High Jewellery Wish List

2026 is in full swing and so are the fashion houses as they release one incredible collection after another. A running theme through many of these collections is a fascination with the high fashion of the ‘30s and ‘40s. Of course, many of these collections are rejecting convention entirely and are questioning what High Jewellery even entails. Others are looking to nature, a timeless source of creativity throughout human history.

No matter where you go for your inspiration, human ingenuity will find a way to create a harmonious design that fascinates the senses. In an age where artificial intelligence trained on human creativity can play with the data it has been given, it is important to celebrate the exacting human craftsmanship that goes into forging raw materials that have been found deep in the ground into delicate works of art made for a purpose as frivolous as making you feel good, whether it be on the red carpet, or at an intimate night out with your loved one.

Cartier

Cartier has found the intersection between High Jewellery, sculpture, and horology. To call the Myst de Cartier merely a watch is dismissive. To say it is just a bracelet is equally inaccurate. It is a piece of art that not only adorns you to make you stand out, but is also a completely necessary utility. Or that’s what I always say every time I need an excuse to wear it.

This year seems to be one of looking to the ‘30s and ‘40s for inspiration, and Cartier has been no exception. “The new Myst de Cartier watch is all about volume and movement,” says Pierre Rainero, Director of Image, Style and Heritage. “Its design follows in the footsteps of the jewellery watches created under the direction of Jeanne Toussaint in the early 1930s – pieces that were both sculptural and flamboyant.”

The first thing you should know about the Myst de Cartier is just how truly surprising its construction is. It has no clasp, bringing to mind a trompe-l’oeil bracelet. Strung together like beads, the elements that comprise it resemble protective talismans. The composition puts alternating curves in stark contrast with a domed crystal and geometric pavé dial, which are surrounded by a delicate onyx frame with a triangular hour-marker. These bold visual elements come together in a symmetry enhanced by spots of black lacquer.

30 hours of work are needed to hand-assemble the piece. Contrasting with the diamonds, the lines of black lacquer were hand-painted one-by-one by an artisan at the Maison des Métiers d’Art.
An alternative version forgoes the gold and lacquer, and instead covers the entire construction in 986 brilliant-cut diamonds and a dial paved with 45 snow-set brilliant-cut diamonds. That isn’t to say the gold expression of the watch is lacking in the diamond department. It has 634 diamonds and 47 snow-set diamonds in the watch face surrounded by an onyx frame.
It’s not a bracelet, it’s not a talisman, it’s not a watch. It’s a work of art.

BVLGARI

Bvlgari has unveiled Eclettica, a new artistic frontier in the world of High Jewellery, expressing eclecticism as a way of creating beauty through vision, contrast and audacious imagination. At the heart of the collection, nine extraordinary pieces under the name Capolavori have been selected as the pinnacle of ingenuity and creativity. Capolavori is an Italian word meaning Masterpiece. It’s not hard to see why they’ve been dubbed this way.

“The theme of this year’s High Jewellery collection immediately captivated me and sparked my creativity. I have often sought to define Bvlgari in just a few words, and ‘eclectic’ is undoubtedly one of them,” commented Lucia Silvestri, Bvlgari Jewellery Creative Director.

“In shaping Eclettica, I was guided by mesmerizing paintings, by audacious volumes that challenged our artisans in new ways, and by architecture, from which I drew the grace of geometry. Each creation embodies the harmony of contrast, born of multiplicity and transformed into wearable art.”

Serpenti Imperial Heart High Jewellery Necklace

The Serpenti Imperial Heart High Jewellery necklace in white gold celebrates beauty that endures across time. This creation centres on an historic Golconda-Type diamond whose legendary purity seems equally eternal. Weighing 30.75 carats (D-IF), the gem was entrusted to Bvlgari to conceive a setting worthy of its rarity. The diamond is said to have once belonged to a Maharaja. Fully integrated into the serpent’s anatomy, it forms the head, embraced by a bespoke star-shaped mounting that amplifies its luminous depth. Articulated through 180 seamlessly linked elements and realised over 1,400 hours of meticulous craftsmanship, the serpent hovers between strength and light, sculpture and jewellery.

Eclectic Embrace High Jewellery Collar

Echoing the ornamental geometry of Sammezzano Castle near Florence, the Eclectic Embrace High Jewellery collar in white gold translates Moorish mosaics and arabesques into an architectural jewel. At its centre, lies a richly-saturated 10.12-carat octagonal Colombian emerald, framed by pavé-set diamonds, emeralds and black onyx, each stone custom-cut like a tessera. Though boldly geometric, the collar moves with unexpected softness: 180 modular elements engineered for fluid, silk-like wearability. Over 1,000 hours of craftsmanship have found the balance between structure and sensuality.

Graff

For over 65 years, Graff has operated at the very pinnacle of the High Jewellery industry, discovering and crafting diamonds of brilliance and rarity.

Their latest collection is a culmination of everything they have learned in their time as a maker of Haute Couture finery. The new High Jewellery suite commands attention with a powerful, striking aesthetic, the hero being an extraordinary sapphire and diamond choker featuring a rare 31-carat sapphire.

Created over hundreds of hours by master artisans, Graff’s new High Jewellery suite commands attention with a powerful, striking aesthetic.

