[T]he Palme d’Or, or Golden Palm, the symbol of the Cannes Film Festival, has been given to the director of the best film every year since 1954. Chopard took over the creation of the award in 1998, after Pierre Viot, then president of the Cannes Film Festival, met Chopard’s co-president Caroline Scheufele. Dazzled and delighted by the creative energy of the company, he asked her to redesign the Palme d’Or. The award is now made in-house in their high jewelry department by the hand of one of their master craftsmen. The solid one-of-a-kind crystal is perfectly beveled along the edges in the shape of an emerald-cut diamond. The golden palm with its delicate heart shaped stem dances upward and shines like the sun.

We visited Chopard’s headquarters this past April in Geneva where they were working on this year’s award, and they took us through each step of the process: cutting the design in wax, making the form in gold, and shaping it to perfection before carefully assembling it to the crystal so it is ready to be delivered to this year’s 2013 Cannes Film Festival winner.

We are so excited to be going to Cannes this year with Chopard and I certainly can’t wait to see where the journey ends for this precious award!