Launched in 2000 as his second major salvo over the landscape of modern horology, the Chopard L.U.C Quattro Reference 16/1863 was one of the very first wristwatches with a power reserve of eight days. Remarkably, Chopard co-president Karl-Friedrich Scheufele and his team accomplished this in a timepiece that was a mere 38mm in diameter and just 9.54mm in thickness. The watch, just like its predecessor from 1997, the legendary 1860, came with COSC chronometer certification and was a recipient of the Geneva Seal. The key to the Quattro’s 216 hours of power reserve comes from its four barrels, arranged in two stacked sets. The word “Quattro” comes from the Latin “quattuor” for “four.” The inspiration for using four barrels originally emerged during the design of the Caliber 1.96, which was the world’s first micro-rotor-driven movement that featured a pair of stacked barrels.

L. U. C. Quattro, Reference 16/1863 (Credit: Sotheby’s)

Says Scheufele, “Even though the 1.96 was a relatively thin and small movement, I wanted to have at least 70 hours of power reserve. Our solution to this was to use the stacked-barrel configuration. We saw how effective this technology was for the barrel in terms of enhancing power reserve and thought, what if we featured two stacks of barrels for a total of four barrels in series?”

Caliber 1.96 unveiled in 1996

The result was over one week of perfect power, served with no diminishment of ideal torque and consistent amplitude for the balance wheel. In the Quattro’s Caliber 1.98, these four barrels are coupled in series, and there is an intermediate wheel that links them together. Each barrel unwinds for its two-and-a-quarter days of power reserve, and stops before mainspring tension slackens to the point that torque becomes too weak. Think about it this way, it’s like when you have four people helping to shoulder a load and each person is able to give the best quality of his power before passing it to the next person. This reminds me a lot of the army exercise for Casualty Evacuation, or CASEVAC, which will be familiar to everyone who did National Service in the Singapore Armed Forces. If you have one wounded comrade and you try to carry him by yourself, your energy is finite and will soon be depleted and your forward momentum compromised. But if you have four people to split the load, you can continue at your ideal marching speed and transfer the load.

The Quattro Caliber 98.01-L, formerly Caliber 1.98 (©Revolution)

As implied by the Geneva Seal, the Quattro’s Caliber 1.98 is a beautifully finished movement. The two sets of barrels are covered by a large bridge that occupies about half of the movement’s visible architecture. A second bridge secures the gear train, including the escape wheel, distinguished by its gold shock absorber seated in a mirror-polished countersink at 6 o’clock. Engraved on this bridge is the Geneva Seal. The balance cock, with its stunning black-polished, steel swan-neck regulator completes the optically seductive triumvirate of elements. All three of these feature lavish Côtes de Genève beveling. Over the last quarter century, the Quattro has remained a stalwart fixture in the L.U.C family, going through different incarnations but all driven by the very same Caliber 1.98.

Through Chopard L.U.C Quattro Revolution Re-edition’s sapphire caseback, Caliber 98.01-L reveals its Côtes de Genève finishing, Geneva Seal and swan-neck regulator (©Revolution)

25 Years of the Chopard L.U.C Quattro

Last year, to mark the model’s 25th anniversary, Chopard L.U.C launched the Mark IV version of the timepiece, creating its most popular version to date. The watch featured an all-new “bassine” style case, which had debuted in the 2025 Lunar One perpetual calendar, characterized by an elegant concave bezel and an appealingly rounded mid case — hence the term “bassine,” which comes from the French word for “basin.” This design of the Quattro Mark IV also brought back the lost art of beautifully stylized soldered lugs, individually welded to the case to create a greater sense of architectural separation between the two elements.

Chopard L.U.C Quattro Mark IV in 18K rose gold (©Revolution)

The watch measured 39mm in diameter and 10.4mm in thickness, and its dial was a masterpiece of dynamic contrast. It was dynamically charged in visual intensity, thanks to its frosted pattern and, in the case of the platinum model, featured a wonderfully modern ice-blue color. Yet simultaneously, it was a work of reductionist calm, shifting the power reserve indicator for the full nine days of power to the back, at 12 o’clock on the barrel bridge. This left the watch’s subdial at 6 o’clock with its purposeful arrow-tipped date indicator, mounted co-axially to the watch’s continuous seconds, as the key visual leitmotif. The resulting timepiece was both a commercial and critical hit, making it to innumerable 2025 “Best of” lists as well as winning a finalist spot in the Grand Prix d’Horlogerie de Genève (GPHG)’s Men’s Watch category.

Says Karl-Friedrich Scheufele, “It meant a lot that a full 25 years after the introduction of the Quattro, this watch resonated so strongly with people and even buyers from the younger generation.”

