Chopard

Louis-Ulysse Chopard founded a workshop in Sonvilier in the Jura in 1860, building pocket watches that sold well in Eastern Europe and Russia. The family ran it for three generations before the line ran out of successors, and in 1963 the company was sold to Karl Scheufele III, a Pforzheim jeweller.

The Scheufele family still owns it, and their dual background explains the house's character: Chopard is unusual in being both a serious watchmaker and a serious jeweller, with in-house capability in gem-setting and gold-working alongside movement production.

The Happy Diamonds concept of 1976 — loose stones rotating freely between two sapphire crystals — became the commercial engine of the jewellery side and remains instantly identifiable.

On the watch side, the L.U.C collection launched in 1996 with the calibre 1.96, a micro-rotor automatic that announced Chopard as a genuine manufacture rather than a fashion house buying movements. L.U.C watches have since collected Geneva Seal and COSC certifications and produced tourbillons, perpetual calendars, and minute repeaters made in Fleurier.

Chopard has timed the Mille Miglia since 1988, giving it a motorsport line with real provenance, and in 2018 moved its entire gold supply to ethically certified sources — the first major house to do so across all production.

Chopard holds 30 models, from £3,250 to £21,150. Half cost less than £8,670, and a quarter less than £7,470. 24 of 30 are automatic. 18 are stocked by more than one retailer, giving 48 offers in total. Prices are checked nightly against the retailers’ own feeds.

1860

Louis-Ulysse Chopard founds the workshop in Sonvilier.

1963

Karl Scheufele III acquires the company.

1976

Happy Diamonds introduces free-moving stones.

1988

Chopard begins timing the Mille Miglia.

1996

The L.U.C 1.96 establishes in-house movement production.