, a wine shop and wholesale company in Gstaad, Lausanne, and Geneva.
In 2012, he acquired Château Monestier La Tour, a biodynamic winery in Bergerac, a French region famous for its truffles and foie gras. With sweeping views of the surrounding countryside, the estate produces red blends of merlot, cabernet franc, and malbec, along with whites of sauvignon, semillon, and muscadelle.
Château Monestier La Tour elevates winemaking to an art form, embracing the natural rhythms of the earth and cosmos beyond organic practices. Every stage of cultivation is guided by biodynamic principles, with planting, pruning, and harvesting carefully timed to the phases of the moon and celestial alignments. This approach not only fosters a deep harmony between the vineyard and its environment but also imbues the wines with a profound sense of place and purpose.
In addition to being a vineyard, the Scheufele family retreats to the chateau during the summer months. Last September, under the harvest moon, its idyllic grounds were the backdrop for a magical evening of unveiling Chopard’s latest L.U.C timepieces among the vines. We introduce them in the following pages.
L.U.C Quattro Spirit 25 “Year of the Dragon”
Dragons have long fuelled the imaginations of watchmakers, serving as muse for their most elaborate craftsmanship. The L.U.C Quattro Spirit 25 “Year of the Dragon” is the brand’s homage to the mythical creature, blending traditional techniques with contemporary art.
The design begins with a gold base adorned in Grand Feu enamel, a 17th-century technique so rare it’s practised by only a handful of artisans—including one at Chopard’s manufacture. The enamel undergoes laser ablation to reveal a dragon in striking relief. Every detail is a marvel. Its sinuous body gleams with miniature enamel painting, its gold mane and moustache painstakingly hand-engraved. The horns, crafted through micro-marquetry, combine six types of wood, while the bead clutched in its claws and the swirling clouds are carved from luminous mother-of-pearl.
A hand-wound jumping-hour calibre with an impressive eight-day power reserve powers the L.U.C 98.06-L movement. Chopard’s proprietary Quattro technology achieves this autonomy through the series-coupling of four barrels stacked on top of each other. While the system typically provides up to 216 hours of power, the instantaneous rotation of the jumping-hour disc demands more energy. However, the watch still has over 190 hours of reserve despite this. With the transparent caseback, the indicator engraved on the movement reveals how much energy is left.
Across the four barrels of this innovation are nearly two metres of coiled springs. Besides extending power, this design also ensures consistent energy delivery for better chronometric performance.
L.U.C Full Strike “DIa de los Muertos”
Chopard’s L.U.C collection represents the pinnacle of the brand’s watchmaking identity. Among its latest triumphs is the one-of-a-kind L.U.C Full Strike “Día de los Muertos”, a vibrant tribute to Mexico’s Day of the Dead that combines its artistic mastery with its technical ingenuity.
The dial features a mosaic of stone marquetry, with milk opal, pink opal, orange and red carnelian, orange and red aventurine, golden obsidian, and black jade. Chopard’s artisans took over 100 hours to select, prepare, and assemble these materials, each measuring just a few square millimetres and 0.4mm thick. The joyfully colourful calavera motif is framed by a guilloche gold surface, while the blackened hammers and power-reserve indicators cleverly form the watch’s eye sockets.
Its striking aesthetic belies a technical marvel: the LUC 08-01-L minute repeater movement, which took 15,000 hours to develop and is covered by multiple patents. Through Chopard’s Full Strike mechanism, which integrates the sapphire crystal with its gongs, the watch chimes the hours, quarters, and minutes with remarkable clarity and resonance. A single piece of sapphire is machined without welding, screws, or glue, enhancing the watch’s acoustics and producing a sound that is both pure and powerful.
L.U.C XP Esprit de Fleurier Rose
In Chopard’s Esprit de Fleurier series, the proverbial rose is the focus of the latest additions. Roses are irreducible as symbols of delicate femininity and luxury, despite centuries of poetic cliches.
The house introduces three new eight-piece editions in ethical white or rose gold, each adorned with Grand Feu enamel dials. Drawing inspiration from antique decorative pocket watches housed in the L.U.CEUM, Chopard’s museum in Fleurier, the dials evoke the precision and charm of botanical watercolour illustrations. The yellow roses represent friendship and joy; pink, a nod to grace and elegance; and orange, a symbol of passion.
Through the open caseback, the L.U.C 96.23-L self-winding movement is visible beneath these delicate dials. Featuring Chopard’s Twin Technology and a 65-hour power reserve, it is a masterpiece of horological engineering. The bridges are embellished with Fleurisanne engraving, a traditional technique that carves floral relief motifs into gold.
To create a striking two-tone effect, the background is dotted to give it a grained texture, and rhodium-plated for contrast. Each engraving requires a week and a half of dedicated work, a testament to skill and patience on the part of the artisan.
L.U.C 1860 Flying Tourbillon
This elegantly styled yellow gold watch is the quintessence of classic watchmaking. It features a yellow gold dial, untouched by any treatment, displaying its natural hue—a warm, lustrous canvas for the hand-guilloche, basket-weave pattern at its centre.
Upon turning the watch over, you will see a thin protective cover engraved with a beehive motif. Unique to each of the 10 limited-edition pieces, the engraving positions bees randomly around the hive, symbolising individuality within a greater whole.
This motif dates back to Chopard’s roots when founder Louis-Ulysse Chopard adopted the bee as the brand’s first logo—a nod to industrious collaboration and enduring craftsmanship.
A showcase of its technical mastery lies beneath its refined exterior. As the only flying tourbillon certified as a chronometer with a frequency of 3.5 Hz and bearing the Poinçon de Genève, the calibre L.U.C 96.24-L is an absolute masterpiece of Swiss watchmaking. Drawing from the maison’s pioneering Twin Technology, the movement features dual barrels and a 22k gold micro-rotor that delivers a 65-hour power reserve.
A feat of engineering, the watch’s proportions are exceptional. At just 36.5mm in diameter and 8.2mm thick, it is the smallest flying tourbillon watch on the market—a marvel of miniaturisation that respects the legacy of Louis-Ulysse Chopard while pushing the boundaries of modern watchmaking.
