We follow the journey of the 342-carat Queen Kalahari diamond, from which Chopard's most expensive jewels were born.
You can call it love at first sight. When Chopard Vice President Caroline Scheufele saw the 342x rough diamond for the first time, she already knew she would buy it.
According to Scheufele herself, she “immediately realized that this was an incredibly rare stone of exceptional beauty and purity,” and, of course, he deserved the most worthy name. So the stone was named "Queen of the Kalahari".
The history of the Queen Kalahari diamond
Flawless diamond of incredible size was found at the Karowe mine in Botswana. In addition to its impressive dimensions, the stone showed the perfect color of category D. Before being raised from the depths of the mine, the diamond rested in the ground for billions of years. The price paid by the Swiss jewelry brand has not been disclosed.
Once in the hands of the Chopard craftsmen, the stone eventually turned into 23 perfect diamonds, five of which weigh more than 20 carats each - they were a real challenge for Caroline Scheufele, who is also the creative director of the jewelry house and designs jewelry herself.
“It's a really incredible stone, but we didn't want to treat it like a trophy. On the contrary, we had to provide him with a truly worthy fate.
Caroline Scheufele
January 21, 2017 can be considered a bright end to the journey of the “Queen of the Kalahari”, when the decorations called the Garden of Kalahari were officially presented in Paris.
Shirley Bassey, who sang the song "Diamonds are forever", sparkled in the main decoration of the evening - a necklace encrusted with 3 of the largest diamonds: a stunning 50-carat round-cut stone and two smaller stones - a 25-carat pear-shaped and a 26-carat heart-shaped. The jewelry itself can be worn in different ways, reducing or increasing the number of dazzling diamonds. Shirley Bassey opted to wear a "top-of-the-line" necklace with three diamond pendants, while two of them can be detached and used as earrings.
The entire Garden of Kalahari collection includes, in addition to the necklace, five more pieces of jewelry: a wide bracelet, two rings, a jewelry watch with a secret and earrings. The cost of the products was not announced, but it is clear that we are talking about many millions of dollars.
