Before all those diamond-encrusted money clips, pearl hooks and gold vermeil straws, there was the Zip necklace, which burst onto the scene in the '50s with its radical approach to haute joaillerie. Van Cleef & Arpels is widely regarded as one of the first jewellers, if not the first, to elevate everyday objects to high jewellery status, ever since it took the ordinary zipper as inspiration for an exquisite necklace in gold and precious stones. 

Victoire de Kastellane describes her haute joaillerie collection “Dior et Moi” as an “explosion of colours, materials and structures”. Photographer Brigitte Niedermaier has appropriately staged the sensually of sweet creations on abstractly drawn sugar.

An intimate conversation between the art of jewellery-making and horological expertise.