High jewellery keeps its lustre with timeless themes

Despite ongoing inflationary pressures, geopolitical risk and unfavourable macro headlines, the buoyancy in jewellery sales in recent years is set to continue. Even with the global downturn in luxury, jewellery — in particular high jewellery — remains resilient.

“Jewellery at the high end is actually doing counter-intuitively well,” says Erwan Rambourg, global head of consumer and retail research at HSBC. “There is a general mood music which is very cautious or conservative — or bluntly downbeat in luxury — but jewellery sort of stands out as an exception. It’s a vertical that is more than resilient, and actually doing quite well.”

Interestingly, fashion has been among the factors underscoring jewellery’s potential, which is driven by the intrinsic value of precious metals. The recent “greedflation” price hikes in fashion and accessories have made jewellery increasingly attractive.

“A lot of the handbag companies have gone too high, too quickly in terms of price points,” says Rambourg. “In comparison, jewellery brands have been a lot more reasonable . . . The value proposition is much better.”

Brands such as LVMH-owned Dior and Chaumet cite strong performance in their high jewellery businesses. Dior kicked off the season in early May, hosting the launch of its Diorexquis collection at Provence’s Château de La Colle Noire, the former summer residence of Christian Dior, who purchased the 124-acre property in 1950.

The location channelled Diorexquis’s main themes of enchanting landscapes, delicate bouquets and magical galas, which find expression in specialist jewellery-making techniques such as hand-applied lacquer and opal doublet, where opals are mounted on other stones such as mother of pearl and onyx.

Victoire de Castellane, artistic director of Dior Joaillerie, cites “great demand” for high jewellery, adding that in times of crisis, “jewels are still bought — it’s like a refuge, a haven”. She also points to younger clients buying jewellery for themselves, mixing fine and high jewellery in a fashion-led way. This year, Diorexquis diversified beyond traditional jewellery suites, with more transformable pieces such as a necklace that dangles with a gem-set lipstick case as a pendant.

Chaumet also looked to the natural world with its Jewels by Nature high jewellery collection, which features regular floral motifs such as dahlias and magnolias, but also new ones such as bamboo, ferns and clovers. Chaumet chief executive Charles Leung referred to these “robust” themes as “everlasting nature [that] reminds us to be resilient — to fight, to keep on existing”.

The company used the collection’s launch to announce a sponsorship partnership with WWF, the environmental organisation, kicking off with biodiversity projects in France, followed by China and Japan.

Chaumet Jewels by Nature ruby brooch

Buccellati evening bag

Richemont-owned Buccellati is not unveiling a new high jewellery collection this year, but has created a capsule collection of three evening bags. The gem-set velvet pieces pay homage to a series of bejewelled purses that Buccellati created in the 1920s and 1930s for women attending Milan’s La Scala opera.

Nicolas Luchsinger, Buccellati chief executive, says limited capacity at its workshop means the company can only create a new high jewellery collection every other year, with the capsule collections in between. Also highlighting high jewellery’s resilience in the medium and longer term, Luchsinger cites more short-term complications for the sector, including a weaker dollar and taxes in the US, but also increasing gold prices.

HSBC’s Rambourg says jewellers, especially those owned by larger groups such as LVMH and Richemont, have not unduly passed rising gold prices on to customers. “They’d rather take the hit on margin, but continue to recruit and grow sales,” he says. “That’s a trade-off that’s sort of accepted. Instead of abusing the consumer with price increases, like has been the case in handbags, they’re thinking, ‘Let’s be more reasonable’.”

The spikes in gold prices have also benefited the sector by underscoring jewellery’s investment value and potential. “Because the price of gold is going higher — possibly it holds or even expands in value over time — it tells you that there is some real intrinsic value linked to the raw materials that are used. The perception of value is much better,” says Rambourg.

Some brands also report an accentuating demand for their “signature” jewellery during uncertain economic times. At Richemont-owned Cartier, its well-established panther motif punctuates various new designs. These include the Panthère Orbitale necklace, which features bold contrasting colours of coral and amethyst, topped with two coral stones — of 20.61cts and 17.79cts — and a diamond-set panther; and the Panthère Dentelée necklace, featuring a smattering of emerald beads that culminate in a gem-set panther.

The Cartier Dentelée necklace features emerald beads linking with a gem-set panther

A diamond hero necklace from Chanel’s Reach for the Stars collection

The company has also brought out two important Tutti Frutti suites — a key Cartier creation from the art deco period. The transformable Tutti Phavara necklace is set with two carved sapphires totalling 80.15cts and four carved emeralds totalling 47.86cts, while the Tutti Kovalam necklace is suspended with two carved emeralds totalling 73.46cts.

Cartier launched the collection — titled En Équilibre — at Stockholm’s Artipelag museum, whose forest setting helped subtly channel the collection’s themes of balance and harmony.

House signatures were also strongly in evidence at Chanel, which headed to the tranquil temples of Kyoto in Japan to showcase its new Reach for the Stars high jewellery collection. The company opened its first dedicated watch and jewellery flagship store in Tokyo’s Ginza district in October 2022.

Playing off its regular design themes, such as the comet and the lion, Chanel introduced an additional one: wings. This was expressed in a hero necklace featuring diamond-set wings that spread around the neck and a 19.55ct Padparadscha sapphire, with a detachable line of diamonds that can also be worn as a bracelet.

Nature was also on show at Tiffany & Co, whose marine-themed Blue Book 2025: Sea of Wonder high jewellery collection riffs off archival designs from the house’s most famed designer, Jean Schlumberger, who began collaborating with the New York house in 1956. The new Wave suite, for example, takes after Schlumberger’s historic Leaves necklace, while the Starfish suite is inspired by his 1956 diamond-and-pearl brooch.

Tiffany Sea of Wonder ring

Piaget’s Kaleidoscope Lights necklace

The Wave suite features a new hero necklace set with a mesh of diamonds accented with blue cuprian elbaite tourmalines. Tiffany chief executive Anthony Ledru says the jewel was among the first pieces that was sold as soon as it launched.

Finally, Piaget’s latest creations reference its era-defining Swinging Sixties heyday. The new Shapes of Extraleganza high jewellery collection launched in Barcelona last month, and fuses bold colours and shapes, in a nod to, for example, pop art and the Memphis movement.

Benjamin Comar, Piaget chief executive, says the collection will appeal to clients “who already have the classics, so they look for this distinction, boldness and the aura it gives”, adding: “They want something that can create emotions.”