We’ve seen loads of flawless pieces crafted by famous jewelcrafter Harry Winston throughout our lives, but none are as valuable as this piece. It’s not created by them though, they’ve just bought it.
Although the brand was recently acquired by the Swatch Group, they’ve managed to buy a flawless 101.73-carat diamond for the record sum of $26.7 million at an auction held in Geneva on Wednesday, according to Christie’s. In fact, Harry Winston is the first ever buyer of the diamond and has had the privilege of naming it. Thus the Harry Legacy was born.
Furthermore, this is the first major purchase of the diamond dealer since it was acquired by the world’s number one watchmaker for $1 billion, back in March. As for the diamond, the Harry Legacy has been described by The American Institute of Gemology as a top colourless grade D and the best clarity grade, flawless, characterised by perfect symmetry, as Christie’s describes.
The auction house further reports that the precious gem was sold at the auction by a diamond merchant and had reportedly weighed 236 carats before the cutting process. It was extracted from the Jwaneng Mine in Botswana and was painstakingly sculpted over a period of 21 months. The recent sale has marked the highest price ever paid for a flawless colorless diamond at auction, in spite of the fact that Christie’s had hoped it would fetch around $30 million.
As a comparison, back in December 2011, the Elizabeth Taylor Diamond, described as a similar D-color and weighing 33.19 carats, got sold for $8.8 million at an auction in New York.
[Luxuo]
