The three latest Chopard L.U.C Lunar One Perpetual Calendar watches mark the arrival of what is only the third generation of Lunar One Perpetual watches by Chopard. That, however, is not to say this collection wasn’t close to the brand’s heart: It has been a steady member of its more detailed and high-end L.U.C collection ever since it debuted as the brand’s first-ever in-house complication. The 20th anniversary brings with it a familiar module and size, a mighty dial, a flying tourbillon option, and price tags to match.

Left to right, above, you see the original L.U.C Lunar One from 2005 in a 40.5mm wide case, with two gigantic Roman numerals in true mid-2000s luxury watch vibes (a closer look at its details and proportions reveals just how much thought and intent Chopard had put into the reference that would debut its first in-house complication). In the middle, the 2012 update penned by Guy Bove that grew to 43mm wide. To the right is the 2025 update that returns to the original’s 40.5mm diameter, in tune with the latest changes and developments in taste, just as the large watch trend has turned.

Left to right, above, the three pieces that debut simultaneously in 2025. These are the Chopard L.U.C Lunar One Perpetual Calendar in 18k ethical white gold with a salmon pink dial (Chopard reference 161951-1002), the Chopard L.U.C Lunar One Perpetual T in 18k yellow gold with a green dial, and the Chopard L.U.C Lunar One Perpetual Calendar in 18k ethical rose gold with a galvanic blue dial (Chopard reference 161951-5001). Here are what Doug DeMuro would call their “quirks and features.”

First, the dial. The dial on all three versions of the new Chopard L.U.C Lunar One Perpetual watches is crafted from some variant of solid 18k gold. What’s especially neat is that Chopard left out a couple of little areas where the original alloy of the precious metal can be discovered: the frame of the “digital” date window was filed away — apparently by hand, judging from those inner corners — and so you will see white gold, yellow gold, or rose gold contrasting against the galvanic treatment-colorized top. Likewise, the edges of the 3 and 9 o’clock subdial frames have also been machined away and polished, once again revealing the precious base.

I especially like the barely visible horizontal groove (with painted black dashes) that separates the day and night halves of the 24-hour display at 9 o’clock — this is the sort of stuff that can take months of ownership before one finally notices with so much else going on. The orbital moon phase display (where the night star rotates around the small seconds axis, hence the term “orbital”)  represents the sky as seen from the Northern Hemisphere with the Big Dipper, as well as from the Southern Hemisphere with the Southern Cross. The rest of the “stars” are little dots. It will take 122 years for this display to be off by a day — which, strangely enough, is how the accuracy of moon phase displays is usually measured.

The spectacular pattern of the main dial, as well as the aforementioned subdials, are applied with hand-operated guilloché machines at Metalem. Metalem is a popular supplier of ultra-high-end dials to the watch industry, and one that Chopard has owned — but not advertised owning — for years. Chopard co-president and head of the watch division of the brand, Karl-Friedrich Scheufele, has kept Metalem as a reliable supplier to what actually are Chopard’s competitors — a gesture very few other brands and conglomerates perform when they take over a popular and hard-to-replace specialist supplier.

The pattern radiates not from the center of the dial, but rather the center of the moon phase display. Die-hard fans of L.U.C might recall previous models where the center was the big date window, or the logo under 12 o’clock — for example this beast of an L.U.C, the Perpetual Chrono in platinum, with a similar perpetual module further complicated with a chronograph. On the very edge of the dial, the minutes scale is snailed, as are the peripheries of the various subdials. The hands are a “Dauphine fusée” style, a novel take on Chopard L.U.C’s chevron-style hands that have a less pronounced split and a wider base. Chopard does not own a hand-supplier but apparently knows how to keep them out of their comfort zone, as producing these faceted, V-milled, and polished hands must require special know-how and production skills.

The case is new, too. While it does return to the original version’s more modest 40.50mm diameter, its shape and construction are new. The middle case is bassine-shaped — you guessed it, that means it is shaped like a basin — with a noticeably wider top around the bezel that narrows toward the caseback. The complexity of the shape, combined with the desired design for the lugs, meant that the latter would have to be welded to the basin case. At a time when 5-axis CNC machines equipped with 20+ different tools can (and indeed do) mill just about case shape on today’s luxury watches, it might entice some collectors that Chopard chose to go old-school and have the lugs welded on by hand, and it might just as well leave others cold. A few years ago, thanks to social media, I learned that there is a serious and highly critical welding community out there, though I am not sure about the size of the cross section between watch and welding enthusiasts. But I digress.

The shape and design is almost Germanic in its style and appeal. The welded lugs, the multi-tiered bezel, the basin shape: these are all elements that are more likely to stand the test of time and changing tastes than to wow upon first sight. Front to back, the Chopard L.U.C Lunar One Perpetual watches are 11.63mm thick, including the tourbillon-equipped version. This is thicker than where many would strictly draw the line for a blue-blooded dress watch, but still easily and comfortably wearable, while also missing the in-your-face nature of bulkier watches. That 11.63mm is also thicker than where one would expect a watch with a 6mm thick movement to land, so it must be the complex dial and the beefy (for a dressy watch) crystal that make up the rest.

