Rabbits illustrated by a master's hand.
In 1609, Shogun Tokugawa Ieyasu granted the Dutch East India Company permission to establish trade links with Japan. That's how Europeans began to encounter Japanese crafts, including Japanese lacquerware.
Japan would soon isolate itself from the rest of the world once again, but Europeans had already developed a passion for Urushi (Japanese lacquer). And it seems to have endured to this day. In the art of watchmaking, this lacquering technique is extensively applied by Chopard.
The company has chosen one master to create all the dials for their pieces in the limited edition watch series with Chinese zodiac signs and other pieces created using the Maki-e lacquer technique (sprinkling of gold-leaf dust onto wet lacquer). Minori Koizumi has been tasked with creating this year’s 88 dials for the L.U.C XP Urushi Year of the Rabbit.
The top Maki-e specialist at the workshops of Yamada Heiando has already mastered the ins and outs of working with watch dials: not only has the traditional wooden base for Japanese lacquerware been replaced by metal, the illustration also needs to be given volume without overstepping the strict boundaries set by the frame of the watch case.
Yamada Heiando, top Maki-e specialist
The novelties for this New Year's Eve feature two hopping rabbits under a full moon, which Chopard invites us to consider as symbols of peace and prosperity. The watchmakers sought to maximize the landscape by making the bezel very thin around the dial, which is coated in lacquer drawn from the sap of the Toxicodendron vernicifluum tree.
The rose gold used as the case material is "ethically" sourced. This means environmentally and socially responsible sourcing is ensured throughout the entire supply chain, monitored by Chopard.
The art of lacquering spread from China to Japan back in the 6th and 7th centuries, and master artisans elevated the craft to an unprecedented level. Chopard's novelties are where this art meets the achievements of Swiss engineering.
The rose-gold case measuring 39.5 mm in diameter and 6.8 mm in height houses the automatic L.U.C 96.17-L movement, itself measuring just 3.3 mm in height. This movement which debuted in 2015 implements Chopard Twin technology: two stacked and series-coupled winding barrels paired with a micro-rotor ensure a power reserve of 65 hours.