fcolorful tourmalines, aquamarines and sapphires ensnared by diamonds are meant to evoke Wilhelmina Bucherer’s adventures in South America to procure precious stones, while the frosty diamonds recall the cool head of her mother-in-law and wife of company founder Carl F. Bucherer, Louise Bucherer: The first Haute Joaillerie The collection of the Lucerne-based watch and jewelery group Bucherer honors the women who laid the foundation for Bucherer Fine Jewelery with six pieces of jewellery.
Both women had an enormous impact on the company, which was founded in 1888. They not only used diamonds and gemstones for decorative purposes, but also to express their personality – at a time when the identity of women was primarily associated with home and hearth was.
With the new Haute Joaillerie collection, the Bucherer jewelery design team wants to capture the spirit of passionate, independent women. Similar to what Wilhelmina Bucherer once did, people traveled to remote places in the world in search of the right gems: such as Colombia, Sri Lanka or Vietnam. At the same time, the Swiss family business also wants to honor its home town of Lucerne and the bond that Bucherer women have with its collection.
An octagonal necklace from the collection reminiscent of the water tower on the Chapel Bridge in Lucerne.
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Image: Bucherer
This honor is expressed through the shapes and lines of the jewellery, which are inspired by Lucerne architecture, such as an octagonal necklace reminiscent of the water tower of the city’s Chapel Bridge. A lustrous, cushion-shaped sapphire sparkles at its center surrounded by 1246 diamonds, its dark blue color enhanced by the dazzling brilliants. A modern radiometric dating revealed that the deep blue stone is about 25 million years old.
The six cocktail rings from the Haute Joaillerie collection
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Image: Bucherer
Another aesthetic highlight of the collection: the cocktail rings in five different color variations, which can confidently be described as works of art. The series includes an opulent ring with a 24.62 carat purple-blue, oval-cut tanzanite from East Africa surrounded by purple and blue spinels from Vietnam. The pieces of jewelry not only reveal the great craftsmanship and savoir-faire of the house, they also stand for a free spirit, since rings of this type were seen as an expression of support for illegal cocktail parties during American Prohibition in the 1920s – hence the name . Wealthy women attended these parties and wanted to emphasize their economic independence.
The High Jewelery Boutique in Frankfurt
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Image: Bucherer
Pieces of jewelry like these have found a temporary home in the world’s first high-jewellery boutique by Bucherer on Goethestrasse in Frankfurt am Main. The design concept of the approximately 180 square meter shop is well thought out: an installation by the artist Felix Stumpf connects the two floors; Colors and materials are reduced. The gems are presented in individual lounge areas that are intended to give the rooms a modern loft character.
“This boutique is the continuation of a journey that began with my grandfather’s pioneering spirit and my grandmother’s commitment to the family business,” says Jörg Bucherer, owner and Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Bucherer Group. The number eight runs through the new high jewelery creations with various details, for example the blue sapphire of the Louise necklace has exactly 18.88 carats: representative of the year Bucherer was founded in 1888, when everything began.
