By Harlan Chapman-Green
Chopard’s prestigious Regulator watch is back, and it’s back in a big way.
In 2006 Chopard introduced a watch which used a regulator style language instead of the usual way. In case you weren’t aware, the regulator style splits the seconds, hours and minutes hands up and gives them their own subdials which not only looks elegant but is also enormously practical as it makes time reading at a glance much easier.
Another difference between this new version and the 2006 model is that now the watch has an 18k gold case instead of steel. There’s also a cleaner and more refined font on the dial than there used to be. Talking about the dial, there’s a total of 5 parts to it including a date window. In the dead centre of the watch is the (very) long minutes hand. This is the largest simply because it’s going to be the most useful of them all, if you’re usually hours late for meetings then owning this watch won’t make a difference. At 12 O’clock is the power reserve indicator which shows how many of the 216 hours are left in the reserve. At 3 O’clock is the hours indicator which uses a smaller version of the lume applied hand used to indicate the minutes. A point is raised about this watch that if you are at a formal function then you can use this to quickly check the hours as they will peek out from under your shirt cuff, as long as you wear the watch on your left wrist, but it seems that Chopard thought of this too as there’s a GMT hours sundial on the opposite side of the dial too. In between these two subdials is the small running seconds dial, which completes the look perfectly.
If you turn the watch over you can see some of the Chopard 98.02L calibre just peeking out from behind the polished anchorplate. This movement has been officially certified by COSC as a chronometer movement, so you can be sure it’s going to be very accurate. It’s got around 9 days of reserve in it and uses a Chopard technology called Quattro which primarily means that the movement can be super thin, 4.9mm thin to be exact. The case it’s housed in has a brushed side with a polished bezel and case back. It’s 9.8mm thick and is water-resistant to 50m, but at no point should you actually try and submerge it to that. In fact we recommend the only time you get it wet is when you’ve removed the hand sewn brown alligator leather strap and you’re cleaning it off.
The Chopard L.U.C. Regulator is a practical dress watch which runs for over a week without winding and is more accurate than most of the competition. It’s also practically laid out so you can get the right information you need at a glance. It’s a watch Chopard should be proud of.
For more info, please visit chopard.com
Case:
• 18ct rose gold
• Total diameter 43 mm
• Thickness 9.78 mm
• Water resistance 50 metres
• 18ct rose gold crown with L.U.C logo 6.50 mm
• Polished bezel
• Glareproofed sapphire crystal
• Exhibition back
Movement:
• Mechanical hand-wound movement L.U.C 98.02-L
• Total diameter 30.40 mm
• Thickness 4.90 mm
• Number of jewels 39
• Frequency 28,800 vph
• Power reserve 216 hours
• 4 barrels – Quattro® technology
• Bridges adorned with Côtes de Genève
• Chronometer-certified (COSC)
• Poinçon de Genève quality hallmark
Dial and hands:
• Sunburst satin-brushed silver-toned dial with black transfers
• Gilt dauphine-type hours and minutes hands
• Black triangular hand for small seconds, GMT and power-reserve indicator
Functions and displays:
• Central minutes display
• Hours display at 3 o’clock
• Small seconds display at 6 o‘clock, GMT function at 9 o’clock and power reserve at 12 o’clock
• Date window between 4 and 5 o’clock
Strap and buckle:
• Hand-sewn brown alligator leather with alligator leather lining
• 18ct rose gold pin buckle
Ref. 161971-5001 – In 18ct rose gold – sunburst satin-brushed silver-toned dial
Harlan Chapman-Green – Contributing Editor
First introduced to horology with the Patek Philippe Calibre 89 by his father few years ago, Harlan enjoys his passion for fine horology. He prefers to spend his time in the boutiques of upmarket brands, trying out new pieces constantly. His preferred 3 brands are A. Lange & Söhne, Breguet and Vacheron Constantin. Although not much for the smaller brands, he still finds the complications intriguing and wishes to own one watch from each of his three favourites. Read his articles here.
