A diamond usually has one job: stay exactly where the jeweller put it. And yet, Chopard has spent 50 years giving it other ideas. Its Happy Diamonds are held beneath clear sapphire, where they slide, slide and gather whenever the wearer moves. Now the house is celebrating the design’s anniversary with re-editions of its earliest watches, new jewellery and a campaign starring Bella Hadid and Liu Wen. The stones still supply the surprise. The breadth of this return shows how much Chopard has built around that first idea.
The new Happy Diamonds Heritage watches make the most direct trip back to 1976. Both have softly squared yellow-gold cases, black onyx dials and black leather straps. Their shape belongs unmistakably to the 1970s, but the rounded corners spare it the severity of a pure square. The onyx gives the diamonds a dark stage: tilt the wrist and they scatter around the dial; lower it and they find a new resting place. A photograph catches one arrangement. The watch keeps producing others.
Chopard traces the original concept to light catching the spray of a waterfall in Germany’s Black Forest. The solution was to give diamonds room to move between two transparent surfaces, instead of fixing them in a conventional setting. The first Happy Diamonds watch received the Golden Rose of Baden-Baden in 1976. Half a century later, the cleverness of the construction is still easy to appreciate because its effect is so simple: an expensive stone can appear to behave on impulse.
The larger Heritage watch measures 34 millimetres and holds 21 moving diamonds. A hand-wound mechanical movement, developed in-house, is visible through the back of its case. The smaller, 24-millimetre model carries nine diamonds and runs on quartz. That difference matters less to the eye than the change in scale. The larger case has the presence of a substantial vintage watch; the smaller sits closer to jewellery. Slim gold hands tell the time while the diamonds provide the interruption.
Black onyx is a particularly good choice. Gold and diamonds together can easily compete for attention. Here, the black puts space between them and sharpens the outline of the case. It also makes the watches easier to imagine with ordinary clothes. The 34-millimetre version would look excellent emerging from the cuff of a broad-shouldered jacket. The smaller one could sit beside a plain white shirt without appearing dressed for an occasion that has yet to arrive.
Chopard carries the same black-and-gold combination into a signet ring, cufflinks, a pendant and a tie pin that can also be worn as a brooch. The ring has the strongest character: a broad gold band supports a rounded square onyx face, behind which the diamonds move. It has the reassuring weight of a traditional signet, then does something a signet never normally does. The cufflinks repeat the effect in miniature. A single diamond moves within a small window on the rectangular pendant.
The anniversary campaign takes a wider view of Happy Diamonds. Hadid, a Chopard ambassador since 2024, appears alongside Liu Wen, newly appointed to the role, in films directed by Manu Cossu and photographs by Greg Williams. Stephen Galloway shaped the movement for the films. That attention to gesture makes sense for jewellery whose appearance changes with the body wearing it. The campaign brings the watches and jewels together through movement, while its two stars give that idea two distinct presences.
It also introduces Happy Sport The First, a re-edition of the 1993 Happy Sport watch. This is a different chapter from the onyx-dial Heritage pieces. Conceived by Caroline Scheufele, Happy Sport placed moving diamonds on the dial and paired them with steel, an unexpected combination at the time. The new versions come in 26- and 33-millimetre sizes, in Lucent Steel and/or yellow gold. Where the Heritage watches are graphic and dressy, Happy Sport has the easier manner of a watch intended to be worn through the day.
New Happy Diamonds pendants add another chapter. Their rectangular shape dates from a 2006 Chopard design, now given more open space for the stones to travel. Versions come in yellow, rose and white gold. The wider choice sits comfortably beside the Heritage cufflinks and adaptable tie pin: these are pieces to select by preference and where one wants to wear them, rather than by a narrow idea of who jewellery is for.
Then comes the clown. In 1985, a young Caroline Scheufele drew the character, and her father, Karl, secretly had it made into a piece of jewellery for her. Chopard has revived the Happy Clown in two yellow-gold versions. One contains moving diamonds and coloured gemstones, including ruby, sapphire and emerald; the other is covered in pavé diamonds and holds five Happy Diamonds. Its head, arms and legs are articulated, so this little figure moves in more ways than one.
The clown will divide opinion, which is probably part of its charm. Beside the disciplined watches, it looks gleefully eccentric: a tiny circus performer in a very costly costume. But its family story gives it a place in the collection. Chopard’s moving-diamond idea began as a watchmaking invention and grew into something Caroline Scheufele could play with. Fifty years on, that willingness to play remains its most convincing quality.
