Coachbuilder Meets Watchmaker on the Chopard Zagato Lab One Concept

Initial reactions to Chopard’s Zagato Lab One Concept were anything but neutral. Far removed from Chopard’s more conventional Mille Miglia racing-themed watches, this avant-garde concept car on the wrist – with its radical “bird cage” car-chassis aesthetics – was embraced by some as a daring pole-position contender, while others needed more time to digest its unconventional looks. Positioned explicitly as a concept watch, the project unites Chopard co-president Karl-Friedrich Scheufele’s passion for motorsport and watchmaking with Andrea Michele Zagato’s pursuit of lightness and aerodynamic efficiency in the name of speed.

Anybody acquainted with Chopard’s trajectory knows about Karl-Friedrich Scheufele’s passion for classic cars. As the official partner of the legendary Mille Miglia vintage car race since 1988, Chopard enjoys one of the longest-standing alliances in classic motorsport. Like Chopard, Zagato is also a family-run business. Founded in Milan in 1919, the famous Italian carrozzeria (coachbuilder) made its name by applying aeronautical construction techniques to the world of racing cars. In its pursuit of weight reduction, Zagato’s lightweight aluminium bodies with tubular structures have produced some remarkable competition cars.

Although Chopard released its first futuristic concept watch with the Mille Miglia Lab One, the design of the Zagato Lab One Concept is unprecedented. Transposing Zagato’s tubular chassis architecture to optimise rigidity while reducing weight, the case is unlike anything you’ve ever seen from Chopard’s manufacture.

Instead of a conventional round case, the watch has a skeletal latticework frame of ceramicised titanium tubes. Almost like an exoskeleton, the rigid yet extremely light framework contributes to the watch’s featherlight weight (including strap) of just 43.2 grams, Chopard’s lightest watch to date. Measuring 42mm across and 11.15mm high, the ultra-resistant (1,000 Vickers), fade-proof matte ceramicised titanium has a technical grey colour and is used for the case, bridges and mainplate.

Resembling an alien creature with four articulated legs, the watch is attached to the bracelet by tubular loops that can pivot 45 degrees. Echoing the articulated suspension links and subframes of a racing chassis, the pivoting matte microblasted lugs actually make the watch sit more comfortably on the wrist. The spiralling serrated teeth pattern on a car’s differential gear is echoed on the crown.

There is no dial in the traditional sense, and the titanium mainplate – inspired by the heads of car cylinders – becomes the display surface, decorated with Zagato’s “Z” motif machined in relief and protected by a box-shaped sapphire crystal. Time is displayed by openworked, rhodium-plated hands sweeping over the Z-patterned backdrop, while the power reserve at noon is styled like a dashboard petrol gauge.

The choice of a one-minute tourbillon makes sense in this context, animating the technical scenery with an engine in perpetual motion. Reinterpreted in Zagato’s language, the tourbillon carriage is made of lightweight aluminium. Powered by the manual-winding L.U.C 04.04-L, an evolution of Chopard’s L.U.C Engine One Tourbillon calibre of 2010, the 4Hz movement with a 60-hour power reserve is chronometer-certified and, like a racing car engine, is suspended inside the tubular frame on block-style elastomer dampers to isolate vibration and absorb shock.

While the watch’s technical, structural nature dominates, the design is harmonious and balanced. The repeating shapes, for example, in the bridge beneath the fuel gauge, the hands, and the bridge over the tourbillon, give the dial a pleasing sense of symmetry. Another unexpected feature of the watch is its wearability and comfort. Limited to 19 pieces, the Zagato Lab One Concept reveals that Chopard is not afraid to venture beyond its comfort zone and accelerate into avant-garde territory.

The watch is paired with a technical fabric strap with hook-and-loop fastening and a more classic calfskin leather strap with a ceramicised pin buckle. It retails for CHF 130,000. More information at chopard.com.