From Cartier to Chanel: The high jewellery collections to know in 2026
The year’s major launches span Egyptian symbolism, celestial motifs, sculptural gold and some of the rarest gemstones in the world.
From sculptural necklaces to bejewelled watches, this year’s high jewellery collections explore colour, symbolism and technical artistry. (Photos: Courtesy of respective brands; Art: CNA/Jasper Loh)
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High jewellery represents a maison’s creative vision at its most ambitious, bringing together artistic freedom, rare gemstones and exacting craftsmanship. Often requiring hundreds or even thousands of hours to complete, these one-of-a-kind creations showcase both imaginative design and technical mastery.
This year’s collections from 11 maisons, including Chopard, Van Cleef & Arpels, Piaget and Tiffany & Co, draw inspiration from house heritage, ancient history and the natural world. Through transformable designs, exceptional gemstones and technically complex settings, they blur the boundaries between jewellery and decorative art.
CHANEL SIGNES & SYMBOLES
Chanel’s latest high jewellery collection, Signes & Symboles, is built around four emblems associated with Gabrielle Chanel: the camellia, star, radiant sun and lion, the last representing her zodiac sign. The 85-piece collection draws inspiration from the night skies above the Abbey of Aubazine, where she spent part of her childhood, the Mediterranean light at Villa La Pausa and the talismans she kept throughout her life.
Its four chapters – Les Imprimes, Le Lion Emblematique, Les Bijoux Talismans and Les Symboles – reinterpret these motifs through graphic forms, intricate gemstone settings and transformable designs.
In Les Imprimes, Chanel’s recurring motifs are reimagined as precious “prints”. Its centrepiece, the Imprime Lion necklace, is a plastron-style design in which diamond camellias, stars and suns cascade around a sculpted, diamond-paved lion’s head and a 20.66-carat octagonal sapphire.
Le Lion Emblematique explores Chanel’s zodiac sign through the Lion Millenaire necklace, bracelet and transformable ring, combining vivid rubies, onyx and diamond-set lion motifs.
Les Bijoux Talismans comprises amulet-like pieces, including the Talisman Graphique set in yellow gold and yellow sapphires, and the Talisman de Symboles set in white gold, diamonds and ceramic.
Les Symboles focuses on colour and transformability. The Symbole Etoile necklace can be converted into a bracelet and earrings, while the Symbole Camelia Rose ring is set with a flawless 10.32-carat oval diamond.
BVLGARI ECLETTICA
Bvlgari’s Eclettica collection draws on sculpture, painting and architecture across more than 150 one-of-a-kind jewels. These include 15 transformable pieces – more than in any previous Bvlgari high jewellery collection – and nine Capolavori, or masterpieces, built around some of the house’s most important gemstones.
The collection also includes more than 50 multimillion-dollar creations, reflecting the scale and rarity of the gemstones involved.
The transformable Seres Scarf necklace, inspired by Art Deco textiles, is designed to drape like fabric and is set with a 31.9-carat Sri Lankan sugarloaf sapphire. The Secret Garden necklace centres on a 26.65-carat padparadscha sapphire, while the Incontro Segreto ring revisits the toi et moi form with a 7.85-carat pear-shaped diamond and a 5.42-carat Colombian emerald.
The sculptural theme continues in the Serpenti pieces. The Serpenti Infinia bracelet incorporates a 7.49-carat diamond cut to follow the snake’s form, while the Serpenti Imperial Heart necklace features a historic 30.75-carat, D-colour, flawless Golconda-type diamond.
Eclettica also includes high jewellery watches, 10 one-of-a-kind bags and three Murano glass fragrance flacons designed to be worn as jewels.
CARTIER LE CHOEUR DES PIERRES
Cartier’s new high jewellery collection, Le Choeur des Pierres, places the character of each gemstone at the centre of the design process. Its title plays on the French words choeur, meaning chorus, and coeur, meaning heart, likening the stones in each jewel to voices brought together in harmony.
The collection comprises more than 125 one-of-a-kind pieces, which collectively required over 85,000 hours of work.
The Olorra necklace revisits Cartier’s early 20th-century green-and-blue palette, pairing five Colombian emeralds totalling 40.67 carats with custom-cut turquoise and lapis lazuli.
Tutti Kanya draws on the house’s Tutti Frutti style, placing a 30.33-carat carved Zambian emerald among ruby, sapphire and emerald flowers. Panthere Kentia is built around a fully articulated panther and a 50.13-carat cabochon Ceylon sapphire, while Haryma depicts a tiger in imperial topaz, garnets and diamonds, with a pixel-like onyx chain echoing its coat.
