Early history The company founder, Louis-Ulysse Chopard, was a Swiss
watchmaker who grew up in
Sonvilier, a town in
Swiss Jura. In 1860, he established his L.U.C. manufacturing company in Sonvilier, having observed that it was more profitable to market a finished watch than to just make the mechanical movement. After Louis-Ulysse's death in 1915, the company was taken over by his son Paul-Louis and grandson Paul-André. In 1963, having no children wishing to continue in the business, Paul-André Chopard sold it to Karl Scheufele III, a German goldsmith and watchmaker from
Pforzheim, who was seeking a watch movement manufacturer exclusively for his own business.
Recent developments in
New York City In 1974, the Chopard factory moved from the center of
Geneva to
Meyrin-Geneva and in 1976 the company started making watches that contained its signature free-floating diamond behind sapphire glass. In the 1980s, the company expanded into making sports watches for men and diamond jewellery for women. In 2014, Chopard recorded sales of CHF800m (US$915m) and had roughly 2,000 employees worldwide, of whom 900 were working in Switzerland. In 2015, French actress
Marion Cotillard designed a bracelet for Chopard's Green Carpet Collection made of ethical Fairmined-certified gold. In December 2018,
World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) released a report assigning environmental ratings to 15 major watch manufacturers and jewelers in Switzerland. Chopard was given a below-average environmental rating as "Lower Midfield", suggesting that the manufacturer has only taken a few actions addressing the impact of its manufacturing activities on the environment and climate change. In 2020, Cotillard designed her own sustainable jewelry collection for Chopard entitled "Ice Cube Capsule". She designed seven items curated from Fairmined-certified ethical gold and diamonds. The company produces around 75,000 timepieces and 75,000 jewelry pieces each year, and is an active member of the
Federation of the Swiss Watch Industry FH. == Auction record ==