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Masters of ingenuity -
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Today’s timepieces set new standards in technology and style – and are raising money for charity
witzerland
has long enjoyed a high reputation for precision engineering, first
in watch and clockmaking and more recently in electronics, where a whole
new industry is growing up in several valleys between the Swiss mountains.
Although there are many young people who follow a long apprenticeship
to become a master watchmaker, a chocolatier or a cheesemaker, there
are many of Switzerland’s new generation who are making a name
for themselves in hi-tech, fashion design and the hospitality business.
And while the Swiss finishing school continues to exist for the children
of the wealthy, most Swiss students today are more likely to be multi-lingual
graduates shaping up for careers in international banking, bio-technology
or pharmaceuticals.
Swiss
precision engineering is probably best expressed by what we wear on
our wrists. Forget the tired old image of cuckoo clocks. Today’s
Swiss timepieces are masterpieces of design and ingenuity. And among
the many Swiss watchmakers, one name has established itself as a brand
apart.
Chopard was founded
in 1860 by Louis-Ulysse Chopard, making pocket-watches and chronometers
in a small workshop in Sonvillier in the mountains of the Swiss Jura.
The firm moved to Geneva in 1920 and began producing luxury watches.
But by the 1960s, Paul-Andre Chopard, the last watchmaker of the Chopard
name, faced a dilemma – none of his sons wanted to continue in
the family business. At the same time, Karl Scheufele, the third in
line of a dynasty of German goldsmiths and watchmakers, was looking
for a business to buy.
In 1963 Chopard sold the family firm to Scheufele, who set about modernising
the business. Today, the watchmaking company is still a family affair,
with Karl Scheufele and his wife, Karin, at the helm and their two children,
Karl-Friedrich and Caroline, as vice-presidents.
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Caroline
Gruosi-Scheufele is responsible for the design and creation
of the company’s ‘Haute Joaillerie’ jewellery range and
its lines of perfume and accessories, while her older brother, Karl-Friedrich,
runs the men’s watch division as well as the technological and
business side of the firm.
The jewellery is created at a factory in Pforzheim in Germany and the
watches are made at a modern plant in Meyrin, a five-minute drive from
Geneva airport. In 1996, Chopard returned to its roots by setting up
a new plant for the manufacture of a new automatic movement in Fleurier,
130km from Geneva and not far from where Louis-Ulysse Chopard founded
the original firm.
Of the wide range of designs that Chopard has produced, the LUC 1860,
the LUC Sport 2000, the LUC Quattro and the LUC Tonneau are recognised
as being at the pinnacle of a grand Swiss watchmaking tradition. The
latter is the world’s only watch housing a shaped, self-winding
movement with micro-rotor, and boasts two superimposed barrels and a
power reserve of about 65 hours.
Mrs
Gruosi-Scheufele has collaborated with celebrities including pop star
Elton John and opera singer Jose
Carreras on the design of watches – some of which cost over £2
million. The Prince of Wales chose one of her designs for a watch which
is sold exclusively to support his charity foundation.
She met the prince at a polo event and was invited to dinner at his
Highgrove home. “I asked him why he did not have a product which
would earn a little more money for his charity, The Prince’s Foundation,
than organic honey,” she says. “I told him what we were doing
for Jose Carreras and his charity for leukaemia research. Two days later,
the telephone rang in Geneva and I was asked to design a limited series
of watches for the foundation.”
The prince chose from a range of models and designs she presented. The
12 on the dial has been replaced by the prince’s crest and the
watch is sold exclusively in Chopard boutiques, which are located in
more than 40 cities around the world, from London to Tokyo.
“It’s not that we are selling a dream,” adds Mrs Gruosi-Scheufele.
“We are selling things of which people dream.”
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