The eye-catching centrepiece is a choker inspired by the moment a single droplet meets a still, iridescent pool of water. It features over 200 carats of expertly selected Graff diamonds. Emerald-cut white diamonds form a luminous, seamless surface, allowing light to flow across its geometry. At the centre of the choker sits a 31-carat unheated emerald-cut sapphire of Burmese origin, from which pear-shape diamonds and sapphires ripple outward – like the pool of water it is inspired by.

Matching earrings complete the composition, cascading with emerald-cut and pear-shape white diamonds and pear-shape sapphires, centred by matching 5-carat emerald-cut Sri Lankan sapphires. Together, the two pieces capture a refined mastery of lustre and movement – fluidity expressed in precious form.

Chanel

You might have Gabrielle Chanel entirely to thank for the nostalgic timeless Hollywood aesthetic, since they were tasked with transporting the high fashion of Europe in the 1930s over the Atlantic to the stars of the silver screen. Today, Chanel continues that heritage with the new High Jewellery collection, “Reach for the Stars”.

Calling upon her 1932 collection “Bijoux de Diamants”, Chanel worked with the spiky star shape – something she considered eternally modern. Almost 100 years later, she has been proven overwhelmingly right.

“Reach For the Stars” isn’t just a cute callback to Hollywood; it’s dead serious with its lineup featuring sensual pieces designed around three symbols: the comet, the lion and wings.

The comet is represented by the luxurious Dreams Come True Necklace, an exceptional creation set with white gold, diamonds, black-coated gold and a 6.06-carat brilliant-cut DFL diamond. It can be detached at its centre to be worn either long or short. A double cascade of jewels in openwork gold rests around the neck and is joined in the middle by a star set with a 6.06-carat round DFL diamond.

The Twin Stars Ring is an open double ring in white gold, which comes with a playful stylised shooting star with twinkling diamonds spraying out behind it. The other star is an 11.16-carat cushion-cut sapphire with intense colouration.

The Wings of Chanel necklace made with white gold, platinum, and diamonds introduces the House’s new graphic and sensual emblem: wings spread in openwork gold, like embroidery set with precious stones delicately resting around the neck. Just like the Dreams Come True Necklace, Chanel allows you to decide how you wear it. It has been elongated by a detachable line of star-studded diamonds that can be worn as a bracelet. At its heart is a cushion-cut Padparadscha sapphire, weighing an exceptional and rare 19.55 carats, lending a pink to orange hue to the piece.

Personally at M2woman, we adore the Full Swing Head Jewel set with a 3.08-carat pear-shaped DFL diamond. It is styled as a pair of wings wrapping around your head made with openwork gold set with round and navette-cut diamonds. Nothing says roaring ‘40s like this.

Finally, the Lion is represented by its own Toi et Moi ring complete with its own lion and star set with a 3.04-carat brilliant-cut fancy vivid yellow diamond. This is mirrored by the lion’s head in openwork gold beside it.

The Strong as a Lion Necklace completes this set with the same openwork lion set in a constellation of diamonds. Below it is a 3.08-carat brilliant-cut DFL diamond and a star set with a brilliant-cut diamond at its centre. Once again it can be worn long or short to suit.

Each set brings its own beauty and colour, and is worth reaching for while creating a night worth remembering.

Prada

High Jewellery is usually marked by sombre refinement with a little glitz here and there. Outrageous but somehow subdued, muted with cool blues. You get the idea. Miuccia Prada and Raf Simons don’t follow any sort of playbook though.

They went out of their way to find jewels that leap out at you with their naturally vivid colours. Dubbed Couleur Vivante, the collection is defined by the likes of amethyst, aquamarine, madeira citrine, pink morganite and oro-verde peridot set inside drop earrings, solitaire rings, line bracelets and rivière necklaces.

This collection interrogates what luxury design even means. Natural flows are interrupted by stones that were diminutively described only as semiprecious. The designs were also made before the jewels were sourced, unusually for the High Jewellery scene. The end result is a set of pieces that are more reminiscent of 1950s cocktail glam than modern breeziness. When you own one of these pieces, you don’t just own the piece itself, you own its entire history. Prada has recorded each piece on the blockchain via the Aura Consortium. This gives you access to the gemstone’s transformation from rough all the way through to cut and polished.

Partridge

We finish our world tour of High Jewellery in the best place on Earth, home. Designed by Andrea Lethiers, Ode to the Ocean is an exquisite collection of one-of-a-kind pieces that feel like treasures crafted by the ocean itself. This is fitting since each gemstone was hand-selected by Grant Partridge and his team to encapsulate the theme of New Zealand’s seascape.

On the opening page, we featured Cova, which was inspired by the crystalline waters of Cathedral Cove. This design captures the energy of a clear, powerful wave in almost phosphorescent tones. A pear-shape 1.38-carat Paraiba tourmaline gleams at its heart, accented with delicate diamonds that shimmer like sunlight on the sea.

Marina is a ring that not only evokes a school of fish dancing through a deep body of water, it even illustrates it if you look close enough. Hidden among the bubble of diamonds, you can find small fish swimming throughout, truly celebrating marine life in motion. At its centre is an 8.10-carat oval Santa Maria aquamarine, set in platinum and encircled by pavé diamonds that shimmer like scales beneath the surface.

At M2woman, our personal favourite goes to Neptune, a ring that curves and mimics the calming movement of water slipping between your fingers. Its eye-catching centrepiece is a pear-shape 2.66-carat Santa Maria aquamarine. It is, in turn, surrounded by pavé diamonds and sapphire cabochons, a composition of true oceanic elegance.