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What Is the History of Chopard Watches? Part One

Founded in 1860, Chopard grew from a Sonvilier pocket-watch workshop into a Geneva maison known for moving-diamond designs and in-house movements.
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Chopard was founded in 1860, when Louis-Ulysse Chopard opened a watch manufactory in Sonvilier, Switzerland. Its early focus on precise pocket watches and chronometers grew into a story of family ownership, moving-diamond designs and, later, an in-house movement manufacture in Fleurier.

When was Chopard founded?

Chopard dates its founding to 1860. According to the company’s history, 24-year-old Louis-Ulysse Chopard established a high-precision watch manufactory in Sonvilier, a Swiss village in the Jura region. Its pocket watches and chronometers were intended to combine accuracy with a slim profile suited to everyday use. The Fondation Haute Horlogerie (FHH) also gives 1860 as the brand’s creation date.

Chopard says that by 1885 its watches had earned clients including the Swiss Federal Shooting Festival, the Swiss Railway Company and Tsar Nicholas II. These are milestones recorded in the company’s own retrospective timeline. Chopard’s official history traces the early years and later milestones.

How did Chopard move from Sonvilier to Geneva?

In 1937, the company says, it relocated to Geneva, where Paul-André Chopard continued the family business. The move placed the watchmaker in a city with an established reputation as a centre of Swiss watchmaking, but it did not mark the company’s founding: Chopard had already been operating for more than three-quarters of a century.

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A major ownership change followed in 1963. Chopard’s account says German watchmaker and jeweller Karl Scheufele III was looking for a Swiss manufacturer when he met Paul-André Chopard in Geneva. The two agreed on a sale, and Karl and his wife, Karin, went on to develop the company. This was a transfer of ownership, not a new beginning for the brand.

What changed under the Scheufele family?

The new ownership broadened Chopard’s design and production ambitions. In 1978, Karl Scheufele III invested in a foundry workshop so the company could produce its own gold alloys. In 1980, his son Karl-Friedrich Scheufele designed the steel St. Moritz watch, bringing a sportier direction into the collection.

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Jewellery became more prominent too. Chopard dates Caroline Scheufele’s Happy Clown design to 1985 and describes it as the Maison’s mascot and the beginning of its first jewellery collection. The FHH likewise credits Caroline Gruosi-Scheufele with encouraging a stronger focus on jewellery. In 1988, Karl-Friedrich partnered with the 1000 Miglia race to launch the Mille Miglia sports-watch collection.

How did Happy Diamonds and Happy Sport shape Chopard?

Happy Diamonds: freely moving stones

Introduced in 1976, Happy Diamonds gave diamonds movement rather than setting them immovably against the dial. Chopard describes the stones as moving freely between two sapphire crystals. The FHH says the first model was a cushion-shaped men’s watch with 30 diamonds. It also recounts an origin story in which designer Ronald Kurowski took inspiration from sunlight and water droplets in the Black Forest; that account is the FHH’s, rather than an independently documented event.

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The FHH explains the construction as diamonds set in capsules with bevelled bases, placed between sapphire crystals so they can spin freely. The design made the stones themselves part of the watch’s motion and visual identity. The FHH’s Happy Diamonds history describes the collection’s origins and design.

Happy Sport: steel meets diamonds

Caroline Scheufele designed Happy Sport, launched in 1993, as a sportier watch that paired steel with diamonds while retaining the floating-stone motif. The FHH calls it the first watch to combine those materials. Happy Diamonds and Happy Sport thus represent two related but distinct design directions: a jewellery-led moving-diamond concept, followed by a more casual, sporty interpretation.

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When did Chopard begin making its own movements?

In 1996, Karl-Friedrich Scheufele founded Chopard Manufacture in Fleurier to develop and produce high-precision Swiss movements. This marked a separate strand of the company’s evolution from its celebrated exterior designs: a commitment to movement development within its own manufacture. The FHH’s Chopard brand profile also records the manufacture and its technical milestones.

One early landmark was the L.U.C Quattro, which Chopard dates to 2000. The company says its L.U.C 1.98 calibre used four barrels to provide a nine-day power reserve. In 2003, the FHH dates the L.U.C. 2.01, Chopard’s first tourbillon calibre. Together, these developments show the technical direction established by the Fleurier manufacture.

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Where does Part One of Chopard’s history lead?

From its 1860 workshop in Sonvilier to the Fleurier manufacture, Chopard’s first major chapters combine continuity and change: precision watchmaking, relocation to Geneva, a Scheufele-family ownership transition, distinctive moving-diamond designs and the development of in-house movements. Its later history includes further watch and jewellery milestones, but the early arc is already clear: Chopard grew from a pocket-watch maker into a maison working across mechanical watchmaking, sport and jewellery.

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