Chopard Celebrates 150 Years

To celebrate Chopard’s 150th Anniversary, Caroline Gruosi-Schuefele, Co-President and Artistic Director, has dreamed up 150 unique creations that celebrate animals, a world never explored by the company.

Animal World Collection
The way Chopard decided to handle this theme is completely original. Along with animals that are often represented in jewelry – wolves and cats, for example – the Swiss jeweler did not hesitate to honor other beasts that are more exotic (hippopotami) or unusual (seahorses), at first thought less pleasant (rats), or imaginary (dragons) or endangered (polar bears, koalas).

The result is a colorful, lively collection that perfectly matches Caroline Gruosi-Scheufele’s vibrant personality. With this wonderful jungle, which sometimes evokes the strange and magical world of Douanier Rousseau, Chopard has more than ever met its ultimate goal of creating dreams.

Built around gemstones of exceptional quality, of all shapes and sizes, the pieces of the Animal World collection also feature more unexpected stones and materials, such as quartz, kunzites, pearls, Paraiba tourmalines, moonstones, red gold, titanium, and precious woods, for a “natural” effect of startling realism. Thanks to their exceptional command of the jewelry arts, Chopard’s craftsmen made the most of the shapes, colors and materials to successfully bring the animals to life by giving them expressions and emotions.

Chopard Partners with WWF
With the launch of this collection, Chopard naturally also wished to serve nature by entering into a three-year partnership with the World Wildlife Fund, one of the world’s largest and most respected independent conservation organizations, in order to offer its support for wild tigers.

2010 marks the Year of the Tiger in the Chinese lunar calendar and comes at a time when tiger numbers are estimated to be as low as 3,200 in the wild. Chopard is partnering with WWF in order to help ensure that the species such as the tiger, featured in its new collection, have a future in the wild.

Chopard will be supporting WWF’s Tiger Initiative that seeks to double the number of tigers in the wild by 2022, the next Year of the Tiger. In order to reach this goal, WWF is undertaking a set of concerted worldwide operations, involving all 13 tiger range states. Its actions range from fighting poaching and illegal tiger trade, intregrated forest area planning and management, fostering dialogue with those mainly responsible for the destruction of the tiger’s habitats and ongoing engagement with the governments of the 13 countries concerned.

Chopard is also committed to embark on a journey with WWF to reduce the environmental impact of its business practices as an integral part of the long-term partnership between both organizations. As part of its sustainability strategy, Chopard will become a member of the Responsible Jewellery Council, which promotes responsible ethical, human rights, social and environmental practices across the jewelry industry.