Swiss watchmaker and jeweler Chopard has launched a new collection, Magical Setting, comprising cluster rings, pendants and earrings. An innovative setting allows the diamonds and precious colored stones to shine as never before.
“In this dynamic reimagining of one of the noblest and most enduring jewelry classics — the floral cluster — Caroline Scheufele, co-president and artistic director of Chopard, unlocks the intense light and luster deep in the soul of a gemstone while unleashing the full emotional power at the heart of the jewel,” a press release said.
The collection offers a choice of jewels set with diamonds only, or with diamonds and blue sapphires from Sri Lanka, rubies from Mozambique/Madagascar or emeralds from Colombia/Zambia. Each cluster is centered on a significant single stone and encircled throughout with other unusually large stones.
“The dramatic light show performed by the jewels is achieved by an innovative setting technique, painstakingly developed by Chopard’s master artisans, and inspired by Caroline Scheufele’s long-cherished dream of intensifying the life and light of a gemstone, while enhancing the presence and personality of the jewel,” the Swiss maison said.
While the center stone of each cluster is set in barely there claws, the surrounding stones are held in place, as if by magic, with no visible means of support, and no metal visible from the front or top of the jewel. Instead, the cluster is underpinned by an entirely new structure, exclusive to Chopard. This means that the light can flow freely in and out and around the gemstones, rippling across the surface of the stones and unimpeded by the opacity of metal constraints.
With the Magical Setting collection, Scheufele re-works one of the most classic of jewelry expressions. The cluster design can be traced back to the 14th century, originating perhaps in medieval ring-brooches worn to fasten cloaks or tunics, and developing into huge, elaborate gem-smothered circles. The cluster blossomed in the 17th and 18th centuries as a stylized interpretation of the flower — the earliest of adornments — at a time when diamonds, newly discovered in Brazil during the 1720s, were becoming more available and desirable to a new and wealthy merchant class. Through the 19th century, the cluster took the form of a single and usually important colored stone, encircled by diamonds.
The Magical Setting collection is an evolution of Chopard’s most famous creation, Happy Diamonds.
“In 1976, Chopard stunned the jewelry world with Happy Diamonds, joyful little diamonds that broke free from the restraints of outdated conventions, free to dance, play and move, mischievous, young-at-heart. The timing was perfect: Happy Diamonds became an emblem of social and cultural change, of the new freedom of femininity,” Chopard said.
“Now, once again, with perfect timing, the Magical Setting collection reflects today’s mood of female empowerment: These are jewels for women who are free to express their femininity however they wish, with no limitations, their spirits soaring, like Magical Setting, upwards into the light.”