The collection also includes eight rings, each centred on a principal gemstone. Among them are Tetraya, set with a 20.24-carat sugarloaf Colombian emerald, and Stratelia, featuring a 23.35-carat Madagascan sapphire.
Specula takes a different approach, using two triangular diamonds totalling 6.44 carats in a transformable toi et moi design.
HERMES INTO THE HORSESCAPE
Hermes’ ninth high jewellery collection, Into the Horsescape, looks to the world of horse riding without depicting the animal directly. Across 90 pieces, bits, lassos, stirrups and blacksmith’s nails are recast in precious metals and gemstones.
Deep jade and Tahitian pearls recall a horse’s hooves, while rose gold and brown diamonds evoke the warmth of its coat. Sellette, one of the collection’s key pieces, turns a saddle stand into jewellery, reflecting designer Pierre Hardy’s interest in transforming familiar equestrian objects into unexpected forms.
PIAGET COLOURS OF EXTRALEGANZA
Piaget concludes its Extraleganza high jewellery trilogy with Colours of Extraleganza, a 65-piece collection that treats colour as both material and design language.
Inspired by the exuberance of the 1960s and 1970s, it follows Essence of Extraleganza in 2024 and Shapes of Extraleganza in 2025. The collection also traces Piaget’s use of colour to the introduction of the ultra-thin 9P movement in 1957, whose slim profile created more room for experimentation with vividly coloured hardstone dials.
The Blue Illusions necklace required nearly 900 hours of work and centres on three stones: an 8.52-carat Madagascan sapphire, a 3.3-carat Paraíba tourmaline and a 13.98-carat black opal.
Flamboyant Links revisits Piaget’s 1969 sautoir watch as a transformable necklace, choker and wristwatch in engraved gold and tiger’s eye, while Gold Swirl draws on the flowing curves of 1970s design.
Gems Pop takes its cues from the Memphis design movement, founded in Italy in the 1980s and known for vivid colours, graphic forms and playful combinations. Piaget translates that aesthetic into brightly coloured gemstones and a detachable pendant watch, bringing together its jewellery and watchmaking traditions.
VAN CLEEF & ARPELS FASCINATING EGYPT
Fascinating Egypt revisits Van Cleef & Arpels’ long engagement with the art and symbolism of the ancient civilisation. Founded in Paris in 1906 during a period of growing European fascination with the region, the house produced its first Egyptian-inspired pieces in 1923 and 1924, following the discovery of Tutankhamun’s tomb in 1922.
The collection comprises around 180 pieces, reinterpreting pharaonic symbols, scenes of daily life and Art Deco design through rubies, emeralds, sapphires, lapis lazuli, turquoise and other ornamental stones. Each is marked with a hieroglyphic-style cartouche incorporating the Van Cleef & Arpels monogram.
The Beaute Legendaire necklace is built around a 10.02-carat fancy vivid yellow diamond set within a flexible, diamond-paved breastplate. The Rivage Egyptien necklace features 37 pear-shaped Zambian emeralds totalling 41.58 carats, arranged to evoke the Nile, papyrus reeds and birds in flight.
Three clips – Fragment de Bonheur, Fragment Magnifique and Fragment de Beaute – resemble hieroglyphic friezes rendered in yellow gold and diamonds. Each pairs a cushion-cut coloured gemstone with an ornamental stone: a 7.93-carat spessartite garnet with turquoise, a 5.51-carat mauve Madagascan sapphire with coral, and a 5.82-carat indicolite tourmaline with lapis lazuli.
Other figurative pieces explore ancient Egyptian mythology. The Venus Egyptienne clip evokes the goddess Hathor through a solar disc and cow-horn motif in lapis lazuli and turquoise marquetry, arranged around a 1.51-carat round diamond.
The Muse Eternelle clip portrays Cleopatra in white and yellow gold and diamonds, holding an ankh and sceptre. Both continue Van Cleef & Arpels’ exploration of feminine figures, a recurring theme in its work since the 1940s.
LOUIS VUITTON MYTHICA
Mythica presents the Louis Vuitton woman as the heroine of her own journey. Across 11 themes and 110 one-of-a-kind pieces, the collection traces stages of challenge, transformation and triumph through coloured gemstones and the house’s LV Monogram-cut diamonds.
The Conquest necklace is set with 21 vivid red rubies totalling 21.86 carats and required 1,200 hours of work. Fortitude centres on an 82.14-carat cushion step-cut Cambodian blue zircon, while Mesmerism features a 17.18-carat Colombian emerald alongside a 3.03-carat LV Monogram Flower-cut diamond.
