Chopard Skeleton Manual

If you ever wondered what real watch nerdery looks like, it’s this: a 1980s Chopard Skeleton Manual, mid-size, and packed with more hand-finishing than most major brands manage in a whole collection.

At just 30mm across (32mm if you're counting the crown), this 18k yellow gold case feels refreshingly human in scale. It's a size that makes the craftsmanship feel even more concentrated—like every detail had to earn its place.

The showstopper, of course, is the dial—or rather, the delicious absence of one. Fully skeletonized, this isn’t your average "open heart" peeking through a cutout. The entire movement has been painstakingly hollowed out, hand-engraved to the last micron, polished, and left gloriously exposed. Skeleton watches come in all styles—partial cutaways, industrial, maximalist—but this one is pure transparency, a tightrope walk between beauty and engineering where there's literally nowhere to hide. And that’s the point.

Adding an extra sprinkle of nerd gold: the movement was made by Armin Strom. Before Strom became the name behind independent Swiss skeletonization, he was the name—personally engraving and skeletonizing every watch himself. Back then, if you wanted this kind of movement, you either had to know Strom or get very lucky. Chopard was smart enough to collaborate, and here’s the result: one of the most intricate, handmade mechanical skeleton watches you’ll ever find outside of a museum case.

Little touches keep it grounded in reality: printed indices float neatly on the underside of the crystal so you can still tell time without losing your mind. And if you look even closer—closer than most would bother—you'll spot a tiny, separate sub-seconds dial tucked into the movement. A hidden complexity that adds function without stealing any space, like an inside joke only the most observant get to enjoy.

It’s manual, naturally—no rotor to block the view. Flip it over and you’ll find the work just as exquisite on the back as the front, a rare flex most brands didn’t (and still don’t) bother with. It comes dressed up on a glossy Chopard alligator strap with a gold-plated Chopard buckle because, well, details matter.

In a world of enormous cases and wrist presence measured in square footage, this compact piece feels like the ultimate insider’s watch: serious artisanship packed into a modest frame, offering something much rarer than attention—real intrigue.

Or in other words: a Discreet Peacock in its purest form.