- Debuted at the Retromobile classic car show in Paris, Chopard and Zagato have linked up to create the ultra-lightweight Lab One Concept watch.
- Weighing just 36.5g without a strap, it features a ceramicised titanium case and a tourbillon escapement.
- The Chopard Zagato Lab One Concept is a limited edition of just 19 pieces, with the price revealed to clients on request.
Horological and automotive enthusiasm have always gone together like Champagne and caviar, but when it comes to watch releases tied into the world of car collecting, they’re often focused on the deep heritage of trackside chronographs or inspired by motorsports liveries. In other words, eyes fixed on the rearview mirror.
Today, Chopard has revealed its latest collaboration with the legendary coachbuilding firm Zagato and rather than looking to the past for design cues, the all-new Lab One Concept is laser-focused on the future. Cutting-edge from every angle and a serious departure from the classicism most fans would associate with Chopard, it’s a technical tour de force that looks to redefine what lightweight, complicated watchmaking can be.
Its 42mm case (11.5mm thick) is made using ceramicised titanium, specifically an electroplasma oxidation process, which gives it a hardness that’s close to ceramic and a hardness of 1000 Vickers. The mainplate of the movement serves as the dial, there’s an auto-inspired power reserve indicator at 12 o’clock, and the winding crown is made to look like a gear differential.
All counted, it weighs just 36.5g without a strap (and 43.2g with either the textile or leather strap), making it one of the very few modern watches on the market to break the 40g mark and significantly lighter than Chopard’s own recent Alpine Eagle 41 SL Cadence 8HF that tips the scales at 61.6g.
Powering the new Chopard Zagato Lab One Concept is the 16-year-old L.U.C 04.04-L movement, held within the case via a lattice of automotive-inspired tubes. It boasts COSC certification and serves up a solid 60 hours of power reserve when fully wound.
All considered, it’s an exciting new addition to Chopard’s catalogue, and, as its name suggests, one that should speak to the concept car enthusiast thanks to its unusual design and highly limited production of just 19 pieces. Unsirprisingly for both concept cars and concept watches, the price is available to clients on request.
