This year, Revolution turns 20. Two decades of chronicling watches, people and ideas have given us a front-row seat to a remarkable story: how an age-old craft has both preserved its soul and reinvented itself for the 21st century. To celebrate, we’ve chosen over 100 names and milestones that, for us, define the era so far. From leaders to watches, you can see the whole list here.

Minute repeaters can be a bit temperamental — traditional, tricky and, sometimes, let’s face it, a bit disappointing when it comes to the sound. Then, in 2016, came Chopard’s L.U.C Full Strike, a minute repeater that broke the mold by ringing on a material no one expected: sapphire crystal. Instead of steel gongs, it uses transparent sapphire gongs fused with the watch’s crystal glass. The clear, bright chime sounded like a tiny fairy glass being clinked on your wrist.

The glass gongs of the Chopard L.U.C. Full Strike are seamlessly milled together from the same block of sapphire

There’s three snails in the Full Strike: A minute snail has four arms with fourteen teeth on each, the quarter snail has three teeth with the hour snail coming in with twelve teeth that move by one step each and every hour

Chopard took three years to develop the Full Strike, with multiple patents along the way to perfect the unique feat of sapphire gongs that could ring reliably without shattering. The result was clearly impressive — the Full Strike won the top prize, the Aiguille d’Or, at the 2017 Grand Prix d’Horlogerie de Genève.

Chopard’s Full Strike stands out in the history of chiming watches by bringing together old-world craftsmanship, such as hand finishing and traditional tuning of chimes, with the novelty of a very modern material. It demonstrated that even in a complication first perfected in the 1700s, there was room to push boundaries — the sound of mechanical watchmaking never sounded so clear.

Chopard L.U.C Full Strike

The manual winding L.U.C Caliber 08.01-L

And unlike many grande complications, at 42.5mm, the Full Strike was designed for daily wear rather than being just a chonky statement packed with horological achievements. The star of the show, the repeater, is activated via a pusher integrated into the crown — a clever ergonomic touch that adds to the wearability of the watch. The dial side reveals the intricacy: hammers (shaped like little bells) are visible at 10 o’clock, poised to hit invisible gongs. A double power reserve indicator keeps tabs on both the timekeeping mainspring and the separate repeater spring barrel. Winding in one direction charges the watch, and in the other direction arms the repeater.

Tech Specs: Chopard L.U.C Full Strike

Movement: Manual winding L.U.C Caliber 08.01-L; 60-hour power reserve
Functions: Hours, minutes and small seconds; minute repeater with sapphire crystal gongs (hours, quarters, minutes chiming on two tones); dual power reserve display
Case: 42.5mm × 11.5mm; 950 platinum
Dial: Open-worked with visible minute repeater mechanism; gold with galvanized gray-blue base
Strap: Hand-stitched blue alligator leather; platinum folding clasp