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By repeating rituals to celebrate special moments, a tradition is born. That is also how every year since 2013, collectors and enthusiasts from the world of Haute Horlogerie look forward to the presentation of the piece created by Chopard Manufacture to celebrate the Chinese New Year through its mastery and motifs inspired by the zodiac calendar. Chinese according to the ancestral and perfectly preserved technique of Urushi lacquer. In this fashion that L.U.C. incorporates this year L.U.C. XP Urushi Year of the Tiger.
Like 2022, this limited series of 88 pieces pays homage to the tiger. It presents a dial of timeless elegance made by Japanese master lacquers, housed within an extra-flat case powered by the in-house LUC 96.17-L movement, an extraordinary feat of the watchmaking know-how from the artisans of Chopard Manufacture.
The Urushi technique of the Maki-e combines lacquer and gold dust to represent a scene full of symbolism, made in ethical 18-carat rose gold.
According to Chinese tradition, the year of the Water Tiger will begin on February 1, 2022, and end on January 21, 2023. Sign of the Earth and a recurring figure in Chinese artistic representations, the tiger has long been associated with the emperor and other dignitaries of the state. It symbolizes fortune, wisdom, intelligence, and creativity. It is, therefore, a decidedly optimistic zodiac sign, a sponsorship that Chopard has appropriated to achieve one of its most artistic creations to date.
In this astonishing piece, the savoir-faire of the Maison joins the best Japanese lacquer artisans to make spheres with the ancestral technique of Urushi lacquer. These were made in the workshops of the centenary company Yamada Heiando and executed by the Master Lacquerware Minori Koizumi, who has dedicated no less than 160 hours of meticulous work to this task.
The lacquer artisan’s attention focuses on each of the details of this scene to reveal all its realism and lyrical beauty. In this one, a tiger stands on a bay surrounded by cliffs against the background of a starry sky. Sharp claws and the face turned to the side to show strength and majesty. All done in the Maki-e technique, in which between the layers of lacquer obtained from the sap of the Toxicodendron vernicifluum tree, delicate sheets of gold illuminate the base.
Strength and delicacy
The ethical 18-carat rose gold case measures 39.5 mm in diameter, and its ultra-thin bezel offers maximum breadth to the dial, despite being a slimline watch at just 6.80 mm thick. Its delicacy is made possible by the exclusive L.U.C 96.17-L movement, solely to the manufacture at 3.30 mm thick. Despite its tiny dimensions, this movement is self-winding. It rests on a micro-rotor, a slim offset oscillating mass of 22-carat gold incorporated at the height of the caliber presents strong inertia that allows it to load the two barrels. Superimposed according to Chopard Twin technology, the barrels store the energy necessary for the L.U.C XP Urushi Year of the Tiger watch to offer a total power reserve of 65 hours. Once in place, it will stay on time and accurate for more than two and a half days, that is, the duration of a long weekend.
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