L.U.C 1860

Until the mid-1990s Chopard, despite being a historic watchmaking brand, relied mainly on movements supplied by third parties for its collections. Things changed in 1996, when the Scheufele family opened in Fleurier, in the heart of the Swiss Jura's watchmaking tradition, a manufacture dedicated to the in-house design and production of mechanical calibers, driven in particular by the vision of Karl-Friedrich Scheufele.

From this investment came, in 1997, the L.U.C collection — the initials of Louis-Ulysse Chopard, the brand's founder in 1860 — and with it the first automatic caliber entirely developed by the new manufacture: a micro-rotor movement, slim and finished according to the canons of high watchmaking, which was received by industry critics as one of the best manufacture debuts of the era. The model's name, "1860", directly recalls the year the company was founded in Sonvilier.

Since then the L.U.C family of calibers has evolved into numerous variants — including versions with extended power reserve, COSC chronometric certification and, on some executions, the prestigious Poinçon de Genève — while maintaining a constant design approach: compact case sizes and classic proportions, often hand-guilloché dials and transparent casebacks that allow the movement's refined finishing to be admired, in perfect continuity with the original 1997 project.