By the 1950s, New York jeweller Harry Winston had amassed such a reputation for gemstones—for diamonds, particularly—that he was nicknamed the King of Diamonds. The jeweller and his house had also grown such an expertise and talent for acquiring, cutting and dealing in the most fabulous, exceptional stones from around the globe that it adopted and began using the slogan Rare Jewels of the World.
But as much as Winston brought the world and its most fabulous jewel treasures to his Manhattan clientele, so too was he a New Yorker through and through. Born to immigrants, Winston was raised in modest surroundings—his father the owner of a small jewellery shop on the city’s west.
Legend has it that at the precocious age of 12, Winston spotted a green gemstone amongst costume jewellery. Though the stone was dismissed by adults around him, Winston had the intuition to know that it was, in truth, a far more precious emerald. He purchased it for 25 cents, and later sold it for $800.
Think of it as a uniquely New York flavour of doggedness and chutzpah. The attachment that the brand, and its founder, had to the vibrant city are captured in a new range of high jewellery simply dubbed the New York Collection.
An inspiration like the Big Apple could almost be trite, but the city is so much a part of the Harry Winston story that the collection’s designs have the sweetness of someone overcome with either homesickness or adoration.
Here, a postcard-perfect look at New York’s iconography and details through the eyes of one of its greatest jewellers.
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Avenue
Named for the prestigious Fifth Avenue in Manhattan, the Avenue suite combines Art Deco references with nods to classic Winston details. On this Avenue Classic Graffiti high jewellery timepiece, for example, the curves and straight lines of the white gold, diamond-set case are meant to evoke the architecture of the brand’s flagship. This new model, limited to 30 pieces, features a graffiti design on the blue and white mother-of-pearl dial, decorated with blue and pink sapphires.
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Brownstone
Brownstone townhouses are one of the city’s most recognisable sights. For Winston, it’s an ode to the Upper West Side where he was born. As jewellery, the house has assembled diamonds in round brilliant, baguette, square emerald and marquise shapes in geometric motifs that recall the architecture. The latest colourways are decorated with emeralds and blue sapphires, and rubies with pink sapphires.
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Brownstone
Harry Winston Brownstone earrings and necklace, the latter crafted with a centre sugarloaf ruby, and decorated with rubies, pink sapphires and diamonds in brilliant, baguette, marquise and square emerald cuts.
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Central Park
Winston was a famous workaholic who devoted much of his time to business and jewels, especially diamonds. The city’s famous Central Park, located just blocks away from his office, offered a bit of respite. There, Winston and his designers looked to nature for inspiration and fresh perspectives. That landscape of beauty is mimicked in the Central Park high jewellery ring, set with a 3.16-carat square emerald-cut centre emerald, and decorated by diamonds of various cuts in a handsomely manicured arrangement weighing 2.16 carats total.
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City Lights
Harry and Edna Winston were married in 1933, and the couple enjoyed a glamorous social life. One of their favourite activities was attending Broadway shows—so much so that when organising a travelling exhibition of jewellery in 1949, Winston asked leading Broadway stars of the day to pose for the official programmes. In City Lights, the house reimagines the theatre’s dazzling lights and velvet curtains with a cascading pair of round brilliant rubies and yellow diamonds accented by 28 colourless diamonds.
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HW Graffiti
As refined as the Harry Winston take on New York may be, the brand’s designers have also taken on the vibrant colours and art influences of the SoHo neighbourhood. Namely, a series of HW Graffiti brooches that capture the street art style. This one is set with pink sapphires and Paraíba tourmalines for a flat, graphic quality.
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HW Graffiti
This HW Graffiti brooch, meanwhile, is fully diamond-set for a trompe l’oeil 3D effect.
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Manhattan Adornment
The most stunning architecture in Manhattan are its art deco skyscrapers. In Manhattan Adornment, the house of Harry Winston extrapolates fixtures, such as the arched crown of the Chrysler Building and the decorations of old-school lifts, into suites of jewels.
This necklace, with its combination of pink and blue sapphires, 7.56 carats of aquamarines, and 21.66 carats of diamonds, evokes the light of sunrise on the skyline.
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Manhattan Adornment
This Manhattan Adornment set evokes the plush interiors of iconic buildings and landmarks, tipped with the light of white and yellow diamonds, and the vibrancy of emeralds, tsavorites and blue sapphires.
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718 Marble Marquetry
In 1960, Winston moved his company into its now-famous home at 718 Fifth Avenue. The insurance, it is said, was the largest ever for a single movement of jewels. Winston renovated the building in an 18th-century French style, envisaging old-world lavishness and elegance. A section dubbed 718 Marble Marquetry celebrates the details of this flagship, like the geometry of the black and white marble floors, and the emerald-shaped vitrines that lined the walls.
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718 Marble Marquetry
The 718 Marble Marquetry’s design is replicated in deep blue, like the Harry Winston brand colour. Here, the centre stone is a 0.80-carat emerald-cut diamond, fringed by 27 sapphires and accented with more diamonds.
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718 Marble Marquetry
Combining the marquetry design with the solar energy of a sunrise, this version is set with spectacularly sunny spessartite garnets. The set is also available in a red ruby colourway.
The July/August ‘Cravings’ issue of Vogue Singapore is now available online and in-store.
