The first reactions to Chopard's Zagato Lab One Concept were anything but neutral. A far cry from Chopard's more conventional Mille Miglia racing watches, this avant-garde wrist concept car – with its radical “birdcage” chassis aesthetic – was greeted by some as a daring pole position contender, while others needed more time to digest its unconventional looks. Explicitly positioned as a concept watch, the project combines Chopard co-president Karl-Friedrich Scheufele's passion for motorsports and watchmaking with Andrea Michele Zagato's pursuit of lightness and aerodynamic efficiency in the name of speed.
Anyone who knows Chopard's career knows about Karl-Friedrich Scheufele's passion for vintage cars. As an official partner of the legendary Mille Miglia classic car race since 1988, Chopard has one of the oldest alliances in classic motorsport. Like Chopard, Zagato is also a family business. Founded in Milan in 1919, the famous Italian carrozzeria (body builder) made a name for itself by applying construction techniques from aviation to the world of racing cars. In the pursuit of weight reduction, Zagato has produced some notable competition vehicles with its lightweight aluminum bodies with tubular structures.
Although Chopard released its first futuristic concept watch with the Mille Miglia Lab One, the design of the Zagato Lab One Concept is unprecedented. Implementing Zagato's tubular frame architecture to optimize rigidity while reducing weight, the case is unlike anything you've ever seen from Chopard's manufacture.
Instead of a traditional round case, the watch features a skeletal lattice frame made of ceramicized titanium tubes. Almost like an exoskeleton, the rigid yet extremely light framework contributes to the watch's feather-light weight (including bracelet) of just 43.2 grams, Chopard's lightest watch to date. Measuring 42 mm wide and 11.15 mm high, the extremely durable (1,000 Vickers), fade-resistant, matte, ceramic-coated titanium is finished in technical gray and is used for the case, bridges and motherboard.
The watch resembles an alien creature with four movable legs and is attached to the bracelet with tubular loops that can rotate 45 degrees. The pivoting, matte, micro-blasted lugs are reminiscent of the articulated suspension links and subframes of a racing chassis and ensure that the watch sits more comfortably on the wrist. The spiral, jagged tooth pattern of a car's differential gear is reflected on the crown.
There is no dial in the traditional sense and the titanium main plate – inspired by the heads of car cylinders – becomes the display surface, decorated with Zagato's “Z” motif in relief and protected by a box-shaped sapphire crystal. The time is indicated by openwork rhodium-plated hands sweeping across the Z-patterned background, while the power reserve at midday is designed like a fuel gauge on the dashboard.
In this context, it makes sense to choose a minute tourbillon that enlivens the technical scenery with a motor in constant motion. The tourbillon cage, reinterpreted in Zagato's language, is made of lightweight aluminum. Powered by the hand-wound LUC 04.04-L movement, an evolution of Chopard's 2010 LUC Engine One Tourbillon caliber, the 4 Hz movement is chronometer-certified with a 60-hour power reserve and is suspended like a racing car engine in the tubular frame on block-like elastomeric dampers to isolate vibrations and absorb shocks.
While the technical, structural character of the watch dominates, the design is harmonious and balanced. The repeating shapes, for example in the bridge under the fuel gauge, the hands and the bridge above the tourbillon, give the dial a pleasant symmetry. Another unexpected feature of the watch is its portability and comfort. The Zagato Lab One Concept, limited to 19 pieces, shows that Chopard is not afraid to leave its comfort zone and venture into avant-garde territory.
The watch is equipped with a technical fabric strap with Velcro closure and a more classic calfskin strap with a ceramicized pin buckle. It costs retail 130,000 francs. More information at Chopard.com.
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