Chopard

Founded
1860
Based in
Geneva, Switzerland
In our catalog
6 watches from $6,400 to $17,000

Chopard has two personalities that sit happily side by side. One is the jeweler that made diamonds dance across a watch dial. The other is the serious watchmaker behind the L.U.C collection, made in Fleurier with in-house movements and fine finishing. Both are run by the same family, the Scheufeles, who have owned the company since 1963.

History

Louis-Ulysse Chopard founded the company in Sonvilier in the Bernese Jura in 1860, making precise pocket watches. It moved to Geneva in the 1930s. In 1963 Karl Scheufele III, from a German watch and jewelry family in Pforzheim, bought the business, and his children Caroline and Karl-Friedrich have run it for decades.

In 1976 Chopard launched Happy Diamonds, with loose diamonds moving freely between two sapphire crystals. In 1988 it began sponsoring the Mille Miglia vintage car race, which led to a long line of racing chronographs. In 1996 Karl-Friedrich Scheufele opened Chopard Manufacture in Fleurier to make L.U.C movements. The Alpine Eagle, launched in 2019, revived a 1980s design called the St. Moritz as a modern integrated-bracelet sports watch. Since 2018 Chopard has committed to using only ethically sourced gold.

Signature models

What it's known for

Chopard is one of the few luxury brands that makes its own movements, cases and gold, and the L.U.C collection is considered a hidden gem by collectors. Chopard also makes the Palme d'Or for the Cannes Film Festival.

Price and positioning

A Mille Miglia starts around $6,000 and a steel Alpine Eagle around $13,000 to $15,000, with L.U.C complications and jewelry pieces well above that. Collectors often point to the L.U.C line as underpriced for what it is: in-house, finely finished movements that cost less than the equivalent from the Geneva big names.

Chopard watches in our library

All watch brands