A Crystal Clear Lucky Strike

JUDGES AT THE Grand Prix d' Horlogerie de Geneve (GPHG) literally could not believe their ears when they listened to Chopard's chiming timepiece, the LUC Full Strike. The sweet, crystal clear sound of the minute repeater so enthralled them that they awarded it with the watch industry's equivalent of an Oscar.

How they achieved this is not a big secret. Watchmakers have always known that crystal sapphire can help make a minute repeater tell the time loud and clear. That's what watchmakers at Chopard repeatedly told the boss when working out how to build Full Strike, which has a steel hammer striking sapphire instead of the usual steel or gold gongs.

"We asked which material we could use to improve the sound quality and volume and every time we concluded that sapphire crystal would be the right one," recalls the family-owned watch company's co-CEO Karl-Friedrich Scheufele.