The thirteenth edition of Chopard's yearly tribute to Mexico's Day of the Dead pairs a sapphire-gong minute repeater with a skull in straw and eggshell marquetry.
For thirteen years, Chopard has made a special edition every year for Día de Muertos, the Mexican celebration held on 1 and 2 November, when families remember their dead with home altars, marigolds and decorated skulls. Recent editions have been based on the L.U.C Full Strike, the minute repeater in the brand's haute horlogerie collection, and the technique has changed from one year to the next: in 2021 the skull was champlevé enamel with a blue-lacquered cranium, and in 2024 it was stone marquetry. In 2022, Chopard presented that year's unique piece at the Salón Internacional Alta Relojería (SIAR) in Mexico City, together with the L.U.C Skull One Calavera Pop Art, a 25-piece series, and a one-off L.U.C Quattro Spirit 25 with a skull engraved on its dial.
Edition 13, reference 161947-5007, was unveiled from 16 to 18 October at WatchTime New York, the show organised by WatchTime magazine. It is again a unique piece, in rose gold, and its skull is made in marquetry, the technique of building a picture from small fragments of material laid side by side. Two materials are used here: rye straw, and eggshell, which Chopard is using for the first time.
Technical Specs
| Reference | 161947-5007, unique piece |
| Case | 18-carat ethical rose gold, hand-engraved bezel, caseband, lugs, crown and caseback; 42.5 mm diameter, 11.55 mm thick |
| Crystal and back | Anti-reflective sapphire with engraved minute track; sapphire caseback |
| Water resistance | Splash-proof |
| Dial | Hand-engraved, satin-finished 18-carat ethical rose gold base; skull in blue rye-straw and eggshell marquetry over black lacquer; hand-engraved gold moustache with raised L.U.Chopard logo |
| Hands | Gilded hours and minutes; two power reserve indicators at 2 o'clock |
| Caliber | In-house L.U.C 08.01-L, hand-wound; minute repeater with sapphire gongs; 533 components, 63 jewels; 4 Hz (28,800 vph); 60-hour power reserve; Poinçon de Genève |
| Strap | Hand-sewn cognac alligator; hand-engraved rose gold folding clasp |
| Price | Not published by Chopard; USD 575,000 according to Bloomberg Línea and A Timely Perspective |
Straw and eggshell
The straw, from rye grown in France and coloured a deep blue, makes up the skull in more than 70 fragments. An artisan splits them into thin strips, shapes them and sets them one at a time, and the dial is lacquered and polished once the figure is complete. Eggshell forms the teeth and the eye sockets over a black-lacquer ground; the fragments sit closer together towards the rim of each socket, so the white grows stronger towards the outside. Above the skull sits a gold moustache, engraved by hand and carrying the L.U.Chopard logo in relief, and the minutes scale is cut into the sapphire crystal instead of appearing on the dial.
The rose gold case has a hand-engraved bezel, caseband, lugs, crown and caseback, and the clasp of the strap is engraved as well.
Sapphire gongs
A minute repeater sounds the time when its mechanism is activated: low strikes for the hours, a two-tone sequence for the quarters and high strikes for the minutes elapsed since the last quarter. In most watches with this complication, the hammers strike steel gongs placed around the movement. In the L.U.C Full Strike, introduced in 2016, the gongs and the crystal are cut from a single block of sapphire, a solution Chopard has patented: because they are one piece, the crystal vibrates with the gongs and works as a sounding board. The following year, the rose gold L.U.C Full Strike won the Aiguille d'Or, the top prize at the 2017 Grand Prix d'Horlogerie de Genève.
The L.U.C 08.01-L was the first minute repeater calibre Chopard developed entirely in its own manufacture. It is hand-wound and brings together five patented innovations, among them a system that keeps the chiming sequence from being cut short once it begins. In this edition, the hammers and other parts of the repeater have a blue treatment that matches the straw on the dial and can be seen through the sapphire caseback. The calibre also carries the Poinçon de Genève, a hallmark of origin and finishing quality awarded by the canton of Geneva.
Price on request
Chopard does not publish the price of this unique piece on its website and directs enquiries to its boutiques and its official site.
A skull of straw and eggshell
Edition 13 is the first in the series, and the first Chopard watch, with eggshell marquetry. Its dial combines that material with the blue straw, the black lacquer and the engraved gold base, and according to Bloomberg Línea a single artisan spent about 160 hours finishing it.
Beneath that dial, the watch keeps the calibre of the minute repeater with which Chopard won the Aiguille d'Or in 2017, and by presenting it two weeks before 1 and 2 November the brand continues, for a thirteenth year, its edition dedicated to the Day of the Dead.