The Chopard L.U.C Quattro Revolution Re-edition (left) alongside the Chopard L.U.C 1860 Revolution Edition (©Revolution)

The Quattro movement is also the base of the highly successful L.U.C Quattro Spirit 25 created for the 25th anniversary of Scheufele’s in-house manufacture in Fleurier, Switzerland. This combined eight days of power reserve with Chopard L.U.C’s first jump-hour display. The dial of this timepiece is a wonderful expression of Scheufele’s focus on preserving traditional artisanal crafts. It is created from grand feu enamel on a base of solid gold and is the watch I noticed Max Büsser wearing during one of our recent dinners.

The L.U.C Quattro Spirit 25 is Chopard’s first ever jumping-hour watch

He explained, “I’ve long admired Karl-Friedrich Scheufele and his dedication to the greatest integrity in watchmaking. Many years ago, he purchased one of my watches, and when I was in a position to ‘return the compliment,’ I did so with this [the Spirit 25 with the Quattro caliber as its base].”

Mr Karl-Friedrich Scheufele, co-president of Chopard

I am in total agreement. Since the creation of Chopard L.U.C in 1996 and the unveiling of its first timepiece, the L.U.C 1860, in 1997, no other individual has exhibited a greater dedication to authentic watchmaking than Karl-Friedrich Scheufele. In every watch he’s created — from the micro-rotor-driven 1860 in 1997, to the four-barreled, eight-day power reserve Quattro in 2000, to the eight-day power reserve tourbillon with COSC certification in 2003, to the GPHG Aiguille d’Or-winning Full Strike Minute Repeater with sapphire gongs in 2016, to last year’s Grand Strike, a COSC-certified grand et petite sonnerie with sapphire gongs and stop-seconds tourbillon — each time that Scheufele and L.U.C launched their expression of a complication, they also set an all-new performance benchmark in that category.

2003: Chopard L.U.C Tourbillon Quattro

2016: Chopard Full Strike Minute Repeater

 

2025: The latest Chopard L.U.C Grand Strike

Says watch historian and auctioneer extraordinaire Aurel Bacs, “The list of achievements represented by the near 30-year history of Chopard L.U.C is nothing less than amazing. The fact that Karl-Friedrich Scheufele has done all this and yet remains the very model of discretion and humility makes him a one-of-a-kind leader in our industry and the very epitome of a gentleman.”

 

Luxury in the Refined Details

 

Over the past seven years, I’ve had the amazing opportunity to collaborate with Karl-Friedrich Scheufele, his son Karl-Fritz and their team on a series of L.U.C watches. Our collaboration began primarily because I had been looking for an original 1997 L.U.C 1860 Ref. 16/1860 in white gold with a salmon dial and couldn’t find one. As I was telling Scheufele about my futile search, he and I agreed to collaborate on a small 10-piece series to resurrect this watch in its original incarnation. I’ll never forget the time when we were discussing the watch. We had agreed on everything except for the size. In the context of 2018, the watch’s original diameter of 36.5mm that we both wanted was considered quite small. We hesitated at potentially making it bigger. Christine Scheufele (Karl-Friedrich’s wife, as well as his sounding-board and partner in all things) listened to us. Then, when she spoke, her words were intoned with such wisdom and authority that one might have mistaken them for those of the Almighty’s.

Chopard L.U.C 1860 × The Rake & Revolution Limited Edition, released in 2018 (©Revolution)

 

She said, “Gentlemen, if you are going to do this, do it properly. Make the watch the correct diameter at 36.5mm.” One thing that Karl-Friedrich and I can agree on is that our wives are always right, and so we followed her advice to the letter. The result was a spectacular watch and its rapid uptake by collectors and the passionate response on social media demonstrated there was a tremendous following for the 1860.

 

Chopard L.U.C 1860 Flying T, Special Revolution, which measures 36.5 mm in diameter and 8.2 mm thick

We followed up in 2021 with the 1860 Flying T special edition of just five watches and, listening to Christine Scheufele’s advice, remained faithful to the model’s original diameter of 36.5mm. This timepiece remains the only micro-rotor-driven, automatic flying tourbillon with stop-seconds to combine the Geneva Seal and COSC certification on the planet. At just 8.2mm in thickness, .

 

In 2023, Chopard L.U.C launched the 1860 in steel for the first time — specifically the brand’s recycled Lucent Steel — combined with a salmon-colored gold dial. This also marked the first time that the date indicator was removed and a hacking function was added to the small seconds. By this time, Scheufele had acquired the legendary dial maker Metalem, which was responsible for the 1860’s dial from the very beginning, as well as the dials of other famous timepieces, such as Philippe Dufour’s Simplicity. While the dial of this new 1860 was similar to that of the original, closer inspection revealed a greater sense of depth and three-dimensionality in the guilloché, particularly in the “filet sautant” that surrounded the central pattern. The resulting watch is one of Chopard L.U.C’s greatest success stories — its restrained, nuanced beauty, incredible quality and classic proportions connected, in particular, with younger buyers and their prevailing ethos of “quiet luxury.”

