In Best of the Best, we honour the brands and people behind the most covetable products. Here are our favourite pieces of jewellery that topped the 2024 list
Jewellery of the Year: Tiffany & Co. Star Urchin Necklace
Over 760 carats of 340 hand-carved chalcedony spikes seemingly sprout from the neck on Tiffany & Co.’s extraordinary Star Urchin necklace from its 2023 Blue Book collection Out of the Blue, which debuted last summer. Set in 18k white gold, the cone-shaped stones are meant to mimic the pointy spines that protect the marine creatures from predators. Entrapped in their snare are twisted strands of 718 round brilliant diamonds totalling over 18 carats that wrap around five sizable oval tanzanite stones adding up to 59 carats. The necklace took two years to complete and is a tribute to the American jeweller’s venerated in-house designer, Jean Schlumberger, whose sea-urchin brooch from over a century ago inspired the design. Tiffany & Co. has since used the motif in various other ways but never to such dramatic and voluminous effect.
The piece is a reminder that the incredible craftsmanship honed in Schlumberger’s era is alive and well today. It might even be heightened in Tiffany & Co.’s modern atelier, now led by Nathalie Verdeille, an immense design talent poached from Cartier three years ago. Case in point: some of the spikes delicately move, just as they would under the sea—a feature not realised in Schlumberger’s originals.
Best Colour Story: Louis Vuitton Seeds Necklace
Flora and fauna themes are perennial references in high jewellery, so it’s refreshing to see Louis Vuitton explore a more granular motif. Francesca Amfitheatrof, artistic director of watches and jewellery at the French house, has gone deeper, looking at the origin of the flowers and plant life that have, for so long, served as inspiration.
Chapter II of the maison’s Deep Time high-jewellery collection—its largest to date—zeroes in on everything from DNA molecules to seeds to explore, in gems, the origin of life. Sprouting from the mind of Amfitheatrof, the ‘seeds’ of the necklace seen here take on much larger dimensions than their real-life counterparts: six oval-cut rubellite tourmalines totalling 146.07 carats affixed to the bottom of a hollowed yellow-gold honeycomb-patterned collar set with diamonds. Perched above are six cabochon-cut Mandarin spessartite garnets weighing 57.43 carats, which provide a secondary pop of colour. Nestled in the centre is a 20.27-carat oval-cut Nigerian spessartite garnet atop a 52.75-carat pear-cut rubellite tourmaline.
The piece’s use of symmetry, the way the stones are given room to breathe on their own, and its vibrant contrast of colours burst through well-trod territory to create a breath of fresh air.
Best Technique: Van Cleef & Arpels Le Grand Tour Bracelets
Van Cleef & Arpels’s Le Grand Tour bracelets are a master class in jewellery artistry. One exceptional piece portrays Venice’s Grand Canal as seen from the windows of Doge’s Palace in a mosaic of hundreds of meticulously shaped sapphires, rubies, tourmalines, tsavorite garnets and diamonds on an articulated bracelet. The one seen here is inspired by Florence’s ancient Duomo, rendered in rose gold shown against an ombre blue and mauve sapphire and diamond sky. To achieve the miniature landscapes, lapidary artists and jewellers spend hundreds of hours precisely cutting the stones and placing them in a painterly way on supple gold bracelets, each a work of art.
This jewellery has its roots in the 1920s, when the French house depicted Egyptian motifs in a series of lavish diamond and gemstone art deco bracelets. CEO Nicolas Bos tells Robb Report that over the years the house has developed a method that prevents gaps in the landscape image when the bracelet encircles the wrist. “There is a very technical aspect behind the double-hinge system that allows us to keep the elements together,” he explains. The bracelets are the ultimate ‘souvenir’—if you can get your hands on one.
