【South Korea】[Big Story] The World of High Jewelry That Captivates the Super-Rich

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Editor’s Note

This article explores how history, craftsmanship, and provenance—not just carat weight—create the true, often mysterious, value of high jewelry, as illustrated by the staggering price difference between two seemingly identical Cartier pieces.

[Big story] 슈퍼리치가 반한 하이주얼리의 세계
The Mysterious Value Beyond Carats

Time only adds to the mysterious depth of these gems among gems. The high jewelry of luxury houses carries a history that cannot be measured by carat weight alone. It’s a rendezvous with a world of thrilling and brilliant inspiration.
In 2010 and 2011, Cartier’s ‘Tutti Frutti’ bracelets appeared side by side in the Swiss auction market. Both products were made in 1929. However, the difference in their hammer prices was enormous: ‘USD 1,079,000 vs. USD 22,000’. Why?

“It was because of Cartier’s brand mark,” explained Yoon Sung-won, an adjunct professor in the Department of Gemology at Hanyang University’s Graduate School of Engineering. “One had Cartier’s brand mark erased, while the other still had it. This was the decisive factor that caused a price difference of 50 times.”

This indicates that, in some cases, the name of a luxury jewelry brand alone can generate tremendous added value. Professor Yoon added, “For historic luxury jewelry, factors like the manufacturer’s mark, hallmarks, workshop marks, numbering, and sometimes even ‘the country of origin’ can influence investment value.”

“Generally, when appraising jewelry, value is assessed based on the raw materials (gold, diamonds, colored gemstones, etc.), so the brand’s significance isn’t major,” said Oh Se-woong, a gemologist at Wooshin Gem Appraisal Institute, a leading domestic gem appraisal organization. “However, when a limited-edition product from a luxury jewelry brand is traded as a single product itself in markets like auctions, its price level can be quite different.”
[Big story] 슈퍼리치가 반한 하이주얼리의 세계
The ‘Haute Couture’ of Jewelry

High jewelry, often called the ‘haute couture’ of the gem world, is revered as a form of artwork. It is a limited edition sought by the top 1% of customers within luxury jewelry brand clientele.

“Generally, wedding rings, often chosen for engagements, are in the range of 3 to 7 million won, but high jewelry intended for heirlooms typically commands prices in the hundreds of millions of won,” said an official from De Beers.

While there’s no need to wait in line to purchase a product like a luxury handbag, ordering a piece usually takes several months as each is handcrafted by overseas artisans.

“The Bulgari High Jewelry Collection is based on sketches developed for special gemstones, with each piece taking approximately 6 months to 3 years to produce,” said a Bulgari official. “Each product possesses the rarity of a unique artwork, with only one piece in existence.”
Traditional Motifs and Fancy Colors Draw Attention
[Big story] 슈퍼리치가 반한 하이주얼리의 세계

Luxury jewelry houses unveil new high jewelry collections once or twice a year. Nature, with its infinite energy, is an inexhaustible source of inspiration for jewelry.
Van Cleef & Arpels, captivated last year by the colorful spectacle of waves and the elegance of underwater life, launched a high jewelry collection named ‘Seven Seas’.
Chaumet’s ‘Lumières d’eau’ high jewelry collection, presented at the Paris Biennale des Antiquaires last year, took ‘water’ as its theme, fantastically expressing inspiration drawn from water-related imagery and its afterimages.
There are also many works that inspire admiration by inheriting tradition while introducing new materials and interpretations. Boucheron expressed homage to a benevolent and inspiring India through ‘Bleu de Jodhpur’, a modern reinterpretation of India.
Bulgari’s ‘Serpenti High Jewelry Collection’ showcases elegant sensuality with the snake motif synonymous with Bulgari.
Cartier’s ‘Étourdissant Cartier’, launched last year, presents a dazzling feast of colors with diamonds, sapphires, rubies, and more.

[Big story] 슈퍼리치가 반한 하이주얼리의 세계

De Beers’ designs, purely expressing ‘love’ as humanity’s deepest and most sublime emotion, are impressive. The ‘Simplicity Ring’ is a representative piece, pursuing a design as mysterious as love itself with flawless diamonds embodying eternal beauty.

“Looking at recent high jewelry from luxury houses, the characteristic is not so much being completely new, but rather reinterpreting stories tied to the 20th-century house (like Bulgari’s snake or Cartier’s Tutti Frutti style), their inherent identity, or traditional designs with contemporary stories or elements,” said Professor Yoon. “In terms of materials, there is a trend towards more sophisticated enjoyment of fancy color diamonds, spinels, rubellite, Paraíba tourmaline, fire opal, and others compared to the past.”
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⏰ Published on: February 05, 2016