Backes & Strauss never cease to amaze us, the latest creation from the world’s oldest diamond merchants is the extraordinary 225 diamond, 38.69 carats Princess Royal Colours timepiece.
The master cutters, polishers and gem setters at Backes & Strauss have excelled once again and pushed the boundaries of jewelled watch design in the creation of the Piccadilly Princess Royal Colours. This timepiece is a spectacular lady’s cocktail watch bedecked in a variety of beautifully cut stones which reflect all the colours of the rainbow – and more.
One of the things we really like about Royal Colours is that no two watches in the collection will be alike because each of the watches is created using a unique hand-picked selection of white and fancy-coloured diamonds which are individually set to create an unrepeatable, one-off pattern.
How the Royal Colours timepiece is constructed
The process starts with a simple 18k white gold case, the gem setters then set the diamonds by hand consisting of no fewer than 66 different colour hues and 10 different cuts on the dial, case and bracelet. It’s the combination of the various cuts (Baguette, Cushion, Marquise, Oval, Pear, Princess, Ascher, Emerald, Heart and Round Brilliant Cut) that creates an impression that the piece has been formed by nature, almost as if diamonds had been casually scattered across the watch.
If you take a closer look at the timepiece, you’ll see that each of the 225 jewels (marking every one of the years since Backes & Strauss was founded) has been deliberately set in place. This process alone takes the Backes & Strauss craftsmen hundreds of hours to ensure the most aesthetic and beautiful combination of colours.
Even more remarkable, is the sheer rarity of the diamonds that have been used by Backes & Strauss in the creation of the Princess Royal Colours pieces. To get just a single one carat diamond, it is necessary to blast, crush, process and X-ray more than 250 tons of rock; each year, more than 120 million carats are mined, but just a quarter of this quantity is of sufficient quality to be used in the making of jewellery – and, of this, only one in 10 thousand carats is a natural coloured diamond.
It’s these high standards and the attention to detail that gives Backes & Strauss their status as the leading manufacturer of jewelled timepieces in the world.