Gems gain worth thanks to painstaking craftsmanship from Cartier, Van Cleef & Arpels, Nirav Modi, Graff and Piaget

Gemstones are the visible face of high jewellery, displaying their natural beauty to dazzling effect. These gems hold intrinsic value, but painstaking techniques and extraordinary craftsmanship give them heightened worth.

Cartier’s Paris workshop is a hotbed of artisanal craftsmanship where gem cutting, glyptics and figurative artworks are exquisitely applied. Such skills are driven by an innovative and creative team, and they are instrumental in audacious high-jewellery collections, says image, style and heritage director Pierre Rainero.

At the forefront of this innovation is the manipulation of platinum, which Cartier began experimenting with at the turn of the 20th century. Platinum is lighter but stronger than gold and gives jewellery more fluidity and greater respect for gemstones, he says. “But there is another challenge that is very much linked to the use of platinum. It’s also the idea that people demand more of their jewellery in terms of solidity because they wear it in different ways,” Rainero says.