This year’s watches for the ladies from haute horlogerie marque Chopard attest to the atelier’s skill with high jewellery and innovative craftsmanship. While the dial of the new Happy Sport in 33 mm is a skilful play of colour and guilloché work, the day and night indication of the latest Imperiale edition is poetry in motion…
Happy Sport – 33 mm
Chopard’s iconic Happy Sport once again achieves a stunning first with the launch of a bold colour named Midnight Purple in reference to the sun’s rosy reflections painted across the sky as the night edges towards dawn. This Happy Sport comes in the Manufacture’s optimally comfortable 33 mm-diameter case in Lucent Steel. By using the golden ratio principles of aesthetic harmony in direct relation to the diameter of the Chopard 09.01-C movement with automatic winding, this dainty size is perfectly suited to the female wrist. Changing colour seemingly as one observes it, this magnificent guilloché work of art offers a skilful play on light as its signature dancing diamonds twirl in a never-ending disco-infused dance and is flawlessly finished with bluish-purple alligator leather strap.
Happy Sport – 25 mm
The new Happy Sport is reinvented in a 25 mm diameter case in Lucent Steel or Lucent Steel and ethical gold. This new-sized iteration comes in seven variations featuring a choice of materials, colours, and straps – including a new double tour option – and diamond settings. The softness of the pearly silvery grey, blue, pink, and green dials draw the gaze and envelop it in an ultra-chic chromatic texture. On the non-gem-set versions, a magnificent double-tour leather strap adds an ultra-chic touch. A splendid midnight blue shade has been chosen to enhance most versions of this strap. Teamed with Lucent Steel and ethical gold, it adds an incredibly stylish accent. The pink and green dial versions have matching strap colours. Finally, the two versions featuring a diamond-set bezel are fitted with a timelessly elegant alligator leather strap, also in midnight blue.
Imperiale
Imperiale is enriched with a limited numbered edition of 25 original timepieces crafted in ethical 18-carat rose gold and highlighting the magnificence of the lotus flower. The delicately crafted mother-of-pearl mobile dial of this Imperiale model is lacquered in an exquisite cerulean gradient enlivened by seven gold-powder stars. Snow-set diamonds and sapphires in six different shades of blue wonderfully expresses the transition from day to night. This steady motion is made possible by the L.U.C 96.30-L calibre developed entirely in-house. Endowed with a 65-hour power reserve, this self-winding mechanism driving a day-night disc with a 24-hour rotation is an ingenious variation on the first calibre to emerge from Chopard Manufacture. This Imperiale model gradually changes face in passing from darkness to light. After midnight, the star-studded sapphire dome gives way to morning lights represented by a white diamond sky behind which the night stars fade away until the following day.
L’Heure du Diamant
The L’Heure du Diamant collection sums up the wealth of artisanal crafts cultivated within Chopard, by artisans ranging from master watchmakers to gem-setters. It is reinvented in a new watch with an oval-shaped case fashioned from ethical 18-carat white or rose gold, graced with a textured mother-of-pearl dial and rimmed with marquise-cut diamonds. This creation features the emblematic tree bark-textured gold bracelet sculpted using a proprietary technique and beats to the rhythm of the Chopard 09.01-C self-winding movement. Matched with pair of earrings and a pendant endowed with the same aesthetic characteristics, this timepiece bears within it the genius of skills patiently nurtured through the years by Chopard’s Artisans of Emotion.
Haute Joaillerie
Chopard has unveiled two Haute Joaillerie timepieces. The first white gold model is entirely set with diamonds in a virtuoso arrangement of round and pear shapes, studded with emeralds exuding a mesmerising charm. The emerald has been much sought after since antiquity, evoking the fresh charm of verdant Nature and symbolising triumphant life forces. It is this unique yet fragile gem requiring extremely careful handling that the Maison’s master jewellers have chosen to highlight in this watch. Nature makes an indelible imprint through to the very heart of the dial, on which 12 pear-shaped diamond hour-markers form a generous rosette.
In another equally splendid jewellery watch, two very rare fancy vivid yellow pear-shaped diamonds light up the dial at 12 and 6 o’clock. These over two-carat precious stones are discreetly held by yellow gold prongs whose colour matches that of the diamonds. The rest of the corolla surrounding this jewellery watch is adorned with white diamonds in an infinitely graceful symmetrical composition whose supreme refinement is paired with a grey satin strap. Both watches are made from Fairmined-certified ethical 18-carat gold.
