Karl Friedrich, how are you, sir?
Karl-friedrich Scheufele
0:02 ↗
Very well. Thank you, Wade.
So, this is just for some context, this is the fourth time, no, third time we've met doing a presentation on the Grande Sonnerie, which is Karl Friedrich's new Grande Sonnerie using sapphire crystal gongs. So, I think we know the watch pretty well at this point, you know. In this way, we know the watch inside out. But, it's a pretty extraordinary timepiece, I have to say. So, first of all, big congratulations because this is like the summit of like 30 years of ceaseless technical innovation, pushing the boundaries of watchmaking, but always with a wonderful raison d'être, right? And I think that every timepiece that you put out has always had exactly that, a new benchmark in terms of performance. Let's go back to 2016 when you unveiled one of my favorite timepieces, which is the Full Strike, and it is the world's, the very first minute repeater with sapphire crystal gongs, which resulted in an extraordinary sound. Tell me about the inspiration for sapphire crystal gongs.
Karl-friedrich Scheufele
1:06 ↗
Well, when we set out to build our first minute repeater, we had already had our warm-up run with Strike One that came out in 2006, but which had, of course, a traditional gong made of steel. So, and we knew about the limitations and the fact that yes, you had to construct your case accordingly, but still you would not have the pleasure of hearing as much as we would have liked. And so, we were brainstorming around the table and, you know, saying what could we do, and we didn't want to build just another minute repeater. So, we came across the fact that we had these glasses on the table and somebody was banging a glass with a fork, and it made this beautiful sound that we all know when you make cheers, and it's what we call the crystal clear sound. And I said, 'Wow, this would be it if we could manage to reproduce this in a minute repeater.' And, well, glass, sapphire crystal, so on. We said, 'Well, we have to use the sapphire crystal one way or the other.' And if we connected it with the gong made of the same material, wouldn't that work? And, yeah, the rest is a long history then.
The movement of the watch is extraordinary looking, also because from the dial side, you see the entire strike train, because again, the gongs are made as one piece, monoblock with the actual glass or sapphire crystal of your timepiece. Now, what's very interesting about this, not only is this very visually enticing, but it actually reduces a great deal the characteristic of the... It greatly reduces the effect of the type of metal of the case in terms of the sound. I wouldn't say it eliminates it altogether because there's a sapphire crystal case that we've heard.
Karl-friedrich Scheufele
3:37 ↗
Some materials that tend to be a little better also in our case.
Right. But these are the materials that tend to be much worse in other cases, in traditional minute repeaters.
Karl-friedrich Scheufele
3:49 ↗
Yeah, for example, platinum. It's good. It's good, yes.
Wow. Yeah, because platinum traditionally with its density is not as resonant.
Karl-friedrich Scheufele
4:00 ↗
Because of the density, I think with ours, no sound gets lost. In this projection, it's been really projected out of that sound theory, but, you know, we have done quite a bit of scientific research with Geneva University for the past few years now, measuring different watches, different mechanisms, improving on the hammers, improving on the shape of the crystal gong and so on. And we are now going to embark on more detailed research about the materials still.
Really cool. I have to tell this story because it's one of my favorite stories. You found yourself in 2017 sitting on the jury of the GPHG because the year before, you already won for the Ferdinand Berthoud FB 1.
Karl-friedrich Scheufele
4:57 ↗
Yeah, the first Ferdinand Berthoud.
All right. And the rule is the person that wins the Aiguille d'Or then joins the jury. So, you're at the table on the jury, and there's a discussion about which timepiece should win the Aiguille d'Or. And more and more people start putting forth the Chopard L.U.C. Full Strike, your own minute repeater. So, what did you do?
Karl-friedrich Scheufele
5:17 ↗
Well, I thought that at this moment in time, my place was no longer in the room. And I suggested that I should leave and let the jury members decide on their own. And then I was very much surprised when I was called upon at the very end of the prize giving.
Fantastic. Yeah, for the Aiguille d'Or, yeah. And you have the unique position to be the person that has won back-to-back for two different brands, both under your leadership. I find that rather remarkable. And I have to tell this story because, you know, Nick Foulkes loves this story as well and always uses it as an example of your incredible humility in these matters. So, let's now fast forward from 2016 with the presentation of the L.U.C. Full Strike to 2025, the end of 2025, here in Dubai, and we now have your first Grande Sonnerie using sapphire crystal gongs. And I have to say, the sound of this timepiece is extraordinary. But, let's explain to the audience, just in case they're not completely aware, what a Grande Sonnerie is.
Karl-friedrich Scheufele
6:30 ↗
Well, a Grande Sonnerie does not strike on demand as the minute repeater does, but it strikes all on by itself. Here we go. Every 15 minutes.
And in this case, I'm on the G setting, which means Grande Sonnerie, which means that every 15 minutes, the watch will strike the hours and a double gong for the 15 minutes, double gong for 30 minutes, and so on. Triple double for the triple. And Petite Sonnerie just simply strikes the hour and the 15 minutes each time, and basically, the watch will do that for an entire day if you wind the barrel completely.
Karl-friedrich Scheufele
7:50 ↗
Which was a challenge for us. That was what we had set out to do, and we managed to optimize the consumption of energy to a point that we've reached the 24 hours basically. Yes, I think it was important to be able to reach a full day in Grande Sonnerie mode.
Now, what's really interesting to me is that this is, I'm pretty sure from a historical perspective, the very first Grande Sonnerie that is COSC certified. COSC certification is external certification by the biggest governing body for that test in Switzerland, Contrôle Officiel Suisse de Chronométrie, which any watch that has a seconds hand in Chopard L.U.C. or even a tourbillon where a second hand is fixed to the cage will be tested to receive the certification.
Karl-friedrich Scheufele
8:47 ↗
And is eligible to receive.
Yeah. And so, but why would a timepiece where it's about emotion, the musicality of it, why did... And incidentally, this watch also has a tourbillon. Why actually, not just a tourbillon, a stop second tourbillon. Why did you feel it was important to also have an underlying certification for its chronometric performance?
Karl-friedrich Scheufele
9:09 ↗
Well, you know, we are looking upon almost 30 years of L.U.C. watches. And in the very beginning, we said every L.U.C. watch that has a second hand must be chronometer certified by the COSC, by the independent institution. And no exception is made here for the Grande Sonnerie. And luckily, we have two barrels, so we have a barrel which really is there for showing the time, and the other barrel for obviously the striking mechanism. But the test has been performed under more stress, I would say, because we certified the watch with the petite sonnerie selected, which can create variations in energy demand and supply, if you wish.
Well, apparently the petite sonnerie mode is the toughest to pass in because there's the greatest variation because the hours get suppressed.
Exactly. Yeah. And so we made it a little bit more challenging.
And that's it. I love it. So on top of that, the grand strike is Geneva Seal.
Or it receives the Poinçon de Genève for its lovely finishing, which means every part is finished according to the criteria, but also finished regardless of if you see it or not.
Yes. Regardless. [Laughter] You know, for the Poinçon de Genève, I may want to add, we have to individually pass every component out of the 686. And every component is finished in the same beautiful way, whether you see it from all sides or only from the front or if you don't see it at all.
Wow. So another thing that's really impressive about this watch is that it's in an actually very wearable size. I want to take the production piece and just show you on my wrist. So the diameter is 43 mm and the height is 14 mm.
