Caroline Gruosi-Scheufele was born into a family steeped in the creative world of watches and jewellery in both Pforzheim, Germany and Geneva, Switzerland. After completing her studies in Geneva, Caroline took design and gemmology courses and then underwent an in-depth training in all the departments of the family business, quickly establishing the fact that she had an innate talent for design and an instinctive flair for mixing and matching shapes and colours.

Today, Chopard's sales breaks down into 35% jewellery and 65% watches. 70,000 watches are manufactured a year - 50,000 for ladies and 20,000 for men, 4,000 of which are from the L.U.C collection which are equipped with mechanical movements from the Chopard manufacture and now includes a tourbillon. The company's major markets are Europe (50%), Far East (25%), USA (20%) and 5% for the rest of the world.

In her role as Vice President and Creative Director, Caroline is responsible for the creative and design departments in Chopard's Geneva and Pforzheim facilities and also travels the world visiting and overseeing existing Chopard boutiques and the establishment of new ones. During these travels, she meets a variety of people, from agents to clients, and with at the last count five languages at her disposal, Caroline keeps her finger on the pulse of the vagaries within the various markets.



Europa Star: Chopard is renowned for both its jewellery and watch creations. However, designing watches is more restrictive than creating jewellery. Which of the two disciplines do you prefer?



Caroline Gruosi-Scheufele: Designing jewellery is obviously much freer in concept than designing a watch since everything has to be developed around a watch's movement. Having said that, at Chopard a watch is usually created to compliment our jewellery, so there is a synergy between the two disciplines and I think it's fair to say that there are not too many companies that can do both. Here, both the jewellery and the watches come from the same brain [Caroline said tapping her temple].



ES: Are you comfortable in this profession that is clearly dominated by the male of the species?



C. G-S: I enjoy it and it is actually an advantage being a woman in this business. You see men don't really understand what a woman wants. Their idea of creating a ladies' watch is to take a man's model and simply make a smaller version, it's technical content first and aesthetics afterwards. But women want the aesthetics first and the technical part is less important. It is quite easy to take a man's watch and then make a woman's watch, but you can never take a ladies' watch and then transform that into a man's model.



ES: Does being married to Fawaz Gruosi, another famous jewellery and watch designer, help or hinder your own work, or is there a complicity between you?

C. G-S: My passion is watches and jewellery. My family's passion is watches and jewellery.So when we leave the office we don't mind continuing our involvement in what we are passionate about. My father and mother, my brother Karl-Friedrich and our spouses all get involved in our work because Chopard is primarily a family business. There is a continuous interplay between the entire family and our involvement in our passion never stops.



ES: You have a close association with the charities of the Prince of Wales, Elton John and José Carreras. What are the reasons for that?



C. G-S: Charity work is very close to my heart. When one has the chance to have a life where Fortune smiles on you, it is indispensable to think of others. It is essential to help those whose life is an ordeal. Society has to care because charity is important for the survival of the underprivileged and the afflicted and the governments do nothing or very little to help them. Charity is an ongoing thing and we at Chopard have the possibility to help and because we know many famous and rich people it easier for us to do something, to be more interactive. But everybody should try and do whatever they can. However, we are not only involved in those of Prince Charles, Elton and José, we are also involved in many local charities.



ES: Chopard and yourself now play an important role in the organization of the Cannes Film Festival. How did that come about?



C. G-S: In 1997, we decided to open a boutique in Cannes and because of the presence of so many film stars and famous people during the Film Festival, we decided to have the inauguration at that time. Then someone said, “Why don't you try and do something official?” so we arranged a meeting with the organizers in Paris who were about to make some changes. As it happened, they didn't have a partner in our domain, so in 1998, we became the official sponsor of watches and jewellery.

Making the most of the situation I also asked who made the Palm d'Or and as they were thinking of changing that too, we also acquired that. We redesigned the Palm d'Or and we also introduced the 'mini Palms' for the best actor and actress.

You know how hectic the Basel Fair is don't you, well I can tell you that Basel is a piece of cake compared to the Cannes Film Festival. At Cannes you have to cater to all the whims and caprices of the stars who want to change their jewellery ten minutes before appearing because they've changed their mind about what dress they were going to wear, or because they feel this or that colour would be better. You can organize whatever you want, but things have a tendency to go wrong - especially where famous people are concerned.

But I'm not complaining, the world of Cinema goes hand in hand with our world, they both check into a dream world, so there is a perfect synergy between the two. I mean, you can't imagine Chopard being involved in football's World Cup can you? Well, maybe with David Beckham, but that would be it.



ES: This has been a difficult year or so for the watch and jewellery industries. How has Chopard fared?



C. G-S: [With her hand on her head] Touch wood, Chopard has done well. You know the saying, 'When the going gets tough, the tough get going', well to overcome the problems you have to be positive, be more creative. We have achieved the same results as last year by working that much harder. We have also moved into new markets such as China and Russia which are potentially important countries for both our watches and jewellery, but you have to remember that our clients are the rich and they still have money.

The problem today however, is a psychological one. There is misery and poverty around the world, the stock markets are down, there are wars and people feel that they don't want to, or shouldn't, make major purchases even if they have the money.



ES: How do you see the future?



C. G-S: The strength of Chopard is that we are a family business. In most of the large watch companies there are office politics and people come and go, and there is no family spirit, no genuine allegiance. We have that spirit and we have a passion for what we do. There are six family members running our company and they are all trying to make something different and although one feels that everything in our world has already been done, it hasn't, there are always new things to do.

For example, three weeks before this year's Basel Fair, I had the idea for the Happy Spirit pendants. We stopped all the other jewellery production and produced them in time for the Fair. You can't do that in other large companies. Here we can because we remain a family concern. That's what makes Chopard different!