When you look at the high stakes environment of jewelry houses, only novelty and innovation count. Or heritage. The crown jewel in the Richemont brand portfolio is Cartier and it looks like the French maison is in the middle of a major image and product offensive. There are updates to its famous watches (the drop of the Pebble watch is just ahead), jewelry collections and even fragrances. There is a new Paris headquarter where the latest collections were shown and the famous rue de la Paix boutique reopenend after two years of renovation. All this happens under the watchful leadership of CEO Cyrille Vigneron and his director of image, style and heritage Pierre Rainero. They have realized that many Cartier designs were ahead of their time and are only now being fully appreciated.

For its latest High Jewelry collection entitled “Beautés du Monde”, Cartier gave birth to the Aphaia Brooch-Box, a palm size item made from rock crystal and featuring a detachable brooch in whitegold, one 4.56-carat carved ruby from Mozambique, rubybead, cabochon-cut emerald, onyx and diamonds. Before the lens of our Paris chief photographer Julia von der Heide the box underwent another sort of metamorphosis, which we show here.

Aphaia Brooch by Cartier

The rue de la Paix boutique was opened by Louis Cartier in 1899 and went through a full transformation where only the mythical façade with its famous black marble was preserved. Visiting the new 13 Paix is like entering a time machine which connects past and present, moreover if you were at the boutique before the works for a shoot like Achtung was in 2016. Our jewelry editor Evelyn Tye and photographer Tommy Ton brought along a Courrèges clad model to shoot the houses Haute Joaillerie right on the spot.