Since it was founded in 1780, Maison Chaumet has drawn inspiration from the elements of nature, among which water plays a major role. However, this is the first time in its history that Chaumet has dedicated an entire High Jewellery collection to the sea. Named Ondes et Merveilles de Chaumet, it invites the wearer to travel, varying the horizons to better represent myriad evocations of the sea, from the caressing of the waves at the water’s edge to underwater treasure hunts, from boats calling in to the currents of the Gulf Stream.
Inventing a unique jewellery language of the sea, Ondes et Merveilles de Chaumet is also an extension of Torsade de Chaumet, the Maison’s previous High Jewellery collection that weaves a veritable ode to life and movement. This theme also animates the Déferlante parure, capturing the wave in motion through interplays of volumes, heights and diamond cuts. Perfectly in tune with the lives of today’s women, Maison signatures such as head jewels, the toi et moi and the tiara are reinvented to be worn in contemporary ways.
Chaumet ‘Ondes et Merveilles de Chaumet’ high jewellery 2022
Outdoing each other in technique and femininity, the transformable pieces make a variety of styles possible: a head jewel becomes a brooch, the sautoir turns into a short necklace, the climber earring comes with two ways of wearing, while the 6.05-carat diamond goes from a ring covering the finger bone to a solitaire mount.
Snorkelling in Hawar or yachting in St Tropez the sixty-nine pieces in the Ondes et Merveilles de Chaumet collection take one to the four corners of the earth. The voyage is translated by the stones that colour the collection with all the nuances of the seas. Each has its own story to tell, but all convey an emotion arising from an encounter with the Maison’s gemologists.
Through the power of suggestion, the pieces in the À Fleur d’Eau parure convey the lapping of a sea caressed by the swell. Marquise diamonds transform into sparkling drops to evoke these infinite transparencies on the surface of the water. Set on several levels, they appear to vibrate on a fully articulated necklace enhanced
Chaumet ‘Ondes et Merveilles de Chaumet’ high jewellery 2022
by a detachable 7.18-carat, pear-shaped diamond. Also transformable, the head jewel can be divided into two brooches, anchoring this emblematic piece of the Chaumet stylistic repertoire firmly in the 21st century. The pendant earrings will illuminate any look, as will a ring featuring a 3-carat diamond.
Inspired by the Gulf Stream, the current from Florida that warms the seas through which it passes, the Gulfstream parure combines warm and cold colours, in two tonal pairings – green and blue, orange and blue. The character of a 26-carat, mint-green Colombian emerald is expressed through contact with a Madagascar sapphire on an undulating necklace set with sapphires, Paraiba tourmalines and emeralds.
Adjustable thanks to a chain with a pompom- adorned back, a second necklace pairs a cabochon emerald with a bewitching 19.84-carat black Australian opal. Evocative of a summer night sky by the sea, sapphires nestle in the hollow of the waves on two rings revisiting the Maison’s signature toi et moi style. Mandarin garnets in a line light up a bracelet and burst across a brooch and earrings, both of which are transformable.
Chaumet ‘Ondes et Merveilles de Chaumet’ high jewellery 2022
Inspired by suspended time, in harbour or in an inlet, when the sails are lowered and the engines cut, the Escales parure perfectly illustrates the art of colour central to the Maison. On a short necklace, a row of spinels in an exceptional brick red hue sings out against sapphires evoking translucent waters. The narrative impact of this chromatic combination imbues a ball ring and pear- cut diamond drop climbing earrings. Set with a pear- shaped Paraiba tourmaline crowned with a tiara of spinels, another ring evokes the rocking motion of boats at anchor, their reflection imperceptibly shifting when a speedboat passes offshore.
Ondes et Merveilles de Chaumet could not creatively explore the sea without dreaming up a 21st-century siren parure. As seductive as its muse, the Chant de Sirènes parure is not intended to cause shipwrecks, but rather to captivate all those who gaze upon it. This is evidenced by a sumptuous necklace on which green-tinted Tahitian pearls intertwine with linden-like tourmalines, one a cushion-cut stone of 23.79 carats. As tourmalines sparkle in rare ice-green shades, the iconic Chaumet tiara resonates with a unique melody. The barely whispered asymmetry intensifies the seductive power of earrings and rings, one set with a pistachio green.
