Editor’s Note
This article explores how Gen Z’s eclectic tastes—embracing everything from high-end to quirky, authentic to ironic—are reshaping consumer markets and baffling traditional brands. Their latest venture? Redefining the very concept of collecting.
In the series of great mysteries of humanity, there is the Bermuda Triangle, the disappearance of Atlantis, and Generation Z, whose tastes no one can really keep up with. Observing them, we only know that these young people, especially those aged 20 to 25, like both the real and the fake, the beautiful and the ugly, and are disrupting the market strategies of major brands when they prefer buzzing mini-labels instead. One of the most recent observations? This Gen Z is also inventing styles by drawing inspiration from fields as eminently classic as jewelry.
The auction house Sotheby’s has noted that purchases of unsigned jewelry by this versatile youth increased by 344% between 2024 and 2025. This new enthusiasm also extends to precious stones, prompting Sotheby’s to launch “The Gem Drop,” a monthly selection of three beautiful stones sold online and offered between $20,000 and $120,000 (16,000 and 95,000 Swiss francs), sold raw or simply mounted.