Editor’s Note
This article highlights the remarkable resilience of the high jewelry sector, which stands apart as a luxury category defying broader economic trends. The analysis points to its unique value proposition—serving as both a portable asset and a symbol of status—as the key to its enduring strength.
Several dozen presentations at the very least. Many more if we include trade shows and commercial showrooms. High jewelry – a term in the jewelry industry denoting unique pieces set with gemstones – is one of the few luxury sectors not experiencing a downturn. The reason is clear. Considered by buyers as exceptional assets suited to geopolitical tensions and economic shifts due to their portability and intrinsic value, these unique pieces reflect status and embody protection. They also materialize a creativity that sometimes likens them to works of art. Several reports (Market Research Intellect, Grand View Research, Fortune Business Insights) predict robust growth for the sector in the coming years.
Nicolas Bos, President of Richemont (the group owns two star brands in the market: Cartier and Van Cleef & Arpels), told us last year. An El Dorado to conquer, as evidenced over the last 20 years by the arrival of fashion and leather goods giants – Chanel, Dior, Louis Vuitton, Dolce & Gabbana, Gucci. These new entrants challenge the historical giants and possess serious assets: substantial cash reserves (several years elapse between purchasing stones and presenting a collection) and a consummate art of creative storytelling. This fundamental difference illuminates the disparity in proposals revealed in early July in Paris.
On one side, historical houses like Harry Winston, Graff, and even De Beers (which, beyond being a century-old conglomerate, also has a dedicated label): these houses primarily bet on very precious gemstones (a single colored diamond at De Beers, set on a classic ring, can be worth several million euros on its own). On the other side, less historical players weave a narrative where the gemstone fits into a broader universe. A few titans, like Cartier, Bvlgari, or Van Cleef (absent this season), combine these two aptitudes, while venerable labels of more modest dimensions capture attention and inspire admiration through craftsmanship feats that reconcile the best of dream and engineering: one thinks of Boucheron.
A particularity of this season: the omnipresence of colored gemstones, meaning color. Two reasons explain this massive trend. The aura of white or rather colorless diamonds has faded due to the rise of synthetic diamonds, overwhelming in the United States. This competition, far from enhancing the stone’s prestige, has instead significantly lowered prices. To reassure collectors, houses – even those historically founded on diamond identity – are turning to substitutes. Other precious stones first: rubies (increasingly expensive and rare since Burmese deposits became persona non grata), sapphires, and emeralds. But also the spectrum of colored gemstones, a spectrum made wider thanks to the discovery of new deposits. The collective genius of the sector will consist of making these gems, ironically categorized in the past as “semi-precious,” more precious than ever. Stars of the season: spinels whose prices are increasing at lightning speed, Paraíba tourmalines more prized than ever (very beautiful specimens at Damiani, Anna Hu, and Astrom this season), and of course the very rare colored diamonds whose prices, unlike their colorless equivalents, are reaching peaks, as proven by recent, increasingly spectacular auctions at Christie’s or Sotheby’s. The challengers: stones with perhaps less vivid colors but possessing a powerful evocative power. Our favorite: A terracotta topaz, seen at Fendi, which unfailingly refracts in our imagination the charm of Roman facades illuminated by a Virgilian sun.
Highlight of the collection revealed by jeweler Mellerio: a necklace set with colored and precious gemstones that highlights the king of fruits – the pineapple – under the sign of color. Laure-Isabelle Mellerio handles colors with great taste thanks to expert gemstone knowledge while demonstrating a true artist’s flair to materialize evocative symbols, in line with the house’s centuries-old history, into contemporary jewelry motifs. The “Jardin des rêves” necklace possesses an aristocratic charm nourished by cultural references (the inspiration comes from the garden depicted on the “Grand Ananas” motif dye present in the inner cabinets of Marie Antoinette’s small apartments at Versailles) which perfectly unites with the chromatic exuberance offered by a selection of colored gemstones set in green (a specific alloy of the house), pink, and yellow gold. Ultimate refinement: the set, composed of a necklace and a pair of earrings, was presented in a “marmotte” (case) that recalled the merchant origins of the Lombard goldsmiths.
Pink and blue diamonds united on a single ring signed De Beers.
