For the upcoming Baselworld watch and jewelry trade fair, Graff will unveil an important collection of jeweled watches, each showcasing diamonds using what the company describes as “pioneering jewelry watchmaking skills.” The first watch in the collection was unveiled Tuesday with the entire piece paved with 60 fancy vivid yellow diamonds totaling more than 25 carats. The price of the watch was not released. Graff fancy yellow diamond watch To add to the color theme, the diamonds are set on a yellow gold case, bracelet and dial. In order to meet this challenge of setting this many exceptional diamonds on a watch, Sam Sherry, Graff’s head of Technologies, devised a jointing system that Graff has developed over the past few years to create flexible bracelets while optimizing the natural beauty of the stones. Graff’s London atelier worked in conjunction with Graff’s Swiss watchmaking team, Graff Luxury Watches, to create this synthesis of haute horology and diamond setting. This is not the first time Graff has presented a statement bejeweled watch at Baselworld. In 2014, the first year the luxury brand exhibited at the fair, it was the “Hallucination,” a women’s watch covered in a kaleidoscope of 110 carats of rare fancy colored diamonds. Graff claimed at the time it was “estimated to be the most valuable watch ever created.” The following year Graff unveiled “The Fascination,” a transformable watch covered in 152.96 carats of white diamonds that was valued at $40 million. The pear shaped watch dial on the center of the diamond covered bracelet is removable and can be replaced with a 38.13 carat D flawless, pear shaped diamond, cut and polished by Graff. When the center diamond isn’t in use on the bracelet it is placed on a shank of a ring. So a woman can wear a pure diamond bracelet, an opulent diamond covered watch with a matching ring, or wear either piece by itself. In 2017, it was the “Princess Butterfly Secret Watch,” covered in diamonds and gemstones mounted with a an invisible setting. To view the time, the owner pushes on one of the center round diamonds and the butterfly wings slide apart to reveal the watch dial. Baselworld will be held March 21 – 26.
London-based jeweller Graff will showcase a collection of jewelled watches at the Baselworld watch and jewellery show this year. The first watch in the collection contains 26 yellow vivid fancy diamonds amounting to over 25 carats with a yellow gold case, bracelet and dial. Sam Sherry, head of technologies at Graff, designed a jointing system to craft a flexible bracelet. In 2015 Graff produced "The Fascination" a watch covered with 152.96 carats of diamonds, which at the time was valued at $40m, and in 2017 the company unveiled the "Princess Butterfly Secret Watch", the dial being invisible in the setting, until the wearer pushes a central diamond to reveal the time.