Chopard Brings the L.U.C Full Strike Back in Sapphire, for a Second Time
The transparent minute repeater returns in a second limited edition
Ten years after the L.U.C Full Strike first appeared, Chopard is releasing the Full Strike Sapphire Edition 2 — the second minute repeater from the collection built entirely from sapphire crystal. Chopard will make five pieces, each with a case, crown, and dial cut from lab-grown corundum, while the caliber 08.01-L inside receives a rose-gold PVD treatment on its bridges and mainplate. The real difference from the original Sapphire model isn’t in the construction — it’s in the color of the movement now on full display.
The underlying technology hasn’t changed since Chopard Manufacture Fleurier rewrote the rules for minute repeaters in 2016: Chopard machines the gongs and crystal from a single block of sapphire, with no screws, solder, or adhesive holding them together. The crystal itself becomes the resonator, sending vibrations directly into the air — an approach that earned the Aiguille d’Or, the top prize at the Grand Prix d’Horlogerie de Genève, in 2017, and one that Chopard carried forward in its 2022 “Sound of Eternity” series.
That the brand is returning to an all-sapphire construction now is telling. This year marks the 30th anniversary of Chopard Manufacture Fleurier, and the L.U.C Grand Strike — the most complex watch the manufacture has ever built, 10 patents deep and more than 11,000 hours in development — already anchors that milestone. The Sapphire Edition 2 is the smaller, but far more visible, showcase of the same acoustic expertise.
A Case with Nothing to Hide
At 42.5mm across and 11.55mm thick, the case sits squarely within the range you’d expect for a repeater built to show off its own movement. What stands out is how far Chopard takes the material concept: it’s not just the caseband, bezel, and caseback that are sapphire — the crown, complete with its integrated striking pusher, and the openworked dial are cut from the same crystal. Sapphire’s hardness of 9 on the Mohs scale isn’t just about scratch resistance here; it’s what makes the transparency possible in the first place. Nothing blocks the view of the 533 components inside, from the front or back.
Chopard hasn’t sacrificed legibility for the sake of the display. A minute track is engraved directly into the crystal and framed by rhodium-plated, chevron-shaped hour markers. A concentric power reserve indicator at 2 o’clock splits the readout between the watch’s running power and the strikework’s — a distinction that actually matters on a repeater, where the chiming mechanism draws from its own separate reserve rather than serving as a purely decorative display.
Hand-Wound, with Patented Regulation
The caliber 08.01-L is a hand-wound movement measuring 37.2mm across and 7.97mm thick. It runs at 28,800 vibrations per hour and offers a 60-hour power reserve. A dedicated barrel powers the strikework alone, keeping the energy for the chime separate from the energy driving the timekeeping — standard practice on a repeater, but worth noting given how much Chopard asks of this movement. What’s more interesting than the spec sheet is how the movement controls the striking sequence. A patented system that shortens the silent gaps between chimes works in tandem with an inertial governor that keeps the tempo of the strikework steady, regardless of how complex the sequence becomes. Chopard also cites additional patents still pending: a ratchet-drive mechanism designed to eliminate dead intervals in the chiming sequence and an activation system built to protect the strikework from being triggered incorrectly through the pusher.
The movement carries both COSC chronometer certification and the Geneva Seal. COSC tests the uncased movement over 15 days in five positions and three temperature ranges, requiring a daily rate of –4 to +6 seconds. The Geneva Seal goes beyond timekeeping to require that assembly, adjustment, and casing all take place within the Canton of Geneva. Holding both certifications on a complication like this isn’t something you see often, even at this end of the market.
Chopard L.U.C Full Strike Sapphire Edition 2
Chopard
Look and Feel: Rose Gold as the Distinguishing Detail
The real difference from the first Sapphire Edition comes down to the PVD treatment on the bridges and mainplate, now finished in 5N rose gold and paired with Côtes de Genève striping and a balance spring with a Phillips terminal curve. Where the original execution showed the movement in its base metallic tone, Edition 2 pushes the entire visual register warmer — a change that has less to do with the construction than with how the materials read. On a fully transparent case, however, that shift in tone does much of the work in shaping how the watch is perceived.
On the dial side, an applied logo plaque in 18-karat white gold with black transfers gives the eye a fixed point amid the openworked construction. The dauphine-fusée hour and minute hands, along with the baton-style small seconds hand at 6 o’clock, are rhodium-plated. The hand-stitched gray alligator strap has a matching gray lining and closes with a folding buckle in polished and satin-brushed, ethically certified 18-karat white gold, rounding out the package.
Where It Lands
At five pieces, the L.U.C Full Strike Sapphire Edition 2 isn’t chasing volume — it’s making a technical statement. For Chopard, this isn’t so much a new design as a continuation of what the manufacture has been building since the first Full Strike appeared in 2016: the monobloc sapphire system as its core acoustic technology, now backed by additional patents governing how the strikework is regulated.
Reference 168604-9003, then, reads less as a fresh complication than as an updated edition — the same architecture with a new movement color — of a design that’s already collected its share of accolades. Price is available upon request.
