High Shine
Ice on Ice
Swiss figure skater Kimmy Repond is the new ambassador for Bucherer Fine Jewellery. As one of Switzerland’s most distinguished young athletes, she embodies precision, elegance, expressiveness and international ambition, qualities that also define Bucherer Fine Jewellery. A new generation of Swiss excellence thus meets a jewellery heritage that has stood for exceptional craftsmanship, creativity and extraordinary jewellery creations since 1888.
Kimmy Repond is one of the country’s most promising athletic talents on the international stage. The Olympian, who is also a European bronze medallist and two-time Swiss national champion, is already an icon of Swiss excellence—the picture of beautiful poise under pressure. Repond’s dedication, precision, and commitment to her sport make her a natural ambassador for Bucherer Fine Jewellery, where craftsmanship is similarly defined by the invisible hours that create remarkable beauty.
Although Repond was already familiar with Bucherer before the collaboration, stepping behind the scenes gave her a new appreciation for the house. Seeing the jewellery in person was one thing, but witnessing the process of its creation left the strongest impression. “I thought it was all super beautiful,” she says, “but what was most interesting for me was to see the process behind it all. I got to see how the jewellery is made.”
That understanding immediately resonated with her own experience as an elite athlete. To the audience, a skating programme lasts just four minutes, but those fleeting moments represent countless hours of preparation. “People just see the four minutes I perform, and I try to make it as beautiful as I can,” she explains. “But no one sees all the hours and days and years of work behind it.” She sees a clear parallel with jewellery: the finished piece is elegant and refined, while the painstaking craftsmanship remains largely invisible.
Authenticity is what Repond values most when choosing to work with a brand. She looks for partnerships that reflect her own values, and she found them in Bucherer. Jewellery is also a natural extension of her personal style. “It’s something I wear every day,” she says. However, Repond’s relationship with jewellery changes depending on the occasion. Off the ice, she enjoys rings and bracelets alongside her favourite earrings and necklaces. Competition, however, demands practicality. Rings can interfere with spins and grabbing her skates, so earrings and necklaces have become her signature pieces.
Even then, her choices are never arbitrary. Each programme tells a story, and the jewellery becomes part of that narrative. She selects earrings that complement both the music and her attire, matching the colours and mood of the performance. A necklace she now wears regularly carries even deeper significance. Gifted to her by her mother before the Olympic Games, it has become a treasured companion in competition. For Repond, jewellery is rarely just decorative. Nearly every piece she owns is tied to a memory or milestone. “Most of the jewellery I own has a story behind it,” she explains.
When asked what kind of jewellery would best represent her skating style, she imagines something defined by both resilience and refinement: “Something with a lot of strength—a diamond, for example—but also a piece that is very elegant and simple.” That combination of beauty and resilience is one she readily identifies with, and if you’ve seen her skate, it’s easy to understand why.
For her first Bucherer editorial, Repond chose pieces with the same thoughtful approach she applies to her skating costumes: timeless, authentic, and functional enough that she could genuinely imagine wearing them while training or competing. Rather than selecting statement pieces for the sake of appearance, she looked for jewellery that reflected who she is.
Repond is quick to point out that her generation approaches luxury differently from those before it. Young consumers, particularly athletes, are increasingly interested in the stories behind brands and the people who create them. Quality still matters, but authenticity matters just as much. “I think a lot of people are looking to own something with a story behind it, something personal.”
As for her own story, Repond’s ambitions stretch well beyond the present. On the ice, her sights are firmly set on another Olympic Games, representing Switzerland on the biggest stages and, ultimately, becoming European champion. Beyond skating, she dreams of studying medicine while maintaining a connection to the worlds of fashion and jewellery—interests she has cherished since childhood.
Like the finest jewellery, Kimmy Repond’s artistry is defined not simply by what the eye sees, but by everything that lies beneath the surface that made it possible: precision, patience, resilience, and the dedicated pursuit of excellence from every angle.
