"Floating" Happy Diamonds is the calling card of the famous Swiss watch and jewellery maker – House of Chopard. Even the richest and most famous – The likes of naomi campbell, Angelina jolie, sharon Stone and elizabeth hurley – can’t resist the charms of the brand’s jewellery and watches.
ON THE RED-CARPET walkway of the Cannes film festival the stars shine with necklaces, earrings, rings, cufflinks and watches by Chopard - the official jeweller of the event.
Thanks to co-owner and creative director of the brand Caroline Scheufele, the era of Chopard jewellery is now at its zenith - but 50 years ago this Swiss company specialised mostly in exclusive men’s watches and was associated with quite a different family name. But all in good time. 
In the distant 1860 in a small Swiss village of Sonvillier, young Louis-Ulysse Chopard of a family of watchmakers opened his own shop - like many others in the area. After a while the ambitious Louis-Ulysse had moved over to the watchmakers’ capital - Geneva, where he became quite famous. He was the first supplier of the Swiss Railways which still remains the most punctual and well-run transportation system in the world. His high-precision clocks and watches
marked with L.U.C. initials became a hallmark of exclusivity and craftsmanship.
Paul-Andre, grandson of the famous Louis-Ulysse, was less lucky. His lot was to deal with new technologies of the dynamic 20th century and the competition from Japanese quartz watches. In 1963 Chopard brand was on the verge of sinking into oblivion, remaining only on exhibits in watch museums. Nobody of the new-generation Chopards was willing to carry on with the family business. But then a miracle happened: Paul-Andre met a German watchmaker and businessman Karl Scheufele who bought Chopard with an obligation to maintain the traditions of the old house. The crisis was over.
The new Chopard era began in 1980s. In 1988 the first boutique was opened in Geneva, and in 1996 the construction of the new factory in the Jura mountains in the town of Fleurier began - in addition to the two existing facilities in Geneva and Pforzheim. Today Chopard is a network of exclusive boutiques in the major cities such as Geneva, Athens, Baden-Baden, London, Paris, Vienna, New York, Dubai, Hong-Kong, Jakarta, Kuala Lumpur, Osaka, Singapore, Taipei, Tokyo, Moscow and St. Petersburg. The company’s success owes a lot to the balanced contribution by Karl Scheufele’s children: socialite and gifted designer Caroline and management genius Karl-Freidrich.
The L.U.C. line is still very much in demand among The unique Chopard products: their mechanisms were designed at the Fleurier factory, the work took several years. The line includes such models as L.U.C. Tourbillon - true to the name, with its own tourbillon supplemented with a variable inertial balance mechanism to increase precision. It’s a limited series of 100 pieces made of white gold. L.U.C. Quattro Regulatuer has a mechanism with four drums placed in pairs on top of each other - again, to ensure high precision. This watch keeps ticking for more than 8 days on one wind-up.
In 2004 the model received a prestigious Watch of the Year award. However, the most famous is Chopard L.U.C. 1860 with certified chronometer. This collection includes 1860 pieces made of three kinds of gold - yellow, white and pink, and platinum.
The passionate hobby of the male half of the Scheufele family is the Mille Miglia race which takes place annually on the Brescia - Rome road. Chopard became a sponsor and created the line of watches of the same name. Mille Miglia 2006 Gran Turismo XL is a large wrist chronograph with the diameter of 44 mm. The design reminds one of the race’s flag. There are 250 such watches altogether in the world, made of steel and pink gold. The flagship Mille Miglia model - Split Second - is a chronograph with a split-second mechanism. This is also a limited edition of 250 pieces, made of pink gold.
The Happy Diamonds collection which in 1976 received a Baden-Baden Golden Rose award has an interesting history. These are watches with the so-called "floating" diamonds, beloved by socialites throughout the world. Designer Ronald Kurowski came up with the concept when travelling around the German Black Forest. Admiring a waterfall, he was transfixed by the moving droplets of water hanging over the rocks below. That’s how the idea of "free-falling" diamonds was born. A special case was designed to allow the diamonds to move freely between the two sapphire glasses of the dial.
This invention became the basis of such collections as Happy Sport released in 1996 to mark the line’s 20th anniversary. An interesting variation is a Happy Fish chronograph with rotating sapphire dolphins and diamond fish.
It’s hard to forget Russia once you discover it – and Caroline Gruosi-Scheufele couldn’t resist the charm of The Russian golden-domed churches either. To mark the 200th birthday of the famous Russian poet Alexander Pushkin, she released a collection of the same name. Some believe in the magical power of stones, others doubt it - but the recent decades of Chopard company history speak for themselves: "happy diamonds" have indeed brought luck and worldwide fame to the brand which combines excellent design and innovative watch-making technologies.
Natalia Andrianova
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