Chopard Alpine Eagle 41 XPS
Unveiled at Watches & Wonders 2023, the Chopard Alpine Eagle 41 XPS is fitted with the slender L.U.C 96.40-L movement, measuring just 3.30mm in height. This high-end calibre features sublime finishing and is equipped with a micro-rotor. Mark McArthur-Christie provides an overview of this new sports watch in his own unique style.
Simple is harder than complex
Given we’re talking about a mechanical watch – something that almost cussedly goes against the trend towards digital, automation and even artificial intelligence – it’s perhaps ironic that I’ve chosen to cite a statement made by the founder of Apple, Steve Jobs. However, his remarks could easily be applied to the latest Alpine Eagle model from Chopard:
Simple can be harder than complex: You have to work hard to get your thinking clean to make it simple. But it’s worth it in the end because once you get there, you can move mountains.
It looks as though Chopard’s designers and watchmakers have been thinking cleanly here. The new Alpine Eagle 41 XPS can trace its DNA to the original St Moritz, a design masterminded by Karl-Friedrich Scheufele back in the 80s.
Chopard Alpine Eagle
The Chopard Alpine Eagle 41 XPS is the latest incarnation of the Alpine Eagle, measuring just 8 mm in height. When compared with the classic Alpine Eagle Large model, the sides and bezel have been trimmed granting the dial more prominence. And the L.U.C 96.40-L mechanical self-winding movement is positively waif-like (maybe even ‘wafer-like’ at 3.3mm thick?). The whole thing works well as an ostensibly simple unit, but with a lot of complexity under the skin.
Lucent Steel™
In stark contrast to most modern digital technology, Chopard clearly has a desire to reduce the impact of its watches on the planet, summed up with its ‘sustainable luxury’ tagline. The XPS is, like many of the firm’s watches, encased in Lucent Steel™. It’s an alloy made from 80% recycled materials, selected by Chopard not just for its green credentials but also its anti-allergenic properties, its robustness and its downright shininess.
Lucent Steel™ was first used on an Alpine Eagle in 2019. The plan is that, by the end of this year, all Chopard steel watches, including their bracelets and cases, will include the same 80% recycled steel. By 2025 it’ll be a minimum of 90%. It’s good to see a firm actually making the words on the wall real.
That’s not to say you need to wear your Alpine Eagle 41 XPS under the cuff of your hair shirt. For all its enviro-credentials, this remains serious watchmaking.
L.U.C 96.40-L
Speaking of which, the L.U.C 96.40-L mechanical self-winding movement sitting inside the shiny Lucent steel case is based on the first calibre designed and made by the Chopard Manufacture in 1996, the L.U.C 96.01-L. Today, the 96.40-L is entirely developed, produced and assembled in the firm’s Haute Horlogerie workshops and is chronometer-certified by COSC.
Running at a frequency of 28,800 vibrations per hour (4 Hz), it has a 65-hour power reserve thanks to what Chopard calls ‘Twin Technology’, a system invented by the Maison that uses the power of two combined coaxial barrels. Motive power is provided by a 22-carat gold micro-rotor – a feature that means the rotor can snug down inside the movement’s profile, reducing its depth. Think about all of that for a second – this is a self-winding movement that’s just half a millimetre thicker than a pound coin and it’s running twin barrels and giving a 65-hour reserve.
Chronometer (COSC)
The movement’s accuracy is certified by the Official Swiss Chronometer Testing Institute, hence the ‘Chronometer’ inscription on the dial, positioned below the logo. Accuracy is helped along with movement features like the swan neck adjuster that means a watchmaker can adjust the hairspring fractionally. It adds to the movement’s aesthetic appeal too.
Poinçon de Genève
You’d expect a 29-jewel (that’s pretty much every bearing in the watch) Poinçon de Genève movement like this to be attractive, and the 96.40-L makes full use of anglage, graining and polishing. The clear sapphire caseback gives you the chance to enjoy it, too. Given the movement’s character, one only slightly tongue-in-cheek suggestion I’d offer to Chopard is to make an edition with a two-way bracelet. That would at least allow owners to wear their watch movement-side out. It’d be worth it.
Stamped on the back of the watch and on the main movement bridge, the ‘punch’ represents the coat-of-arms of the city of Geneva; a gold key. After the Alpine Eagle Flying Tourbillon, the Alpine Eagle 41 XPS is the second watch in the collection to bear this prestigious label of excellence. And above the Poinçon de Genève is an engraved eagle: a symbol recalling the original inspiration for the Alpine Eagle collection.
Dial
This is another small seconds movement from Chopard, the first emerged in 2022 with the release of the Alpine Eagle Flying Tourbillon, and it suits this latest watch well. It makes a clear contrast between the sub-seconds with its snailed surface and the main dial’s grained finish.
Presented in ‘Monte Rosa Pink’, the dial features a brass base and is textured. At first glance, the dial’s epidermis looks like a sunburst. In fact, the swirling line design is based on an eagle’s iris – presumably one of the eponymous varieties.
So many watches at this level are hard to read. Hands can be too thin or not sufficiently differentiated from the dial on which they sit. Yes, it’s a bit of an old giffer comment, but it’s good to see the Alpine Eagle’s gold hands being a cinch to read at a glance. They’re helped along in dark conditions by Grade X1 Super-LumiNova®, apparently 60% more luminous than traditional LumiNova and more resistant to ageing.
Despite the thinner movement and sub seconds you still get all the Alpine Eagle features: a round case with stylised flanks, a crown engraved with a compass rose, a bezel with eight functional screws set at a tangent, a stamped dial, luminescent indications and an eminently wearable metal bracelet.
Case
If one is of a slightly OCD bent, the hexagonal screws in hexagonal holes on some watches can be a little disturbing (at least until one realises the round-headed screws on the back do the turning). No such worries here; one can enjoy the bezel, screws and all. Even better, they have the function of snugging the elements of the case together, which helps the 100m water resistance along.
Making sure you keep your XPS on your wrist is a typically well-constructed integrated bracelet, tapering down from the lugs to a mere 20mm adjacent the concealed butterfly deployant clasp. Each link is cut from Lucent Steel™ and then polished – all done in-house. The links are held with a central stainless screw, so it’s simple to size and adjust, should you need to. The raised, polished centre link is a neat nod to the bracelets on the original St Moritz watches.
Sustainable horology
Typically Chopard, this new Alpine Eagle is very much evolution rather than anything that’ll scare the horses, at least on the surface. It all looks very simple. But as Mr Jobs said, simple is hard – and you can see that from the sheer watchmaking that’s gone into its remarkable and beautifully finished twin-barrelled movement. And surely, a mechanical watch is almost infinitely sustainable, right?
Further reading
Technical specification
- Model: Chopard Alpine Eagle 41 XPS in Lucent Steel™
- Reference: 298623-3001 – in Lucent Steel™ with Monte Rosa Pink dial
- Case: diameter 41mm, height 8mm, sapphire crystal to front and exhibition case back
- Functions: hours, minutes, small seconds, date, stop-seconds function
- Movement: self-winding movement, frequency 28,800 vph (4Hz), 29 jewels, power reserve 65 hours, certified chronometer (COSC)
- Price: £20,500 (RRP as of 15.5.2023)