In 2015, Cartier presented a bracelet adorned with a sumptuous 197.80-carat sapphire. More impressive than its weight is the gem’s prestigious history. An authentic relic of the Romanov family, it is believed to have belonged to Empress Maria Feodorovna, the spouse of Alexander III and the mother of Nicolas II. The sapphire disappeared in the wake of the 1917 revolution, but resurfaced in the following decade, on the other side of the Atlantic—already at Cartier, in New York. The Maison set the sapphire on a necklace acquired by the extravagant Ganna Walska, an opera singer of Polish origin. It was the highlight of her jewelry collection for decades, until the historic gem was sold in an auction in the 1970s. After passing through the hands of several owners, the jewel found its way back to Cartier in the 2010s, where a new piece was imagined for the sapphire.
Luminous and streamlined, the design plays with openwork to form geometric motifs that subtly evoke the facets of the gem. The latter can be removed and replaced by an engraved rock crystal whose intersecting lines, etched into its surface, blend into the openwork pattern of the cuff.