The Beginner's Guide to Chopard, One of 2024's Hottest Watch Brands

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On Tuesday evening, I was chatting with Wei Koh—the influential watch collector and founder of The Rake and Revolution—as he held up and inspected a Chopard 1860 and a Patek Philippe 5131 World Time. “You can look at them side by side and they’re both stunning movements,” Koh said. “They’re, of course, different, but the quality is certainly there.”

I’d set Koh up to deliver that lofty praise, but only because it was a comparison I kept hearing. The dealer Eric Wind was the first to suggest it to me. “The quality is not that different from Pateks [from the ’90s],” Wind said of Chopard. “And at a fraction of the price.” When I checked in with WatchTime editor Bilal Khan, a noted Chopard enthusiast, he found the comparison as natural as can be. “When [Chopard co-president] Karl-Friedrich Scheufele opened the L.U.C manufacture, it was his goal to be at the level of Patek.”

Chopard is gaining heat among watch collectors after two particularly strong years of new releases. The salmon-dial L.U.C 1860 was one of the best releases from 2023, and this year the Swiss maker had another strong showing at Watches & Wonders with a steel L.U.C sequel and a black enamel-dial Quattro. “Chopard has been pretty hot with their new watches,” Wind explained. “There’s always a conversation between what’s happening in the current day and interest in the vintage pieces.”

Speaking of those vintage pieces: The consensus among collectors is that secondary-market Chopards remain seriously undervalued (though that’s starting to shift). Rather than duking it out for modern pieces selling for multiples of retail, you might be able to win the Chopard of your dreams on secondary sites for well below what sellers are asking. “There are people who appreciate watchmaking and don’t have, you know, $50- or $60,000 to spend on the prestigious or indie brands,” Khan said. “And they’re the ones who are going after these rare early models.”

The Chopard micro-boom is downstream of the massive Cartier trend, Wind said. As collectors swing back to dress watches after a torrid love affair with sport pieces, Chopard offers value and a brand name that isn’t totally ubiquitous right now.

So, where do you start if you’re getting into Chopard? That’s what I asked the experts this week.