 
Luxury jewellery brand Chopard has created many curiosities over their decades long tenure in the world of high jewellery, yet their Animal World collection has to be one of their most unusual and memorable projects. On the face of it, this charming range is an exercise to see just how far Chopard can push their prodigious jewellery making abilities, yet we can’t begrudge them that, as the finished results are absolutely exceptional. We’ve already seen jewellery that takes the form of polar bears, owls, hummingbirds, peacocks, tigers and even snakes in the past, but a late unveiling from Chopard heralds what could possibly be their most adorable creation of all; a hedgehog secret watch.
The concept of a ‘secret’ watch has been explored many times before, as all that is required is for some sort of adornment to shelter the dial from view. Few previous attempts have come up with a more striking secret watch than this though, as the feature hiding the dial is a tiny hedgehog sculpture that’s encrusted with a plethora of glittering moonstone spikes. As you might expect, hundreds of hours of painstaking work were needed to fashion such a delicate little animal form, and each diamond and moonstone has been individually ‘paved’ into an 18 carat white gold base.
To convey a ‘stylised’ aesthetic, each moonstone spike has been carved into differing lengths, whilst the diamonds upon the piece are mostly clustered around areas such as the head to suggest the echo of actual fur. The head also makes use of sapphires that exhibit various hues, including a pair of shimmering blue stones for the eyes of the hedgehog, as well as a small and select assemblage of brown sapphires to mark the nose. This nose is far more than just a decorative feature too, as a light touch of this feature will reveal the secrets held within the hedgehog casing. This secret is, of course, a wristwatch, and it can be seen when the hinged moonstone spikes of the piece are moved away.
Rather than just housing a typical watch dial within this innovative jewellery form, Chopard has instead elected to showcase a dial that’s just as delightful as the external case. Once again swathed in a cascade of diamonds, the dial is designed to look as though it lies within the paws of a second hedgehog – this time a baby – and you just know that the interior mechanisms within this timepiece will be honed to perfection as well. It’s fair to say that Chopard’s more eclectic assemblages aren’t for every sort of preference, but for sheer creativity and attention to detail, they’re exemplary.
We love seeing the unique jewellery pieces from Chopard here at Banks Lyon, and we’re definitely falling in love with this hedgehog watch; how about you? Don’t forget that we have an unparalleled collection of Chopard watches and Chopard jewellery in our stock too, so you can find plenty of previous examples showing off Chopard’s inimitable flair right here. If you’d like to find out more information, or have an interest in a specific product, please contact us by calling 01524 38 48 58.
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