The Chopard L.U.C Lunar One Perpetual Calendar is the first to incorporate the brand’s new strap quick-release system, one of the more highly engineered ones out there. It features a beautifully milled spring bar (see on the third image in the gallery above) with a small spring inside, installed by a bespoke tool pictured one above. The strap then adds its own milled component with a pusher — certainly one of the most highly engineered and elaborately milled strap inserts out there today. In case welding was not your thing, maybe spring bars are, and if that’s the case, you are welcome to fawn over these. The lugs apparently feature traditional drilled holes, so normal spring bars fitting normal straps can also be requested upon ordering, or swapped in later. Normally, the watches come with two different straps in the box, both fitted with the new system.

In line with Chopard’s long-time aspirations, and the hefty price tag, the Chopard L.U.C Calibre 96.13-L in each of the new L.U.C Lunar One Perpetual Calendar watches goes all-in on features and functions. The Chopard 96 was the brand’s first in-house caliber that debuted in (you may have guessed it) 1996. It features two stacked barrels for a power reserve of 65 hours — mighty impressive even nearly 30 years later from a movement that is just 3.30mm thick (before adding a module) and running at a modern 4Hz. The movement is replenished by a micro-rotor self-winding system with a guilloché oscillating weight in solid 22k gold.

Produced in various different tiers of refinement, for these pieces, the Caliber 96 shines in its highest specified form. This includes Geneva Seal-approved (or Poinçon de Genève, if you prefer the poncy version) decorations across all its surfaces: the bridges sport Côtes de Genève, the base plate and movement holding ring circular graining, the many edges of the plates and bridges are beveled and hand-polished, as are the countersinks and the screw heads. There is also a sprinkling of black mirror polishing on the swan neck regulator’s spring, while the rotor and its deep, guilloché grooves simply appear to glow from within.

Fitted to the dial side of the movement is the complex perpetual calendar module — also made in-house — that increases the component count to a total of 355. I remember seeing this module at SalonQP in London back in 2014 or so, and being absolutely mesmerized by its balance, thinness, and refinement. Speaking of the latter, this is an instantaneous perpetual calendar, which is to say that all its indications jump at precisely midnight. This, along with the big “digital” date display, adds a whole new level of complexity to what already is a difficult module to make this thin. Meanwhile, the torque required for these large indications to be moved speaks to the performance of the thin Calibre 96 base movement. It’s all typical Chopard, where decades of quietly pushing boundaries slowly adds up to the full picture.

We are not done with performance just yet. The Geneva Seal has incorporated timekeeping performance requirements to increase its appeal among demanding collectors, and its tolerance for a cased-up watch is a minute per week — i.e. roughly 8.5 seconds per day — while simulating active wear over the course of that week. Meanwhile, COSC remains a more thorough and demanding accuracy test that takes twice as long at 15 days long, and it exposes the uncased movement to three different temperatures (8°, 23° and 38°C) over that time. This double-certification is seldom seen even in this segment, and is especially rare for tourbillon watches, but is nevertheless applied to the tourbillon version too. Just above, you see the blank dial that Chopard installs for chronometer testing.

To shoot these three new Chopard L.U.C Lunar One Perpetual Calendar watches, we visited the Chopard HQ in Geneva, where a lot of the assembly happens for the Geneva Seal-certified movements (them being assembled in Geneva is of course one of the requirements). Chopard also operates a highly complex and modern manufacture in Fleurier, as well as the aforementioned Metalem dial supplier. It is also here, in Geneva, that Chopard operates its own gold foundry where the gold for these watches is cast, and where the cases and metal bracelets are produced for many Chopard watches. The metiers d’art workshop is also here, with some extremely talented engravers and other craftspeople. Each and every Chopard facility is a buzzing place, well worth a dedicated article later.

True to itself, Chopard keeps doing its own thing, slowly advancing its style and pushing the various performance and aesthetic details of its watches. It is no secret that this has been done for 30-plus years much to the appeal, and under the close, close scrutiny, of co-president Karl-Friedrich Scheufele. Following a long decade in which style and brand status ruled so strongly over substance, watches conceived and crafted by people hyper-focused on the product itself stand out all the more strongly. What is interesting that within the realm of luxury purchases, Chopard and especially Chopard L.U.C has always appeared as an option for those with little to prove to others — but it is only recently that Chopard has also arrived to this point.

Designed and made for those in the market for a “really, very nice watch” in the old-school sense, the Chopard L.U.C Lunar One Perpetual Calendar is mighty strong, but it does have the price tag to match that energy. The Chopard L.U.C Lunar One Perpetual Calendar watch is priced at $85,500 USD, while the Chopard L.U.C Lunar One Perpetual T with a tourbillon is priced at $184,000 USD. You can learn more at the brand’s website.