Chopard marks 50 years of Happy Diamonds with a full anniversary collection

Chopard has marked the 50th anniversary of its Happy Diamonds collection with a full relaunch spanning watches, a signet ring, cufflinks, a tie pin and pendants. The centerpiece is the Happy Diamonds Heritage, a pair of re-edited watches that revive the cushion-shaped case and free-floating diamonds of the 1976 original.

The larger of the two heritage watches measures 34mm across in 18-karat yellow gold, with a case height of 8.53mm and 21 diamonds totaling 1.05 carats suspended between two layers of sapphire crystal. Chopard prices it at EUR 46,000. A smaller 24mm quartz version, with nine floating diamonds, is priced at EUR 22,800.

That larger diamond count is more than double the ten stones housed in the 1976 predecessor, according to Caroline Scheufele, Chopard's co-president and artistic director. She says the maison wanted to recapture the original sensation of diamonds moving freely across the dial exactly as they did fifty years ago.

How the original watch was built

The 1976 Happy Diamonds began as a one-off men's watch with 30 floating diamonds, submitted to the Golden Rose of Baden-Baden jewelry competition, which it won. Designer Ronald Kurowski conceived it after watching sunlight scatter across a waterfall spray in the Black Forest and set out to recreate that motion on a dial.

Diamonds are hard enough to scratch a dial and, with the slightest wrist movement, would flip over. Chopard's solution encapsulated each stone in a tiny gold sheath and gave the dial a curved, bevelled base so the diamonds could twirl without damaging the movement beneath them.

The name reportedly comes from Karin Scheufele, Karl Scheufele III's wife and Caroline Scheufele's mother, who exclaimed on seeing the first prototype that diamonds are happier when they are free. Displayed at the 1977 Basel Trade Fair, the watch and its smaller ladies' counterpart generated a rush of orders neither Chopard nor its retailers had anticipated.

What changed for the anniversary edition

The new 34mm case has a slimmer bezel, shorter and more ergonomic lugs, and a larger fluted crown for winding and setting the time, all refinements over the 1970s original. The yellow gold crown is set with onyx to match the black onyx dial, and the watch ships on a black alligator strap with a gold pin buckle.

Chopard's own in-house 10.01-C caliber, introduced in 2024, replaces the outsourced ETA 2442 movement used in 1976, since Chopard did not manufacture its own movements at the time. The company says that chapter began only in the 1990s, when co-president Karl-Friedrich Scheufele founded Chopard Manufacture.

The 10.01-C is a manual-winding movement measuring 15.7mm across and 2.9mm thick, among the smallest and thinnest hand-wound calibers the maison makes. It beats at 21,600 vibrations per hour and offers a 45-hour power reserve, viewable through a sapphire crystal porthole on the caseback.

Beyond the two watches, the anniversary campaign brings back a signet ring, cufflinks, a tie pin and a pendant from the Happy Diamonds Heritage line, alongside new Happy Sport watches and Happy Diamonds pendants. Chopard also revived a rectangular pendant design first launched in 2006, reworked lighter and more contemporary for the anniversary.

Chopard says the new diamond-set pieces use a fresh setting technique that creates an almost seamless line of stones, and that the space around the diamonds on the pendants was opened up so they move more freely than before. Every stone across the collection is certified by the Responsible Jewelry Council and set in ethical 18-karat gold.

Where the Happy Sport steel comes from

Some Happy Sport pieces in the anniversary run are crafted in Chopard's proprietary Lucent Steel, made with at least 80 percent recycled material. Chopard calls it the single biggest change to that side of the collection, distinct from the precious-metal Heritage watches that anchor the 50th-anniversary story.

Chopard is a Geneva-based maison known for high jewelry and watchmaking, and we cover the brand's watches and their retail pricing on our Chopard page. It ranks among the houses we name in our guide to the best designer jewelry brands for women, alongside Cartier, Van Cleef & Arpels and Bulgari.

We have also tracked Chopard's record for spectacle: our coverage of the most expensive sunglasses in the world names the maison's De Rigo Vision pair, valued by Chopard at $408,400 and set with 60 grams of 24-karat gold and 51 diamonds, as the priciest such piece the maker has produced.

The anniversary lands Chopard alongside other maisons marking 50th birthdays this year, a pattern we have also followed in our coverage of style, where IWC recently marked its own half-century with two limited-edition Ingenieur SL revivals. Chopard has not stated a release date beyond the collection's current availability through its boutiques.