Founded in 1932, Harry Winston, Inc. is a younger jeweler compared to many established brands that are well known across the world. Over his lifetime, founder Harry Winston continued to grow and shape his famed jewelry house into one of the most respected in the world. His dedication, passion and unique approach to his business allowed him to build a brand that’s become synonymous with elegance and glamour. Keep reading to learn about the history of Harry Winston.
In 1935 Winston began his famous collection of impressive gemstones. He purchased his first important diamond, the Jonker, a diamond weighing 726 carats, uncut. This stone yielded 12 jewelry grade diamonds when cut, the largest a 125.35 emerald cut gem.
A few years after his first big purchase, Winston demonstrated his very personal dedication with a journey to find what would later be known as the Vargas diamond. Harry Winston was highly involved in his company, taking to the ground to build its reputation himself. In 1938 Winston learned of a 726.60 carat diamond found in Brazil. He immediately set across the world to find the massive stone. He traveled by boat and plane to track down the diamond and finally found and purchased it before any other jeweler in the world could make an offer.
It seems that every notable jeweler needs an innovative gemstone setting technique. For Harry Winston, it was diamond clusters. With this technique, the diamonds would dictate the setting and not the other way around as typical with gem setting prior.
Harry Winston started another jewelry trend in 1944 when he became the first jeweler to lend diamonds to celebrities for the red carpet. He lent diamonds to actress Jennifer Jones to accept her Best Actress award at the Academy Awards. Ever since, celebrities take stunning pieces to the red carpet and Harry Winston became known as “jeweler to the stars.”
The jeweler was still in pursuit if important and historical diamonds and in 1949 acquired the Star of the East and the famous Hope Diamond. By 1952 it was believed that Harry Winston had the second largest collection of historical gemstones, second only to Crown Jewels of the British royal family. Though in 1958, Winston donated the Hope Diamond to the Smithsonian Institute to start their historic National Gem collection.
Winston continued to grow the company and expanded internationally to Switzerland and France. He also maintained his relationship as celebrity jeweler and important gem collector. No other example of this is more obvious than with his purchase and sale of a diamond for Elizabeth Taylor, known as the Taylor-Burton Diamond.
At the age of 82, Harry Winston died in 1978, but his legacy continues today. Winston’s son too control of the company and expanded the company further, with locations in Asia and a new watch collection. The watch collection has grown with headquarters in Switzerland, the watchmaking capital of the world. The Harry Winston gemstone collection has also continued to grow with the purchase of a diamond that would become the Winston legacy diamond in 2013 and the Winston Blue in 2014, the largest known blue diamond.
Photo Credit: 77diamonds.com / harrywinston.com / smithsonianscience.si.edu / swissclassicwatches.com