Riding on the success of its previous high jewellery collections like Golden Oasis (2019), Sunlight Escape (2018) and Sunlight Journey (2017) comes Piaget’s new Wings of Light collection, a riotous display of scintillating gemstones that also exists under the same overarching theme on light. Divided into three chapters – Enchanted Flight, Magnificent Haven and Ecstatic Dance – it is inspired by lush undiscovered jungles teeming with exotic flora and fauna.
Plenty of Piaget’s signature touches are present in the collection, such as the use of marquise diamonds, Palace decoration technique, as well as feather marquetry and other traditional metiers d’art techniques. In fact, one of the standout pieces in the collection, the Majestic Plumage necklace from the Enchanted Flight line, features a glorious feathered centrepiece that can be removed to be worn as an ear cuff or a pair of earrings. With the vibrant plumage seamlessly attached to a collier of coloured sapphires and spinel, as well as a rare 7.49-ct Paraiba-like tourmaline centre stone, the necklace looks like a wing of an imaginary mystical bird.
From the Magnificent Haven line comes the Secret Cenote set, composing a necklace, earrings, ring and cuff watch adorned with brilliant diamonds and gemstones in calming hues of blue. Named after naturally formed cave pools (cenote is also translated from Spanish to mean holy well), Secret Cenote is inspired by water: the gentle ripples on its surface, its shimmering hues as well as its unwavering force.
With its 22.68-ct Ceylonese sapphire in a mesmerising cornflower shade of blue, the necklace is the focal piece in this line and one of the main highlights in the entire collection. Its elegant and supple form, composed of a myriad of articulated gold components adorned with mixed cut diamonds, makes for a comfortable fit at the collarbone, a requirement that demanded some 230 hours of workmanship.
No less spectacular in stature is the cuff watch, with its asymmetrical form and mosaic work of Australian black opals, diamonds and baguette cut sapphires. It’s no coincidence that opals were used in this timepiece: highly regarded by Piaget, opals have appeared in iconic watch designs since the 1960s and continue to feature heavily in its creations.
The last chapter on Wings of Light is Ecstatic Dance, a rosy set of jewels forged from warm gold and set with pinkish hued gemstones. Inspired by glowing sunsets and the interplay between light and shadow, the Rainbow Light pieces (comprising a pair of earrings, a cuff-bracelet and a tourbillon watch) are decorated with Piaget’s proprietary Palace decoration, an engraving method it brought back from the 1960s that gives gold a fabric-like texture.
Piaget pairs this craft with that of independent artist Rose Saneuil’s multi material marquetry work. Trained at the prestigious Ecole Boulle, where she studied cabinetmaking and marquetry, Saneuil is the only one to master this form of marquetry. She matches diamonds, gold and a glorious 22.68-ct rubellite (meant to represent the setting sun) with a combination of leather, wood and mother of pearl.
And the result is spectacular: designed with an unrivalled level of detail, the vibrant rays of marquetry work that fan out from the rubellite resemble glorious sun rays, feathers, and even ferns – everything you can find in a lush tropical paradise.