Cut For Time: Bremont, Chopard, Girard-Perregaux, And Hublot Introduce New Watches With Cool Backstories 

Chopard has partnered with Revolution to create a new limited-edition timepiece, the Chopard L.U.C 1860 Flying T, Special Revolution. The watch, which measures just 36.5mm across, features a flying tourbillon and distinctive design details, including a solid gold copper-colored dial with hand guilloche decoration.
 

The idea to collaborate on this timepiece came at a meeting between Karl-Friedrich Scheufele, Co-President of Chopard, and Wei Koh, Founder of Revolution Magazine and The Rake. While viewing new watches during a visit to Scheufele’s Chateau Monestier La Tour vineyard in Bergerac, France, Koh saw his “beloved” Chopard 1.96 movement, now modified to include a tourbillon. The watch measured 40mm across, but Scheufele shared that the movement was just slightly thicker than the original 1860 watch. 
 

Koh posed a question to Scheufele, asking if he could create a flying tourbillon watch in exactly the same dimensions as the L.U.C 1860 watch (the first watch Scheufele launched at Chopard). Scheufele said, “Wei, I like this idea very much. Shall we do this together?”
 

The new watch, limited to just 5 pieces, is not just “the world’s smallest automatic flying tourbillon,” according to Koh. It is also “the world’s only Geneva Seal flying tourbillon that is also COSC-certified as a chronometer.” That’s quite an accomplishment.

Hublot’s newest Big Bang Unico timepiece is dedicated to preserving the highly endangered black rhinoceros. SORAI, which stands for Save Our Rhino Africa India, is an organization that supports animal sanctuaries and local efforts to reduce poaching. Poaching is the greatest single threat to this species of rhinoceros. Just in the past 10 years, two thirds of the rhinoceros population in South Africa’s Kruger Park have been killed by poachers.

 

Before 2020, poaching had declined significantly, in part due to the support of SORAI. However, when the threat of the coronavirus closed South Africa’s borders to tourists – whose sheer numbers in the national parks helped to deter poachers – the poachers took advantage of the deserted park as the pandemic ensued. Now the black rhinoceros population has again plummeted to less than 500 in the vast park. 
 

A portion of the sales of the limited-edition Big Bang Unico SORAI will be donated to Care for Wild - the largest rhinoceros sanctuary in the world, which is supported by SORAI. Only 100 watches of this two-tone green edition will be made, and it will be available on either a camouflage rubber or Velcro strap. Of course, the safari-ready watch features Hublot’s legendary UNICO chronograph self-winding movement with a 72-hour power reserve.