In keeping with the Maison’s pearl tradition, the Comète des Mers parure unites the stars of sky and sea. Rising on a ball ring with a pearl body, an exceptional, almost round, natural pearl pairs the infinite delicacy of its pale blush pink hue with its extraordinary weight of 55 grains. In honour of this enchanting stone, the Maison’s gemologists have created an extraordinary collection of natural pearls whose light grey, mauve and olive shades dialogue as a necklace on which a multicoloured star blooms crowned with a Padparadscha sapphire. The sense of poetry continues in long earrings with pearl drops that coordinate with a ring in rows of pearls enhanced with a polychromatic star.
Chaumet ‘Ondes et Merveilles de Chaumet’ high jewellery 2022
In a demonstration of superior goldsmithing prowess, a signature Chaumet virtuosity, the Galets d’Or parure transports one to the seashore, where the pebbles lapped by wavelets shimmer under the sun. Textured with tiny grooves, rose gold merges with white gold in which diamonds in a cut-down setting recall the effect of water streaming over the mineral. The softness of the peach blossom-coloured morganites flows into the pavé Padparadscha sapphires, their pink nuances reinforcing the realism of the evocation. Like an extension to finger and ear, the open-worked ring and the pendant earrings capture the movement of water the jeweller distils through the stones.
Like a treasure hunt uncovering jewels, this parure provides a phantasmagorical plunge into a fertile and inspiring sea. Like an unfurling of flora and fauna, a ring boasts an imperial topaz of 20.95 carats as luminous as a glass of rosé champagne. Decorated with chrysoprase branches and a pavé of tsavorite garnets, purple and pink sapphires and emeralds, the brooch, ring and ear studs provide an interpretation of a coral reef. Worn with matching earrings if desired, a sautoir of angel-skin coral beads competes in enchantment with a necklace dancing with pink spinels and Padparadscha sapphires crowned by a 21.35-carat, pear-shaped pink tourmaline.
Radiant with tangy hues, the Sous le Soleil parure tells the story of beach living, with its procession of activities… and idle leisure. A sautoir marries raspberry-coloured rubellites, one weighing 22.18 carats, with mandarin garnets that are as luminous as they are rare. Perfectly coordinated with the necklace, rubellite and vaporous pink chalcedony discs compose a ring with a spirited identity.
Chaumet ‘Ondes et Merveilles de Chaumet’ high jewellery 2022
Its sight inspires numerous irresistible interpretations, a cocktail of red fruits for some, a parasol seen from the air for others. Art Deco and playfulness combine in brooches and earrings with an interplay of positive and negative shapes, as do pendants with green tourmaline cabochons and chrysoprase half- spheres. In red, green or blue, three Complication Créative watches invite a poetically savoured telling of time.
llustrating the sense of the unpredictable of which Chaumet is fond, the unisex brooches of the Encres parure playfully interpret the tattoo symbols associated with sailors. Composed of successive planes, every element of which is arranged down to the micromillimeter, each brooch becomes a full-fledged scene in its own right on which a complete story is relayed. Recalling a hazy sky, turquoise dialogues with diamonds delineating clouds and the form of a seagull or albatross, the latter also spreads its wings on a watch whose sides are adorned with an inventive setting that extends the dial’s wave motifs.
Strikingly refined thanks to its Grand Feu enamel decoration, the sea looks as if it might gush out of the brooch once the anchor is dropped. Propelled by a tailwind, a two-masted boat embodies the inscription on its rolled up banner, “L’amour est une aventure” (“Love is an adventure”). Set with a heart-shaped ruby, the message slipped overboard into a rock-crystal bottle invokes the plea “Ne m’oublie pas” (“Forget me not”), while a lighthouse rising in a rudder-like frame makes literal the credo “L’amour me guide” (“Love is my guide”). The final flourish: each brooch conceals a pendant ring that can be revealed as desired, to accommodate a gold chain and transform it into a singular necklace.
CHAUMET is fully owned by LVMH
Chaumet ‘Ondes et Merveilles de Chaumet’ high jewellery 2022
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