Starting with the "LUC 1.96," Chopard established itself as a luxury mechanical watch brand. [Swiss Time Travel - Reminiscing the 90s]

Journalist Shigeru Sugawara, who has been covering the watch industry for over 30 years, writes a series on webChronos titled "Swiss Time Travel: Reminiscing on the 1990s." The sixth installment focuses on Chopard. With photographs taken by Sugawara, we look back at the process of Chopard's rebranding, from the release of the "LUC 1.96" at a time when the term "manufacture" had yet to take hold in the watch industry, to the rebranding of the brand's image as "Chopard with genuine mechanical movements."

Chopard's in-house movement development has redefined its brand image

　Chopard currently offers a wide variety of models centered around its in-house "LUC" movement, unrivaled in performance and quality. Next year marks the 30th anniversary of the launch of the "LUC 1.96," the brand's founding movement. While Chopard's history is relatively short, ambitious development has undeniably made it one of the leading manufacturers of Swiss luxury watches. However, at least prior to the launch of LUC, Chopard was generally perceived as a jewelry brand that also made watches, rather than a watch manufacturer. I've been familiar with Chopard since the 1980s, when I was an editor for a jewelry magazine, and I often featured the brand's iconic "Happy Diamonds" women's watch, which has been a staple of the brand since the 1970s. Meanwhile, the only men's watch brand known was the "Mille Miglia," a classic car race held in Italy. This situation continued into the 1990s.

Discover the in-house movement LUC 1.96 at Basel Fair 96

　In 1996, my third year covering the trade fair, I visited Chopard at the Basel Fair watch fair. My magazine featured the Mille Miglia 1996, a quartz chronograph capable of measuring to within 1/100th of a second; the Happy Sport Chronograph jewelry watch; the Tonneau (1993 model) equipped with a Frédéric Piguet movement; and the limited edition José Carreras watch, created to raise money for the Leukemia Relief Fund. It was during this visit that I first met Karl-Friedrich Scheufele, then vice president of the company, who showed us a movement developed in-house. It bore the "LUC" prefix, named after the company's founder, Louis-Ulysse Chopard, followed by the numerals representing the first watch, released in 1996. The name, "LUC 1.96," was a nod to the company's founder, Louis-Ulysse Chopard.

　I still vividly remember Scheufele's enthusiastic attitude as he picked up the movement and explained its high-precision, COSC-certified chronometer, Geneva Seal, twin barrels, micro-rotor automatic winding, and approximately 65 hours of power reserve. In a later interview, Scheufele revealed that in the early 1990s, when he approached his father, Karl Scheufele III, then president of the company, about developing an in-house movement with the aim of creating a truly mechanical Chopard, he was vehemently opposed, saying, "There's no need to incur the enormous expense of developing an in-house movement. We can simply purchase it from a Swiss movement manufacturer." He persisted, patiently explaining the importance of creating an in-house movement and reviving Chopard's tradition with mechanical watches.

An unexpected turn of events in the Swiss watch industry

　The 1990s saw the full-scale revival of mechanical watches, which had begun in the late 1980s. Swiss manufacturers competed to produce traditional models, especially in the luxury watch sector. However, even prestigious, well-established brands often sourced mechanical base movements, chronograph movements, and even complex mechanisms from specialized manufacturers. Popular examples included Jaeger-LeCoultre, Frédéric Piguet (now Blancpain), and Nouvelle Lemania (now Breguet). Mid-range models predominantly used ETA general-purpose movements. At a time when the number of mechanical movements that could be said to be entirely in-house, from design to manufacturing, was considered to be counted on one hand, Chopard, a women's jewelry brand, embarking on the development of its own movement, especially an extremely high-spec luxury mechanical movement, was not only unusual but also perhaps unexpected, even within the Swiss watch industry.

Visit Chopard Manufacture

　Chopard completed the LUC 1.96 after three years of research and development, starting with the concept in the early 1990s, and established a movement manufacturing facility in Fleurier, Switzerland in January 1996, naming it Chopard Manufacture. I recall that the term "manufacture," which refers to a special manufacturer that produces everything in-house, from movements onwards, didn't really come into common use until around 2000, but Chopard declared itself a manufacture early on.

　The following April, 1997, I decided to take a trip to the Chopard Manufacture in Fleurier before seeing the long-awaited first model at the Basel Fair '97. That year, the SIHH (International Exhibition of Haute Horlogerie, Geneva Salon) was held before the Basel Fair '97, and after finishing my coverage of Cartier, I made a round trip from Geneva to Fleurier. This time, I was again unaccompanied by a brand representative; instead, I rented a car and drove on my own, relying on a map. Located in the Val-de-Travers region of the Jura Mountains, Fleurier is about 100km from Geneva in a crow flies. Leaving Geneva, I passed through Lausanne, then entered the mountains from Yverdon, famous for its hot springs, and followed tranquil country roads until I arrived at 3 p.m.

Combining high technology with traditional craftsmanship

　The workshop was located in a small building in front of the station. My guide was Jean-Frédéric Dufour, the workshop's director. His name will likely ring a bell. He was involved in the LUC development project, then became CEO of Zenith, driving brand reform, and has been serving as CEO of Rolex since 2015. He's one of the most important figures in the Swiss watch industry. His resume states he was born in 1967, making him around 30 years old at the time. A science major with a degree in science and engineering from the University of Geneva, he emphasized that the workshop's distinctive feature is its use of computer-aided design and CNC machine-assisted component manufacturing to create traditional mechanical movements. He emphasized the importance of utilizing high technology at the component level, while relying on skilled craftsmanship for finishing and assembly.

The achievements of key players

　Just over a year after its establishment, the workshop employed around 20 people. The key watchmaker involved in the development of the LUC was Daniel Bolognesi, a veteran with a 15-year career at Patek Philippe and other companies. I had the opportunity to meet him many times, and he was a personable person who patiently answered any technical questions. According to Dufour, the LUC development project was supported by Michel Parmigiani, a watchmaker also based in Fleurier. Later, I learned that Parmigiani's involvement in the Chopard Manufacture project was what inspired him to found his own brand in 1996. Perhaps it was no coincidence that Chopard established its movement workshop here in Fleurier rather than at its headquarters in Geneva. Incidentally, the strict quality standard "Qualité Fleurier" certification is well-known for being established through collaborations between Chopard, Parmigiani Fleurier, and Bovet.

　In 2006, ten years after the release of the LUC 1.96 movement, I visited Chopard's Geneva headquarters and the Fleurier workshop for interviews and photography in connection with the production of a brand book titled "KIZUNA," a project for my import agent at the time. I visited both locations several times over the intervening decade, and was particularly surprised by the significant expansion in scale, machinery, and personnel at the Fleurier manufacture after the entire building became Chopard's property. Looking back on that time, I always think that the development of in-house movements solidified the brand's position as a luxury mechanical watch brand and that it is rare to see such a fundamental redesign of a brand's image.

Shigeru Sugawara's profile

Born in 1954. Watch journalist. In the 1980s, he covered France and Italy for fashion and jewelry magazines. Since the 1990s, he has focused on watches, covering the annual watch fair held in Switzerland for over 25 years. He has written and published numerous articles in watch magazines such as "Chronos Japan" and general magazines. He also translates books on watches.