Mtambuzi
Platinum Member
- Oct 29, 2008
- 8,809
- 15,442
Chopard Imperiale 384221-0004
Price: $30,933.00
<dl style="margin-right: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 5px; padding-bottom: 5px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 12px; vertical-align: baseline; overflow: hidden; zoom: 1; line-height: 24px; color: rgb(56, 68, 85); font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><dt style="margin: 0px 3px 0px 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: transparent; float: left; clear: both;">Condition:</dt><dd style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: transparent;">Brand New</dd></dl><dl style="margin-right: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 5px; padding-bottom: 5px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 12px; vertical-align: baseline; overflow: hidden; zoom: 1; line-height: 24px; color: rgb(56, 68, 85); font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><dt style="margin: 0px 3px 0px 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: transparent; float: left; clear: both;">Case Size:</dt><dd style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: transparent;">36 mm</dd></dl><dl style="margin-right: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 5px; padding-bottom: 5px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 12px; vertical-align: baseline; overflow: hidden; zoom: 1; line-height: 24px; color: rgb(56, 68, 85); font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><dt style="margin: 0px 3px 0px 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: transparent; float: left; clear: both;">Gender:</dt><dd style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: transparent;">Ladies</dd></dl><dl style="margin-right: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 5px; padding-bottom: 5px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 12px; vertical-align: baseline; overflow: hidden; zoom: 1; line-height: 24px; color: rgb(56, 68, 85); font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><dt style="margin: 0px 3px 0px 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: transparent; float: left; clear: both;">Movement:</dt><dd style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: transparent;">Quartz</dd></dl><dl style="margin-right: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 5px; padding-bottom: 5px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 12px; vertical-align: baseline; overflow: hidden; zoom: 1; line-height: 24px; color: rgb(56, 68, 85); font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><dt style="margin: 0px 3px 0px 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: transparent; float: left; clear: both;">Functions:</dt><dd style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: transparent;">Hours, Minutes, Seconds, Date</dd></dl><dl style="margin-right: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 5px; padding-bottom: 5px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 12px; vertical-align: baseline; overflow: hidden; zoom: 1; line-height: 24px; color: rgb(56, 68, 85); font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><dt style="margin: 0px 3px 0px 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: transparent; float: left; clear: both;">Watch Materials:</dt><dd style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: transparent;">18K Yellow Gold Case with Diamond Bezel & Center Lugs
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[TD="class: table-info-winbuy, bgcolor: #EFEFF1"]Brand[/TD]
[TD="class: table-header-winbuy, bgcolor: #EFEFF1"]Chopard[/TD]
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[TD="class: table-info-winbuy"]Model number[/TD]
[TD="class: table-header-winbuy"]161276-5003[/TD]
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[TD="class: table-header-winbuy"]CLACIC RACING CHRONOGRAPH[/TD]
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[TD="class: table-info-winbuy, bgcolor: #EFEFF1"]Watch Style[/TD]
[TD="class: table-header-winbuy, bgcolor: #EFEFF1"]Sport[/TD]
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| Sale Price: $23,859.00 Kiwanda cha Chopard.....
Entering the Chopard Manufacture-Geneva ..
Gathered at the lobby with our host, Mr Patrick Wehrli..
The creative process do not start with CAD.... either hand-sketches and some manual mock-up...
The Gold smelting room. Chopard has many decades of expertise in smelting their own gold and creation of alloys to manufacture their own cases, dials and jewellery.
A closer look. Chopard buys at least 2.5 tons (2,500 pieces of above '1Kilo' bars) per year.
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</dd></dl>The 999.9 gold bar is smelted and blended with other metals to create various hues of gold like 2N, 3N, Rose 4N and white gold.
The above blended piece is a Rose 4N (marked at the top end of the bar).
The other two components added in different proportion are silver and copper for the yellow and rose gold.
For white gold, palladium is added and later rhodium-plated.
To mix the various components together, they are placed in a high heat crucible to combine them and then poured into
a mold to form into a bigger bar.
The mold removed from the smelting chamber .
Now you could hold it in your hand.
Hmmm, what were our friends thinking?...
The original thicker bar was passed through a machine, a few rounds to progressively roll down to thinner bar of 60 X 6 cm
(as seen on Patrick's hand).
Each bar is labeled and one corner is snipped off and to be send to professional assayers to verify the amount of
precious metal in an alloy and if qualify for the hallmark.
The initial raw materials, the mold and the final gold alloy blanks.
For comparison ...
To make a particular case, it required 16 steps of progressive stamping.
Note the shape after the FIRST stamping process (see the case marked with #1), the lugs were not shaped, and subsequently
it was shaped by the next few processes, and so on.
After each stamping process, a case will be sent through the furnace for annealing. It is quite a laborious process.
Semi-completed gold cases from the gold alloy blanks, awaiting for the next stamping step.
Placing the casing into the tool ...
Remove from tooling ...
Placed onto tray...and sent for annealing then the next stamping step.
Passed by the in-house clinic.
Various CNC milling machines ...
The machined out components ....
Each link and pin were manually arranged in a jig ....
After that, each link was individually pressed in ..
A pic of half section of the department ....
A special room which housed the laser-engraving machine ... it is used to mark the part numbers on the casebacks
and also sequential 'limited numbers'.
Saw a prototype of the just launched Lunar Big Date on one of the watchmaker's hand .... requested for a few quick shots.
And then we met Mr Daniel Bolognesi, one of the brains for new development.
Over here he showed us the video comparison between the typical 4Hz and the under-test 10 Hz.
The sound comparison was recorded and posted here before.