By Harlan Chapman-Green
You may remember some time ago we presented you with a hands-on of the brand new L.U.C Chopard GMT One watch, perhaps my favourite release of this year alongside the new Type XXI from Breguet (that’s big praise in my head at least). If you paid attention to some of the photos you may have noticed that the GMT One wasn’t actually the only watch there. The group shots allowed us to give a sneak peek of the watch we present to you today, the Time Traveller One. It is perhaps a little embarrassing that I swooned over the GMT quite a bit, but don’t panic because there is an upside to this new collection L.U.C Chopard which will be revealed in time.
I couldn’t wait. Perhaps the best part of the collection is that the case on the Time Traveller One watch has the same footprint as the GMT watch and the mass on the wrist is pretty similar too for the gold versions. Even the crowns are in the same places as well, where one controls the movement and the hands of the watch while the other moves the city ring around one step. This is a good method of ensuring control of expenditures and more importantly keeping a design unity of the watches within the range and any future models. The twin crown design would allow them to make a twin timezone watch that differs from the GMT, or they could put their knowledge to the test and design an alarm watch that still uses the two crowns made of 18K white gold.
In terms of the actual world time complication itself, it does pretty much what you’d ask of it. The hands advance smoothly and the cities are nice and legible around the outside of the dial. When you actually advance the ring itself you’ll notice there’s a little bit of give in the mechanism and the click from the ring when it slots into the next position isn’t as precise as some other watches I’ve experienced in the past. Nevertheless, it was definitely a good idea to keep the uniformity and simplicity with a crown operated system rather than opting for a pusher mechanism which would make the watch appear asymmetrical, overcomplicated to work on and frankly too fiddly for something that’s supposed to be used on the fly. Isn’t it just nice to have something there to play with that doesn’t interrupt the movement? Even if you never explicitly use the time zone feature, you can always have a bit of fun moving it around whenever you find yourself a little lost on how to stay entertained, and there’s nothing wrong with that.
The movement inside the watch doesn’t disappoint, either, the L.U.C 01.05L calibre features the same basic construction as the L.U.C 01.10L movement found in the GMT One watch, with the added complication of the world timer function. That means you’ll still get 60 hours from the barrels at 4Hz and, more importantly, the COSC chronometer rating. The decoration on the watch will definitely inspire those who are fans of minimalism, if you’re expecting ivy motifs or some such you’ll be mistaken. The rotor swings freely but doesn’t appear to have a wobble to it, showing the care and attention that has gone into it. Perhaps it would be nice to see a gold rotor on the gold watches and a platinum one on the white metal watches, but in the end, it’s not that big of a deal and the movement does look charming anyway.
At this point, I would like to step back from the watch for a minute and talk a bit about the Chopard website. It’s from there you can do more than just flick through all of the pretty pictures in the catalogue (there are a lot, believe me, I checked). You can also buy from them, but not just any watch that anyone else can get. If you know your wrist size then Chopard will happily change the strap dimensions for you too, if you’re unsure there’s also a size guide to help you out. I did notice if you change the E-Shop from UK settings to USA you have to request to purchase the Time Traveller One, not something the UK website has.
The sad thing is that there will always be a downside, luckily it’s not the actual watch itself that has any kind of mechanical faults or anything like that, they were perfect when we tested them out. It’s more to do with the fact there is no steel version so it’s going to get a little pricy here. The platinum watch is $35,200, if you’re a fan of warmer metals and wanted 18K rose gold instead you’ll find it’s only (he says only) $22,500. You do get the same flawless strap as well with alligator leather on both sides for comfort and durability. I wish there was a little bit of decoration on the movement, if I had to ask for something. Particularly on the platinum time traveller, while continuity in a collection is key it’s nice to know that someone has spent some extra time pouring over each bit in the watch to make it super special, just for you. For more info, please visit chopard.com
