W&W 2023 Chopard Alpine Eagle Cadence 8HF In Titanium With Pitch Black Dial

An eagle eye and high-frequency watchmaking. The comfort of titanium and the strength of an elegant chronometer. Chopard combines precision, style and sportiness in the second high-frequency model within the Alpine Eagle collection. Featuring a Pitch Black dial with subtle orange accents, this exceptional new 41 mm-diameter timepiece houses one of the most advanced movements from Chopard’s workshops.  Indeed, the chronometer-certified Chopard Calibre 01.12-C featuring a high-frequency escapement reaches its cruising altitude at 57,600 vibrations per hour (8 Hz).

Since its launch in 2019, the Alpine Eagle collection has exceeded all expectations. Chopard is now enriching it with a new Alpine Eagle Cadence 8HF model: a 41 mm-diameter watch that is a modest 9.75 mm thick, very light, extremely robust thanks to the use of titanium and equipped with an outstanding calibre. It beats at the exceptional frequency of 8 Hertz, meaning twice as fast as a standard automatic movement.

This performance is not a mere technical detail but instead an essential attribute, as this high frequency is used to achieve maximum precision, without sacrificing any of its comfort attributes. In addition to its light weight, the Alpine Eagle Cadence 8HF features a comfortable and practical 60-hour power reserve, as well as 'Chronometer' certification issued by the Official Swiss Chronometer Testing Institute (COSC).

Essential details

Although it’s hard at first glance to tell the Alpine Eagle Cadence 8HF model from an Alpine Eagle 41 in Lucent Steel™, there are in fact many clues. While Alpine Eagle watches are traditionally made of Lucent Steel™, of ethical gold, or a combination of the two, the Alpine Eagle Cadence 8HF models are all-titanium. Whereas Lucent Steel™ is shiny, hard and particularly comfortable to touch, titanium is distinguished by its even lighter weight and darker colour.

The Alpine Eagle design codes remain present. The bezel, case middle and wide bracelet links are satin-brushed. The central cap of these links is polished, as are the case bevels while the eight screws featuring slots are set at a tangent to the bezel circle.

The dial of the Alpine Eagle Cadence 8HF is marked with the so-called "eagle iris" pattern, a direct tribute to the piercing vision of the majestic birds of prey that inspired the collection. Its Pitch Black colour is inspired by the intense blackness of mountain nights when wild Nature reclaims its rights. The orange arrow-shaped sweep-seconds hand with its eagle’s feather-shaped counterweight, as well as the matching railway-track minutes circle, bring an elegant contrast and even sportier touch to the dial.

In addition, the minutes track has been pared down to just baton-type hour-markers and 12 o’clock in Roman numerals. Above all, the dial bears two unique inscriptions: "8 HZ Chronometer" appearing beneath the Chopard name; and a lower-positioned dynamic orange arrow-shaped logo, the unique signature of Chopard high-frequency watches. This exceptional property is also highlighted on the transparent sapphire crystal caseback revealing the movement beating at a rate of 57,600 vibrations per hour.

The rare performance of a high-frequency movement

High frequency improves chronometry, a theme particularly dear to Chopard’s Co-President, Karl-Friedrich Scheufele. While impacts are part of the life of a watch, they nonetheless disturb the oscillations of the balance. Due to a statistical effect however, the faster it beats, the less effect each impact has on the average rate. This high frequency is also high speed, thus implying rapid recovery of the isochronous rate.

In 2012, Chopard was a pioneer in marketing an entire series of watches with a chronometer-certified high-frequency movement. Thanks to the stature of Chopard Manufacture as a veritable watchmaking laboratory, the L.U.C collection was enhanced with the L.U.C 01.06-L calibre equipping an experimental series of 100 L.U.C 8HF timepieces in titanium, a model that has become a genuine collector's item. Since then, the calibre – whose complex construction only allows for a few limited series – has been produced as a second exclusive edition with the L.U.C 8HF Power Control black ceramic and titanium Diamond-Like-Carbon (DLC) timepiece powered by the L.U.C 01.09-L movement, before being used in a Superfast Power Control Porsche 919 HF watch edition equipped with the 01.11-M movement.