Best Unisex Jewellery: Cartier Polymorph Carabiner
Everything from a funky pair of sunglasses with gems lining the edge of the frames and dripping down the back of the tips to a Panthère-inspired brooch designed as a claw (meant to be worn as though it’s pawing at the edge of a lapel) pop up in Cartier’s wildly fun Polymorph high-jewellery collection. But the undeniable standout is a curious carabiner—for rock climbing of a different sort. It comes adorned with emeralds, rubies, lapis lazuli, onyx, black spinel, turquoise, chrysoprase, sapphires and diamonds and doubles as a clock. But it’s not for the neck or the wrist—the French maison instead proposes it for a belt loop. What could be more casually modern than that?
But while the idea seems fresh for a new generation of jewellery wearers, the hardware motif has been a running theme at the house since Aldo Cipullo introduced the Love bracelet, famous for its screws, in 1969. Since then, everything from bolts to nails has featured in various Cartier designs. A one-of-a-kind high-jewellery tool for the belt loop, however, takes the concept to an entirely new level.
Best Creative Design: Boucheron More Is More Collection
Inspired by the 1980s-era design collective Memphis Group—known for its wildly graphic and colorful furniture, lighting, fabrics and more—Boucheron creative director Claire Choisne has proved that high jewellery doesn’t have to be stiff. Her latest Carte Blanche (clean slate) collection, an annual series that allows Choisne an anything-goes approach to design, is pure fun. Among her whimsical inventions: a diamond and onyx pocket affixes via ultra-strong magnets and actually creases with your clothing when you sit; it also doubles as a cuff bracelet. Gem-set hoodie tassels are magnetised so they can replace the strings on your everyday cotton go-to, while their tips detach to become earrings. Meanwhile, a necklace set with cubes of diamonds, grey spinels, pink sapphires, and mother-of- pearl is made to evoke your childhood Rubik’s cube game.
This is not child’s play. The pieces Choisne creates are, in fact, extraordinarily complicated and are made even more challenging to produce by the fact that they’ve never been done before. Nothing is out of the realm of possibility. She has used a scientific algorithm to create a necklace sprinkled with diamonds in a titanium cloud around the neck and has incorporated aerogel, a material typically employed by NASA and commercial aviation. With her latest jewellery collection, Choisne continues to outdo herself.
Best Modern Swan Style: Harry Winston Double Cross Necklace
Harry Winston’s new lariat-style diamond necklace recalls chic mid-century icons such as Babe Paley and Slim Keith, whom Truman Capote famously called his swans. The late socialites are once again in the spotlight thanks to this year’s Ryan Murphy-created FX series Feud: Capote vs the Swans, and it’s reinvigorating interest in their signature style. Elegant and glamorous, the Double Cross necklace draws attention without overpowering.
To construct it, the house assembled dozens of round diamonds in a seamless platinum necklace with two 10.88-carat pear-shaped diamond drops—a D-flawless white and a fancy vivid yellow. The duo are a reminder of the Indore Pears, a set of famous pear-shaped Golconda diamonds (46 carats each) that the company’s namesake founder purchased from the maharaja of Indore in 1946. Winston sold, repurchased and sold them again, this time to another royal family, demonstrating how great diamonds live on well beyond their various owners. Capote’s swans would have approved.
Best Necklace: Fred The Bright Vitality Series of Monsieur Fred Ideal Light
The latest high jewellery collection from Maison Fred comes in four illuminating lines inspired by Fred Samuel’s childhood memories of Argentina. The Bright Vitality Series, in particular, channels the lush natural setting of Palermo’s botanical garden—a veritable haven for the eponymous founder—through exquisite pieces that explore the contrast between volume and light, akin to the sun’s rays reflecting within greenhouses and the shadows cast by sculptures.
A perfect embodiment of this approach is this choker necklace, resembling the garden’s many varieties of palm trees and diverse foliage. At its centre shines a stone of the most vibrant green: a 5.23-carat emerald from the prestigious Muzo mine in Colombia. Encircling it are diamond-shaped branches, meticulously hand-planted, that extend to the hollow of the bust.