 

Chopard L.U.C 1860 Revolution Edition

On the subject of nuanced restraint, one year later, Revolution had the honor of collaborating with Scheufele again on the most elemental version of the 1860 yet — this time with a Lucent Steel case but with the gold dial stripped of all coatings to reveal its true 3N yellow gold color that lies beneath. This watch is particularly meaningful to me because, during the filming of the Chopard episode of my Discovery Channel TV series, Man of the Hour, I gave one of the prototypes of this watch to Karl-Friedrich Scheufele while keeping the other for myself as a symbol of our friendship.

 

Karl-Friedrich Scheufele and Wei Koh in the Chopard episode of Man of the Hour (©Man of the Hour)

The Quattro Returns to Its Origins

 

Now, about a year before the launch of the stunning Mark IV Quattro in 2025, another idea began to coalesce in my clearly watch-addled and L.U.C-obsessed mind. So much so that in that hinterland between consciousness and sleep, I could almost see it emerging from the miasmic haze.

 

That was the resurrection of the very original Ref. 16/1863 Chopard L.U.C Quattro from 2000, now in the same stunning combination of Lucent Steel for the case, and pure untreated and unvarnished 3N yellow gold for the dial. It would have to be, of course in its very original dimensions of 38mm in diameter and 9.54mm in thickness. During the 2024 Watches and Wonders fair, I brought the topic up with Scheufele, who explained to me he was already working on the Mark IV version of the Quattro but felt there could be merit in revisiting the very original design of the timepiece from a quarter century ago. We were curious about how the designed had aged. Would it be like the 1860 that has grown even more relevant with the passing of time? We thought it might be. The answer became clear as the first prototype of the Chopard L.U.C Quattro Revolution Re-edition timepiece was shown to us by L.U.C’s head of fine watchmaking, Ken Koshiyama. Scheufele and I looked at each other and back at the watch. It was simply stunning to behold.

 

On the wrist, the Chopard L.U.C Quattro Revolution Re-edition’s 38mm × 9.54mm proportions feel just right — substantial without excess, exactly as Mr. Scheufele and Wei Koh intended (©Revolution)

 

Chopard L.U.C Quattro Revolution Re-edition (©Revolution)

One key distinction of the new watch was the elevation in quality of the Metalem dials. While the original dials already represented the very best in the industry at the time, Scheufele’s passion for safeguarding artisanal crafts had allowed the department in his factory that specializes in guilloché and vintage engine-turning machines to enhance their skill set and up their game. The solid 3N gold dial displayed amazing three-dimensional depth. Look at the “filet sautant” — the decorative circular line that separates the central guilloché pattern from the area where the kite-shaped, applied indexes with faceted, mirror-polished finish sit. This pattern reappears on either side of the chemin de fer for the minutes. The result is three luminous halos that radiate outward from the center of the dial, like transcendent ripples emerging from a pool of pure gold. As the original design meant the return of the power reserve indicator to 12 o’clock, a great deal of attention was paid to creating a maximum sense of depth in this element.

 

The “filet sautant” — the decorative circular line separating the central guilloché pattern — reappears on either side of the chemin de fer, creating three luminous halos across the dial (©Revolution)

One of my favorite details is the tiny three-dimensional hashmark that shows you have one day of power reserve left. It is rendered in such sharp relief and could only have been done by laser engraving. I love the fact that this dial is a combination of modern technology as well as centuries-old crafts like guilloché. At one point, we discussed using red to highlight this, but in the end we decided to let the incredible richness of the engine-turning and milling process, combined with this ultra cool laser-engraved detail, speak for themselves.

 

The movement of the Chopard L.U.C Quattro Revolution Re-edition features traditional finishing techniques alongside laser-engraved details (©Revolution)

Adding dynamic contrast to all the rich decorative technique is the aggressive velocity of the mirror-polished and faceted white gold dauphine-style hands as well as the white gold, arrow-tipped hands for the power reserve and date. It features one additional day of power reserve on the indicator for a total of nine days.

 

Limited to 20 numbered pieces. CHF 32,500 excluding taxes (©Revolution)

The Chopard L.U.C Quattro Revolution Re-edition will be made in just 20 examples with a price of CHF32,500 excluding taxes. As for whether this design has indeed become more relevant over the last quarter century, well, that, my friends, is up to you to tell me.

Tech Specs: Chopard L.U.C Quattro Revolution Re-edition

Movement Manual-winding Caliber 98.01-L; nine-day power reserve

Functions Hours, minutes, small seconds, date and power reserve

Case 38mm × 9.54mm; Lucent Steel; water resistant to 30m

Dial Guilloché main on pure, untreated 3N yellow gold; kite-shaped, applied hour markers

Strap Brown calfskin leather; Lug Width: 19mm; Buckle Width: 16mm

Price CHF32,500 excluding taxes

Availability Limited edition of 20 pieces