After disseminating its precision in the L.U.C Haute Horlogerie collections and the sporty Superfast lines, Chopard's high-frequency movement evolved in 2021 to power a new version that took its place within the Alpine Eagle collection, thanks to Chopard Calibre 01.12-C, a mechanical self-winding movement with a central rotor. More technical and more complex to produce than a movement with a conventional escapement, it will now exclusively equip the Alpine Eagle Cadence 8HF models. Like its predecessors, its exceptional precision is certified by the COSC.

The feat and the material

Chopard uses the properties of monocrystalline silicon to make the most of this 8 Hertz frequency. This light and self-lubricating material is used for the pallet-lever, the escape-wheel and the impulse-pin: in other words, all the components that are subject to high friction, which is thus reduced to a minimum. It thereby eliminates the need for traditional watchmaking lubricants, in turn guaranteeing the movement’s longevity.

The lightness of silicon, its tribological properties and the freedom offered by its manufacturing technology have enabled Chopard to develop an escapement dedicated to high frequencies without resulting in increased energy consumption.

Chopard Calibre 01.12-C has a 60-hour power reserve, a remarkable degree of autonomy generally incompatible with high frequencies. The development endeavours undertaken in the Manufacture’s watchmaking workshops, several patents and the technologies employed have made it possible to reconcile apparently contractionary objectives: chronometry, autonomy and reliability. Now interpreted in the inimitable casual chic Alpine Eagle style, this high-frequency watch enters a select circle of exceptional chronometers.

The Alpine Eagle collection: reinterpreting an icon

Devised by three generations of gentlemen in the Scheufele family, the Alpine Eagle collection is a modern reinterpretation of the St. Moritz watch, the first horological creation by Karl-Friedrich Scheufele in the late 1970s. With its pure and assertive design, Alpine Eagle enriches this heritage with powerful inspiration drawn from Nature. A round case with stylised flanks; a crown engraved with a compass rose; a bezel with eight functional indexed screws; a textured dial with deep hues and luminescent indications; as well as a sweep-seconds hand with an eagle’s feather-shaped counterweight : Alpine Eagle embodies impeccable elegance expressed in a resolutely contemporary manner.

Technical specifications

Chopard Alpine Eagle Cadence 8HF in titanium with Pitch Black dial

Reference: 298600-3020

Case

• Material: Grade 5 titanium
• Diameter: 41.00 mm
• Thickness:  9.75 mm
• Steel screw-down crown with compass rose: 7 mm
• Vertical satin-brushed caseband with polished chamfers
• Vertical satin-brushed bezel with eight indexed screws
• Glare-proofed sapphire crystal
• Glare-proofed sapphire crystal exhibition case-back with the words “Cadence 8HF”
• Water-resistant to 100 metres

Dial and hands

• Dial stamped with a Pitch Black sunburst pattern achieved by galvanic treatment and inspired by the eagle’s iris
• Rhodium-plated applied hour-markers and numerals, painted with Grade X1 Super-LumiNova^® 
• Rhodium-plated baton-type hours and minutes hands painted with Grade X1 Super-LumiNova^® 
• Orange arrow-type seconds hand with eagle’s feather counterweight
• Orange “high-frequency” arrow and matching railway-track minutes circle

Movement

• Mechanical movement with automatic winding Chopard 01.12-C
• Number of components 210
• Diameter 28.80 mm
• Thickness 4.95 mm
• Number of jewels 28
• Frequency 57,600 vph (8 Hz)
• Power reserve 60 hours
• Annual balance-spring with flat terminal curve
• Patented high-frequency regulating organ
• Silicon impulse-pin, pallet-lever and escape-wheel
• Chronometer-certified (COSC)

Functions/Indications

• Central display of the hours, minutes, centre seconds
• Date between 4 and 5 o’clock
• Stop-seconds function

Strap and buckle

• Tapering bracelet in grade 5 titanium, wide links with satin-brushed sides and polished central cap
• Triple folding clasp in grade 5 titanium with steel blades and safety pushers

MSRP: TBC

For more information, please visit chopard.com