The iconic brand marks the 50th anniversary of its legendary watch and jewellery line with a cascade of stunning pieces —and supermodel endorsement.
What makes a design icon? Surely relevance, recognisability and a sense of universality. But there should also exist that je ne sais quoi, a special mystique. And it’s these qualities that Chopard’s Happy Diamonds collection has always had in spades, a signature series set alight by free-standing diamonds which sparkle on jewellery or dance across watch dials.
The Happy Diamonds idea was first conceived in 1976, when the house was led by Karl and Karin Scheufele and still known only as a traditional watchmaker. One day, the company’s in-house designer Ronald Kurowski returned from a walk in Germany’s Black Forest, and was moved by the way light fragments reflected off the sprays of a waterfall he’d encountered. Upon eyeing the first prototype, Karin remarked, “Diamonds are happier when they are free,” thus giving birth to the legendary collection’s name.
Freedom has a way of breaking boundaries. Hailing from the family’s second generation, it was a then-teenage Caroline Scheufele who inadvertently sent the maison on a new trajectory beyond watches when her father Karl stumbled across a sketch his daughter had made of a clown pendant. After admiring the drawing, Karl commissioned Chopard’s master jewellers to bring the piece to life, decorating its stomach with a mix of diamonds, rubies, sapphires and emeralds. He then surprised Caroline by giving the pendant to her as a Christmas present.
“That was the beginning of jewellery at Chopard,” she remembers. Caroline eventually joined the company as vicepresident in 1985, officially releasing the now-emblematic ‘Happy Clown’, and today remains the maison’s co-president and artistic director. Caroline’s brainchild still stands as the company’s mascot.
The Happy Diamonds concept continued to be entwined with Chopard’s story, weaving its way into pieces such as the groundbreaking Happy Sport steel women’s watch in 1993—a time when combining diamonds with non-precious materials was considered something close to blasphemous. “It was a crazy idea. But where is it written that I can’t put diamonds in steel?” recalls Caroline. “It’s cool, young and fun, and you can wear it around the clock. I really had to fight my way with this watch.”
Indeed, the Happy Diamonds spirit is rooted in the notion of giving women not just sparkle, but a sophisticated timepiece for an active, modern lifestyle, even if the world was not ready for it in the early 1990s.
In more recent times, Happy Diamonds has evolved with Chopard’s game-changing corporate missions, namely its ongoing commitment to sustainable luxury. Since 2018, the collection’s watches and jewellery have comprised 100 percent ethically sourced and produced gold. Four years later, that commitment was extended to the house’s Lucent steel offerings, which are made with a recycling rate of 80 percent.
So how to honour 50 years of Happy Diamonds? For starters, Chopard has launched a slick campaign featuring two A-list ambassadors, supermodels Bella Hadid and Liu Wen, photographed by celebrity go-to Greg Williams. Williams says he is “simply inspired by the positivity of the Happy Diamonds name [while] Bella Hadid is expressive and bold, and Liu Wen has elegance and subtlety. The pictures have a total immediate authenticity.”
That’s where Chopard has always hit the spot: authenticity. As such, the maison has created a full range of new watches and jewellery. The latest pieces highlight both the true-to-self nature and roots of Happy Diamonds, where the choreography of stones has a unique vibrance and luminosity yet also plays unpredictably and intensely with light— in some ways echoing the tempo of life today.
Kicking off the anniversary are two watch re-editions—dubbed Happy Diamonds Heritage—set in cool, cushionshaped cases, and paying faithful homage to the past. A stylish 34 mm model—powered by Chopard’s proprietary 10.01-C calibre— comes in ethical yellow gold and 21 twirling diamonds, and is complemented by a 24 mm quartz version with nine diamonds. Both are set with a sleek, mirror-polished black onyx dial that serves up a striking, graphic allure, complete with a natty vintage edge.
This velvety motif continues in a rich suite of jewellery pieces, bringing Happy Diamonds firmly into the now. Nodding to the multifaceted ways that jewellery is worn today by both men and women, the range includes cuff links, a signet ring, a tie pin that can be worn as a brooch, and a pendant necklace, all set in retro-like 18 ct ethical yellow gold.
Topping off the celebrations is a gorgeous pair of bejewelled clowns that dazzle not only with diamonds spinning in the figure’s tummy but—mirroring Caroline’s original blueprint—including rubies, sapphires and emeralds. Fully articulated head, legs and arms add further elements of surprise, leaning into the enduring virtues of Happy Diamonds: movement, freedom and, ultimately, joy.
