Harry Winston's Emerald Collection Embraces A Masculine Dimension

Inspired by its eponymous founder’s favourite cut, the Harry Winston Emerald collection’s latest incarnation invites men into the fold

- Alvin Wong

Rumour has it that the late Harry Winston, the legendary ‘King Of Diamonds’ who is behind one of the world’s most glamorous luxury companies, once had in possession at least a third of the world’s most legendary stones. And in this incomparable stash, none was more intriguing and famous as the ‘Hope Diamond’, a behemoth weighing 45.52 carats with an alluring deep blue hue, which Winston acquired in 1949 and later donated to the Smithsonian Institution in 1958 when he felt that its beauty was too stunning not to be shared.

Almost 70 years since Winston’s purchase of the Hope Diamond, his company is once again showing off the famous stone to the world and to a much wider audience than originally intended, thanks to the latest Emerald collection of watches, bearing an emerald-cut profile inspired by the shape of the Hope Diamond.

Now in its third iteration, the Emerald collection was first launched in 2016 as a ladies’ dress watch. Comprising diminutive yet striking timepieces that evoke wrist accompaniments of the 1930s, the first Emerald watches were tinier than a postage stamp and hugged the wrists with sensuous satin double-twirl straps or, in more extravagant variants, gold Milanese bracelets.