Chopard adds a 44mm two-tone chronograph to its high-flying Alpine Eagle collection and, in a collection premiere, attaches the watch to a leather strap.
Previously available in Chopard’s own Lucent Steel alloy and/or cased in ethical rose gold, the sporty Alpine Eagle XL Chrono range now includes this model newly and luxuriously cased in ethical rose gold and a ceramic/ titanium alloy.
Like all of the Alpine Eagle models, the dial here retains a radiant pattern meant to evoke the iris of an eagle. But the darker version visible on this new edition is a reference to the “intense black of mountain nights when wildlife reclaims its rights,” according to Chopard’s Co-President and creator of the collection, Karl-Friedrich Scheufele.
The new chronograph maintains the collection’s fairly sleek profile, which here means the chronograph pushers are integrated on either side of a protective bumper adjacent to the crown.
The dial is easy to read. Its black counters for the 30-minute, small seconds, and 12-hour indications are nicely proportioned. For those measuring average speed times, the tachymeter is clearly graduated and the chronograph seconds hand is tipped with red.
Beneath the dial of the new Alpine Eagle XL Chrono model, Chopard fits its excellent 03.05-C flyback chronograph movement with column-wheel and vertical clutch, an in-house design featuring COSC-chronometer-certified operation, and three patents. (See specifications below for details regarding the patents).
As noted earlier, this new Alpine Eagle XL Chrono is the collection’s first series-produced timepiece with a black calf leather strap. Previously, only the Alpine Eagle XL Chrono created for the recent Only Watch charity auction included a leather strap. Here, the strap features hints of red bridle stitching to echo the dial’s red accents.
Price: $34,500.
Specifications: Chopard Alpine Eagle XL Chrono
Case: 44mm x 13.15mm ethical rose gold and ceramized titanium. Pushers in vertical satin-brushed rose gold with polished chamfers, crown guards in bead-blasted ceramized titanium, case band in ethical rose gold, bezel in ethical rose gold with eight screws set at a tangent. Water-resistant to 100 meters.
Movement: Chopard 03.05-C column-wheel chronometer-certified (COSC) chronograph with integrated construction.
Annular balance with balance-spring featuring a flat terminal curve patented chronograph zero-resetting system with pivoting hammers and elastic arm, patented seconds hand zero-resetting system, patented vertical coupling clutch. Open-worked ethical 22-karat rose gold central rotor.
Dial: Brass dial stamped with a sunburst pitch-black motif achieved by galvanic treatment and inspired by an eagle’s iris.
Black counters with white transfers (and gilded surrounds for chronograph counters), applied gilded numerals and hour-markers enhanced with Grade X1 SuperLumiNova, black inner bezel ring, and chronograph counters, gilded baton-type hours, and minutes hands enhanced with Grade X1 SuperLumiNova. Gilded, red-tipped arrow-type seconds hand with eagle feather counterweight, gilded, red-tipped chronograph counter hands.
Strap: Black calfskin with red bridle stitching and gilded titanium inlay, pin buckle in engraved bead-blasted ceramized titanium.
Image Source: Time & Tide Watches
