A SPARKLING FACE
Virtually 30 years on after the original watch which shook up codes by making diamonds dance freely on its face, the Geneva-based brand honors this icon by unveiling a slightly-reworked new version.
With her audacious spirit and magical drawing style, she has breathed life into a watch that is totally free and uninhibited. Caroline Scheufele, Chopard Co-President and Artistic Director, took a timepiece from 1976, Happy Diamonds, and created a new one in 1993: Happy Sport which, unlike its elder sibling, invites diamonds to dance freely over its dial, without any constraint. The gems twirl in tune with the wrist’s movements, at times languorously, at others frenetically, and the marriage with steel gifts the ensemble with stylishly-relaxed elegance. This fascinating watch has been slightly reworked, in particular guided by the harmonious proportions of the golden ration, proposed as a 1,993-piece Happy Sport the First limited edition.
The model Caroline Scheufele created boasts a 33 mm-diameter case where we discover cabochon-cut sapphires which set off the lugs and the crown. Its sapphire-crystal caseback invites to admire a magnificent view of the workings of the automatic movement, the Chopard 09.01-L caliber, which delivers a power reserve of 42 hours when fully wound.
This stunning show center stages random choreography played out by 7 freely-moving diamonds, each encased in a metal spinning-top-type capsule, held between two sapphire-crystal strips placed on top of the dial. On the immaculate dial, two blue sword-style hands and a silvered direct-drive hover over large Arabic numerals linked by a railway-style minute tracker, with a date reigning at 6 o’clock.
The Happy Sport the First, which is worn on a comfortable steel bracelet with 4 rows of pebble links, attached by a folding clasp, is also available in an exclusive version with diamond-strewn bezel and mother-of-pearl dial (788 pieces).
Price: EUR9,850 (steel) – EUR17,300 (stone-set steel)
By Sharmila Bertin