Enigma is built around a 127.66-carat oval cat’s-eye topaz cabochon. Spell, meanwhile, uses diamonds that emit a blue-tinged fluorescence under ultraviolet light – a technique Louis Vuitton says it is using for the first time.
The narrative culminates in Fortune, with its golden pearl and yellow diamonds; Triumph, defined by hand-engraved phoenix wings; and Victory, the final chapter.
Victory includes a laurel-inspired necklace set with 38 coloured diamonds and a ring centred on a 3.31-carat fancy vivid pink diamond.
TIFFANY & CO BLUE BOOK 2026: HIDDEN GARDEN
Tiffany & Co’s Blue Book 2026 collection, Hidden Garden, is the first chapter of a three-part high jewellery series inspired by growth, metamorphosis and renewal in nature.
Created by chief artistic officer Nathalie Verdeille and the Tiffany Design Studio, it revisits Jean Schlumberger’s flora and fauna through sculptural, sometimes transformable jewels. Its themes range from butterflies, birds and bees to blossoms, buds and twisting vines.
The Butterfly theme uses unenhanced padparadscha sapphires to evoke the colours of butterfly wings, while some pendants can also be worn as brooches.
Bird on a Rock is reinterpreted in new forms, including a necklace with diamond birds perched on a 22-carat Brazilian aquamarine in a Santa Maria hue. Paradise Bird draws on Schlumberger’s fantastical bird designs through coloured gemstones and enamel.
The Bee theme revisits Schlumberger’s Two Bees ring through honeycomb-like diamond settings and a D-colour, internally flawless Type IIa diamond weighing more than 10 carats.
Botanical motifs continue through Jasmine, Marguerite, Bloom and Twin Bud, culminating in Palm, where sculpted leaves frame a suite of matched, unenhanced Mozambican rubies.
CHOPARD RED CARPET COLLECTION 2026
Chopard’s 2026 Red Carpet Collection, Miracles, draws on fleeting encounters with nature, light and movement. Conceived by co-president and artistic director Caroline Scheufele, its motifs include changing skies, flowers and animals, interpreted through coloured gemstones and sculptural forms.
The 79-piece collection was unveiled in May during the Cannes Film Festival, of which Chopard has been an official partner since 1998.
A highlight of the collection is a necklace set with an 88-carat Royal Blue sapphire, with strands of sapphires, aquamarines and diamonds representing the meeting of earth and sky.
Other figurative pieces include a phoenix brooch in ethical rose gold and titanium, set with emeralds and multicoloured sapphires, and a carp brooch with diamond- and sapphire-set scales that appear to ripple with movement. A secret butterfly watch completes the group, concealing its dial beneath a diamond-set wing.
GRAFF: THE MOST FABULOUS JEWELS IN THE WORLD
Graff’s latest high jewellery campaign, The Most Fabulous Jewels in the World, places large white and coloured diamonds at the centre of graphic, sculptural designs. Clean lines and open settings keep the emphasis on the stones, reflecting the British jeweller’s long-standing focus on sourcing, cutting and setting important diamonds.
Among the coloured diamond pieces is a yellow diamond suite featuring a necklace centred on a 10-carat fancy intense yellow radiant-cut diamond, set within a geometric arrangement of emerald-cut, baguette-cut and pave diamonds. An ornate cuff built around an 18-carat fancy intense yellow cushion-cut diamond, along with matching earrings and rings, continues the theme.
An ornate cuff is built around an 18-carat fancy intense yellow cushion-cut diamond, with earrings and rings extending the suite through radiant-cut and fancy vivid yellow diamonds.
Also included is an all-white diamond suite containing more than 148 carats of diamonds, comprising a sculptural necklace, a pair of round brilliant diamond stud earrings and a 10-carat, D-colour, flawless solitaire ring.
POMELLATO STILE LIBERO
Pomellato’s latest high jewellery collection, Stile Libero, explores freedom through saturated colour, sculptural gold and unconventional stone settings.
The 65-piece collection is divided into three chapters – Visionary Colors, Magnetic Gold and Hypnotic Shadows – and incorporates the house’s serti libero, or free-setting, technique.
Visionary Colors brings together unusual gemstone combinations. The Mandala Chromia necklace is set with 99 multicoloured natural sapphires, while the Drops of Paraiba choker features 21 Paraiba tourmalines. The Rainbow Supreme riviere necklace continues the chapter’s focus on colour with more than 157 carats of tourmalines arranged in a continuous gradation.
Magnetic Gold shifts the focus to sculptural rose gold through pieces such as the transformable Attache necklace and the geometric Byzantine choker, set with brown diamonds.
Hypnotic Shadows explores openwork through the lace-like Arabesque necklace, which required 1,450 hours to complete.
Source: CNA/bt
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