London is the city of world-famous landmarks such as Big Ben, Buckingham Palace and Westminster Abbey. Since 1909, it has also been closely associated with Cartier. It was that year more than a century ago when Jacques Cartier—one of the three Cartier brothers who brought their grandfather’s business onto the world map—opened the French luxury maison's London flagship store at New Bond Street.
This June, the city played host to a dazzling affair by the maison—the launch of its new high jewellery collection, Magnitude. Six key sets of jewellery were presented as part of an extensive exhibition of over 500 exquisite, one-of-a-kind pieces, held at 180 The Strand, an iconic Brutalist building in the heart of London.
For the collection, the maison’s artisans drew notes from Cartier's heritage in jewellery making and melded them with those they had extracted from the world of astronomy.
The materials used in the jewellery, like celestial bodies, collide to result in a bold formation—one where precious and semi-precious stones meet and become unexpected best friends. Think diamonds and rutilated quartz, or emerald and rock crystal.
To match their out-of-this-world designs, the names of the pieces also take after matters of outer space, such as Aphélie, which means the point of the orbit at which the Earth is furthest from the sun.
