Celebrating Sustainability
Chopard celebrates a milestone with a major announcement on its journey of commitment to sustainable luxury. Dewi Irma writes
It’s another huge year for Chopard as everyone is talking about its new campaign: “The Journey to Sustainable Luxury”, which was officially announced at a Baselworld 2018 press conference. “True luxury comes only when you know the handprint of your supply chain,” said Caroline Scheufele, CoPresident and Creative Director of Chopard. Celebrities, long-term supporters, and friends of Chopard like Colin and Livia Firth, Julianne Moore, model Arizona Muse, activist Noella Coursaris, and Chinese singer Roy Wang also came to champion the gold landmark announcement.
Chopard revealed that from July 2018, it will use 100 per cent ethical gold in its jewellery and watches. This means that every piece of gold sourced will either be acquired from sustainable sources or verified as having met international best practices in environmental and social standards. Thus, Chopard is aiming to reduce the social and environmental cost of making luxury watches and jewellery.
While we’re hoping that other luxury brands will take on the same ethical responsibilities and follow suit, we noticed that there are many new collections from Chopard that have been released and which are worth our attention. One of these is the limited-edition Mille Miglia 2018 Race Edition, with 2018 marking 30 years since Chopard served as partner and official timekeeper of the famous Mille Miglia race. This line continues to grow, and the 2018 editions play with racing colours inspired by vintage automobiles.
As the Cannes International Film Festival approaches, the high-jewellery workshop of Chopard has also been working on stellar pieces for its upcoming Red Carpet collection. We love the Secret Watch, and we are curious as to who will be the lucky actress wearing this exceptional creation while walking down the red carpet.
Meanwhile, embodying an essence of elegant nostalgia and a romantic aura, this year’s L’heure du Diamant timepiece is a stunningly gorgeous item. On all three models, which have a stunning opal dial and oval case set to a 1970s style, the bezel is entirely paved with brilliant-cut diamonds.
Spurred by the success of its new design for the L.U.C XP and XPS collections in 2017, Chopard has extended this aesthetic to other stellar models in the L.U.C collection, including the L.U.C Quattro. This watch features a vertical silver-toned dial swept over by a set of blued hands, which makes the right match for the 18K rose-gold case. As another reinvention of a classic, Chopard also introduced a new variation of the L.U.C Full Strike, known in the industry for its crystalclear sound.
Another highlight was Chopard’s celebration of the 25th anniversary of the Happy Sport, which combines steel and diamonds. A new self-winding movement, the Calibre 09.01- C, was introduced to the collection, and there were four exquisite Métiers d’art versions also created for the occasion and limited to just 25 pieces each: Happy Fish, Happy Snowflakes, Happy Sport Joaillerie, and Happy Palm. As the official partner of the Cannes Film Festival, the Happy Palm reflects the glamour and glittering style of the festival and is made of Fairmined-certified ethical gold like the Palme d’or itself. In the end, among all the unveilings of the latest novelties at Baselworld 2018, what has been done by Chopard surely deserves big appreciation. We know it’s still a long way to go before sustainability becomes a worldwide standard across all industries, but we are glad that one luxury brand has made an important announcement that might set a brand-new standard for the future of both jewellery and watchmaking, and a brighter future for all.