View all newsletters
Latest in Luxury - Sign up to our newsletter
  1. Style
February 25, 2014

Backes & Strauss Unveils Piccadilly Princess ‘Royal Colours’ Watch

By Chris Boyle

backes & strauss piccadilly_Backes & Strauss has reached new heights in the creation of the Piccadilly Princess ‘Royal Colours’ lady’s cocktail watch, which is bedecked in a variety of spectacular stones that reflect all the colors of the rainbow – and more.

No two examples of the Piccadilly Princess Royal Colours will be alike, nor can they be – because each watch is created using a unique hand-picked selection of white and fancy-colored diamonds which are individually set to create an unrepeatable, one-off pattern.

Starting with a simple, 18 carat white gold case, the watch is created by hand-setting ‘royal colors’ diamonds of no fewer than 66 different color hues and 10 different cuts on the dial, case and bracelet.

Combining the various cuts (Baguette, Cushion, Marquise, Oval, Pear, Princess, Ascher, Emerald, Heart and Round Brilliant Cut) creates an impression of a piece that has been formed by a happy coincidence of nature, almost as if diamonds had been casually scattered across the watch.

But closer inspection reveals that each of the 225 stones – one to mark every year since Backes & Strauss was founded – has been set in a process taking hundreds of hours by master craftsmen.

Perhaps more remarkable, however, is the sheer rarity of the diamonds that have been used to create the Princess Royal Colours pieces. To yield only a one carat diamond, it is necessary to blast, crush, process and X-ray more than 250 tons of rock; each year, more than 120 million carats are mined, but just a quarter of this quantity is of sufficient quality to be used in the making of jewellery – and, of this, only one in 10 thousand carats is a natural colored diamonds.

www.backesandstrauss.com

Content from our partners
How Bree Jacoby is Making Fashion More Sustainable
Style with Bree: Personalized Fashion for the Elite
GM Arjun Channa on Life at The Ritz-Carlton, St Thomas

Select and enter your email address Be the first to know about the latest in luxury lifestyle news and travel.
Visit our privacy Policy for more information about our services, how New Statesman Media Group may use, process and share your personal data, including information on your rights in respect of your personal data and how you can unsubscribe from future marketing communications.
Thank you

Thank you for subscribing to Elite Traveler.

Websites in our network