Louis-Ulysse Chopard founded the house in 1860 in Sonvilier, in the Swiss Jura — a region of watchmakers and craftsmen, where precision was not an ambition but a condition of survival. The house remained a watch manufacturer for a century before Karl Scheufele, a German goldsmith and jeweler, acquired it in 1963 and began the transformation into the dual identity — watches and jewelry — that defines Chopard today. The Scheufele family has owned the house since. In an industry progressively dominated by conglomerates, Chopard remains privately held, family-managed, and entirely independent. Caroline Scheufele, Karl's daughter, serves as co-president and artistic director. Her brother Karl-Friedrich oversees the watch division. The house is, in this sense, an anomaly — one of the last significant jewelry and watch maisons of its scale that has resisted the logic of group consolidation.

Chopard's jewelry is produced in Geneva, at workshops on the Rue de Veyrot. The house was among the first in the luxury jewelry industry to commit to 100% ethical gold — certified Fairmined or Fairtrade — beginning in 2018. By 2024, that commitment extended across the full supply chain. The decision was not made in response to consumer pressure. It was made as a condition of the house's own standards. That is the distinction.

The Happy Diamonds collection is built on a technical invention that no other house had attempted before 1976 — and that no other house has successfully replicated at the same level since. Loose diamonds, freed from their settings, dance between two sapphire crystal surfaces whenever the wearer moves. The effect is immediate and unrepeatable: a piece of jewelry that is animated by the person wearing it, that responds to breath and gesture and the rhythm of a day. The movement is not decorative. It is the design. A Happy Diamonds bracelet at rest is one object. In motion, on a wrist, it is something else — something alive in a way that a static pavé diamond cannot be.

Chopard committed to 100% ethical gold — certified Fairmined or Fairtrade — beginning in 2018, ahead of most houses of comparable scale and well ahead of any regulatory requirement. The decision was driven by Caroline Scheufele's direct engagement with artisanal mining communities in South America, initiated through a partnership with the Alliance for Responsible Mining. By 2024, the commitment had extended across the full supply chain. Every piece of Chopard fine jewelry produced since 2018 carries gold whose provenance is traceable and whose extraction has met verified social and environmental standards. In a category where sustainability claims are frequently vague and rarely verifiable, Chopard's commitment is specific, documented, and independently audited. It is not a marketing position. It is a manufacturing condition.

Chopard's New York address sits in the Crown Building at 730 Fifth Avenue — alongside Chanel, Bvlgari, and Mikimoto, directly across from Tiffany's Landmark flagship on 57th Street. The boutique presents the full fine jewelry portfolio — Happy Diamonds, Happy Hearts, Ice Cube, L'Heure du Diamant, Precious Lace — alongside the house's watch collections. Caroline Scheufele chose New York Fashion Week 2025 as the moment to reveal Ice Cube High Jewelry precisely because the city and the collection share a design logic: structured but alive, geometric but in motion, precise but never cold. The house has been making this argument since 1976. New York simply provided the most appropriate stage for its latest chapter.