Inside Chopard’s 50th Anniversary Happy Diamonds Celebration

It isn’t every day that an icon turns 50 — especially one that still knows how to move. Chopard’s Happy Diamonds concept celebrates its 50th anniversary this year, and the family-owned Swiss watch and jewelry house marked the milestone in New York with new watches and jewelry, an impressive global campaign starring Bella Hadid and Liu Wen, a special exhibition on Fifth Avenue and, naturally, an elite party.

Having spent time earlier in the day in Chopard’s showroom getting a close-up look at the anniversary pieces and attending a panel discussion with some of the creative forces behind the new campaign, I thought I knew what to expect. But Chopard managed to bring the entire Happy Diamonds story to life that evening at Casa Cipriani.

And it was quite a celebration. Chopard Co-President and Artistic Director Caroline Scheufele was joined by campaign ambassadors Bella Hadid and Liu Wen, along with a crowd that included Cody Fern, Karl-Anthony Towns, Jordyn Woods, Jacob Rott, Charlie D’Amelio, Kim Shui and Future. But beyond the star power, what struck me was how effectively the evening captured the energy of Happy Diamonds themselves: movement, freedom and, yes, fun.

That same sense of movement is at the heart of Chopard’s new campaign, which is one of the most dynamic watch and jewelry campaigns I have seen in quite some time. Directed by filmmaker Manu Cossu, with choreography and movement direction by Stephen Galloway and still photography by Greg Williams, it stars Hadid and Wen in imagery built around motion.

I had the opportunity to hear Cossu, Galloway and members of the creative team discuss the thinking and production behind the campaign earlier in the day, and there is considerably more to this project than a series of beautiful images. The campaign provides a fitting contemporary backdrop for a concept born half a century ago. I’ll be taking a deeper look at the making of the campaign in a separate story coming soon.

Happy Diamonds Are Diamonds Set Free

It was in 1976 that Chopard designer Ronald Kurowski came up with the idea of allowing diamonds to move freely between two transparent surfaces rather than securing them in traditional settings. According to Chopard, the inspiration came while he was watching droplets of water catch the light at a waterfall in Germany’s Black Forest.

The idea was wonderfully simple: diamonds are even more captivating when they are free to move. Happy Diamonds was born and went on to become one of Chopard’s most recognizable signatures.

Over the ensuing decades, Chopard experimented with the concept in wonderfully imaginative ways, including watches with floating fish and other gemstone and diamond motifs. Then, in 1993, Caroline Scheufele took Happy Diamonds in an entirely new direction with Happy Sport.

At the time, combining diamonds with stainless steel in a sporty, everyday watch was an audacious move. It worked. Happy Sport became an immediate success and eventually an icon in its own right.

Happy Sport Returns to Its Roots

For the 50th anniversary celebrations, Chopard introduces Happy Sport The First, revisiting the proportions and design language of the original 1993 watch.

The new models are offered in 26mm and 35mm sizes and crafted in Chopard’s Lucent Steel, 18-karat ethical yellow gold or combinations of the two, with select versions featuring diamond-set bezels. Depending on the model, five or seven Happy Diamonds dance freely across the dial. The smaller 26mm watches are quartz powered, while the 35mm versions house automatic movements.

Chopard also reaches further back into its archives with Happy Diamonds Heritage watches inspired by historical designs. Among the standouts is a cushion-shaped watch in 18-karat ethical yellow gold with a dramatic black dial and floating diamonds, offered in 24mm and 34mm sizes.

On the jewelry side, new rectangular Happy Diamonds pendants revisit a design first introduced in 2006. Crafted in ethical yellow, rose or white gold, they feature three freely moving diamonds within a vertical rectangular form.

A New York One-Off

Also unveiled in conjunction with the New York celebration was the unveiling of the one-of-a-kind Happy Sport Joaillerie New York Special Edition. The watch features a bezel set with more than nine carats of Ashoka-cut diamonds. On the dial, six pink Happy Diamonds are joined by a playful Big Apple-inspired charm — an unmistakable nod to New York and an appropriately exuberant piece for the occasion.

“Happy Diamonds have always represented a unique vision of joy and freedom and this campaign beautifully captures that spirit,” Scheufele said during the evening.

Fifty years after the first diamonds were set free, the concept remains remarkably relevant. Perhaps that is because Happy Diamonds was never really about a particular decade or design trend. Its defining feature is movement — the diamonds react to the person wearing them. Every turn of the wrist creates something different.