When Sustainability Meets Luxury

Caroline Scheufele, artistic director and co-president of Chopard, wants to lead the effort to being sustainable by putting ethics at the heart of aesthetics.

Portrait of Tammy Strobel

“A precious jewellery should be treasured for a lifetime. You should fall in love with a style that resonates with you, rather than its trend factor.” 

What she wears every day

Happy Hearts (Chopard’s signature design with moving diamonds) sautoirs and bracelets – they’re versatile and come in a variety of vibrant colours to match any outfit seamlessly. I like to mix and match pieces and wear different shades of gold.

Right now, I’m wearing the Alpine Eagle Large model in Lucent steel with the dark blue dial.

Her favourite jewellery “The Queen of Kalahari” is a very rare and exceptional 342-carat rough diamond of perfect D colour and absolute purity, and it gave rise to a set of 23 diamonds: “The Garden of Kalahari”, unveiled in 2017, of which five weighed over 20 carats. It turned out to be the most precious jewellery set ever manufactured by Chopard. When I touched this incredible rough stone for the first time, I felt its strong energy.

On vs off duty style

I think every woman should be free to wear any piece of jewellery that makes her feel confident and beautiful. Sautoirs, bangles and, of course, my automatic “Happy Sport” watch are easy to combine and create new looks.

Highlight of the year

Collaborating with the new James Bond movie No Time To Die, with Chopard as official jeweller. The new Golden Hearts 007 capsule collection, which came out in July this year, is also a very exciting release.

Becoming more sustainable

Each year, we set new targets and missions for ourselves. Since 2018, we’ve achieved a 100 per cent ethical gold supply chain, sourcing gold from El Choco, Colombia – and 46 percent of the Barequeros (artisanal gold miners) are women!

On her wishlist

I hope more companies will see the benefits of certifying the mining sites, covering social welfare and practising environmental protection. It would be great if everyone could play a part in educating future generations about these important values.
 
My Reading Room
“I’m proud of this ‘three-generation’ timepiece (Alpine Eagle) developed by my father, my brother and his son (Chopard is a family-run business).”
 
My Reading Room
The Golden Hearts 007 capsule collection offers eight different designs, from $4,180.
 
My Reading Room
The Garden of Kalahari 18K Fairmined white gold earrings. Caroline says high jewellery pieces make good investments, mainly thanks to the increasing value of precious stones.
 
TEXT DEBBY KWONG