The Chopard L.U.C 1860, reference 168860-3005, is a time-only dress watch in Lucent Steel, Chopard’s steel alloy made from 80 percent recycled material. The round case measures 36.5 mm in diameter and 8.2 mm in height, with satin-finished flanks, a polished bezel and caseback, and water resistance to 30 m. Sapphire crystals with anti-reflective treatment are fitted front and back. The Areuse Blue dial is solid 18k white gold, hand-guilloché with a pattern radiating from the logo below 12 o’clock, and carries a satin hour ring, applied white gold chevron markers, white gold Dauphine hands and a small seconds sub-dial. The movement is the L.U.C 96.40-L, a self-winding calibre with a 22k gold micro-rotor, 3.3 mm thick and 27.4 mm wide. It runs at 4 Hz (28,800 vph), stores about 65 hours of power in two stacked barrels (Chopard’s Twin Technology), has a stop-seconds function and is both COSC chronometer certified and stamped with the Poinçon de Genève.

The original L.U.C 1860 appeared in 1997 with the calibre 1.96, a movement designed by Michel Parmigiani that helped establish Chopard as a serious watchmaker. Chopard revived the model in 2023, and this Lucent Steel version with the new Areuse Blue dial was presented at Watches and Wonders 2026 to mark 30 years of the manufacture. Compared with early references, whose guilloché radiated from the centre, the pattern now starts at the logo. The watch is worn on a grey leather strap with a Lucent Steel pin buckle. It is not a limited edition. Chopard lists it at USD 29,700, and the European price is EUR 28,200.

Watches By SJX judged it a traditional design that avoids exaggeration, with the guilloché dial and movement keeping it from looking dull. It praised the high-end case finishing, the more accessible steel case, the well-judged 36.5 mm size and the thin, efficiently winding calibre, finished above Chopard’s mainline movements. Its reservations were the lack of novelty, as the watch is essentially a new colour for the 2023 model, the feeling that the 30th anniversary deserved a new design or calibre, and a case profile a generation behind that of the L.U.C Grand Strike. As of October 2026 the L.U.C 1860 Lucent Steel is part of Chopard’s collection and in production.