Chopard’s Happy Sport watch icon has been treated to a festive new outfit for a Year of the Rabbit that is all about Joie de Vivre. Clad in a majestic ruby-red dress and crafted in a 33 mm diameter combining stainless steel and ethical 18-carat rose gold, the embodiment of the sporty-chic trend sends five dancing diamonds whirling around a splendid mother-of-pearl dial adorned with a rabbit. Paired with a red leather strap, the Happy Sport beats to the rhythm of the Chopard 09.01-C movement with a 42-hour power reserve.
Happy Sport is the story of watchmaking icon whose charm has been distilled through hundreds of variations since its invention in 1993. As the Chinese zodiac calendar’s Year of the Rabbit dawns, the icon is interpreted in an 88-piece limited edition.
The Happy Sport Year of the Rabbit watch exudes a resolutely festive look with its ruby red dial and strap. A symbol of good fortune and joy in China, red conveys the singularity of a flamboyant presence and a breath of luck. Chopard has combined it with a 33-millimetre-diameter stainless steel case featuring sparkling ethical rose gold accents on the diamond-set bezel, cabochons and crown.
Iconic since their invention by the Chopard workshops in 1976, five dancing diamonds stage their joyful flurry on this creation. Their perpetual spinning holds the promise of renewal for a Year of the Rabbit that will begin on 22 January 2023.
Against the backdrop of this merry dance, the dial of the Happy Sport Year of the Rabbit model is distinguished by the boldness with which it portrays this creature. Profoundly respectful of tradition, Chopard is always keen to associate its creations with local history and customs. The Year of the Rabbit offers the Maison an opportunity to interpret the luckiest animal in the Chinese zodiac calendar. The artisans of the Manufacture have thus placed the transferred golden outline of a rabbit on a textured mother-of-pearl base featuring a red gradient enhanced by a wave motif. Symbolising strength and bravery, the rabbit is depicted seated, with its muzzle pointing towards 2 o’clock and its long ears raised. Its posture, like the stylised drawings on the animal’s coat, lend it an elegance and a touch of mischief eminently suited to the identity of the Happy Sport collection.
Finally, the disctinction of this timepiece also lies in its technical reliability. Embodying a successful alliance between aesthetics and horological precision, the Happy Sport Year of the Rabbit is equipped with the Chopard 09.01-C movement, entirely developed and crafted in the workshops of the Maison. Measuring 20.40 millimetres in diameter and 3.65 thick, it has a 42-hour power reserve.
Happy Sport: free and bold
In 1993, seizing the spirit of the times, Caroline Scheufele (now Co-President and Artistic Director of Chopard) designed a sports watch based on the unprecedented combination of steel and diamonds. As the fruit of this bold move, the Happy Sport has continued ever since to celebrate Joie de Vivre and a free-spirited attitude daily reinvented by women around the world. Thanks to the dancing diamonds that are “happier when they are free” – as Caroline’s mother exclaimed in 1976 upon glimpsing the first prototype of this original concept – the Happy Sport watch is a perpetual show in which the woman who wears it plays an indispensable role. It is her own movements that give momentum to the dancing diamonds and to this constantly recomposed picture. The collection is a reflection of this vibrant life and has lent itself to infinite transformations since its inception.
Chopard Happy Sport Year of the Rabbit Technical details
Ref. 278608-6011 – 88-piece limited edition in stainless steel and ethical 18-carat rose gold with a leather strap.
Functions:
- Hours, minutes, seconds
Movement:
- Mechanical self-winding movement Chopard 09.01-C
- Number of components: 148
- Total diameter: 20.40 mm
- Thickness: 3.65 mm
- Number of jewels: 27
- Frequency: 25,200 vph (3.5 Hz)
- Power reserve: 42 hours
Case:
- Stainless steel
- Total diameter: 33 mm
- Thickness: 10.84 mm
- Water resistance: 30 metres
- Faceted crown in ethical 18-carat rose gold set with a ruby: 5.50 mm
- Facetted cabochons in ethical 18-carat rose gold
- Bezel in diamond-set ethical 18-cart rose gold
- Glare-proofed sapphire crystal
- Screw-down exhibition back with special engraving
Dial and hands:
- Ruby red-gradient textured mother-of-pearl dial with gilded and powdered transferred rabbit and background motif featuring translucent transferred waves
- Gilded transferred minutes track
- Five dancing diamonds
- Domed and gilded hours and minutes hands
- Gilded baton-type central sweep-seconds hand
Strap and buckle:
- Glossy red alligator leather strap
- Stainless steel buckle
