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To enter Graff’s Booth at Baselworld is an experience in its own right: a space carefully designed around luxurious and unique design features embraces you – from the ‘Icon’ façade which features on the exterior of Graff’s stores across Asia, walnut wall paneling incorporated into its flagship store on London’s Bond Street and bronze feature showcases which draw inspiration from Graff’s store on Madison Avenue in New York. 
A voyage that cradles and takes you to the heart of the Maison’s luxury watch novelties, all built around noble metals and materials, precious colours and extraordinary mechanisms.
My first encounter is with the Floral Tourbillon, the very first Ladies Tourbillon timepiece by Graff.
I was immediately captured by the elegance and delicate design of the tourbillon cage, which displays an intricate framework, representing a floral outline. The flowery theme continues with three stylized and fully blooming flowers, positioned at 8, 9 and 12 o’clock, graced by marquise-cut precious stones (rubies, emeralds, sapphires or diamonds), which individually rotate following the beat of the movement. To add an extra touch, the hour and minutes hands are in shape of two petals, in a gentle galvanic blue hue.
Showcasing Graff’s continued investment in haute horology and drawing powerful inspiration from Nature, the Floral Tourbillon is able to combine striking aesthetics, innovative diamond design and complex watchmaking – it took 2500 hours to Graff Luxury Watches masters to develop this timepiece.
From flowers to butterflies, here is the Disco Butterfly gently posing on my wrist.
The beauty and fun of this watch is the vibrant movement of gemstone and diamond set butterflies on the dial, which rotate in a kaleidoscopic dance following every movement of your hand:
Truly mesmerizing, the butterflies circle hypnotically and very fluidly, thanks to an inner rotor.
Graff Disco Butterflies is a truly emotional watch, where the cherished bearer of good fortune accompanies you throughout the day with its delicate wings and gentle hovering above the most precious gemstones.
Graff takes inspiration not only from Nature, but also from its dearest symbols, such as the Graff Icon. The Graff Icon Watch is in fact inspired by the $1 million “Hair and Jewel” composition, created by Laurence Graff in 1970, and re-interpreted in a new, amazing creation in 2013:
The Graff Icon can be considered the pure essence of the brand’s DNA – alone or in a pattern, the motif can be noticed everywhere, from the store interiors to a jewellery collection or as a design feature as it happens with the Icon Watch:
In this luxury timepiece, the Graff Icon takes the full stage as it decorates the watch’s dial with eight layered silhouettes set with diamond pave and juxtaposed with an array of colourful gemstones or sparkling diamonds, creating an enticing and extremely refined three-dimensional effect:
The Graff Icon Watch is a timeless classic in the making.
Last but not the least, the jewel that took my heart, the Halo Secret Watch Ring: a truly captivating and intriguing creation (which, I hope, it will be mine one day).
This surprising jewel, an authentic talking piece, belongs to the Halo Watch Collection, an ensemble that displays beautiful clusters of the finest gemstones within a selection of innovative new designs.
Vivid domes of diamonds, sapphires, rubies or emeralds form opulent spheres of scintillation. The Halo 25mm features a delicate pavé diamond dial encompassed by a circle of vibrant gemstones or diamonds. A delicate line of pavé diamonds trace the geometric outline of the Graff Icon motif on the dial of the Halo 36mm, complemented by either a satin or colour matched crocodile strap.
Secret watches are truly fascinating, elegant, surprising and spectacular at the same time. I cannot then but recall the faboulous Sapphire and Diamond Beaded Tassel Secret Watch.
Originally unveiled during the Biennale des Antiquaires in 2014, this brooch is taking Graff’s creative inspiration at its highest. This is a unique piece, combining meticulously graded and matched sapphire beads – sourced over months in order to ensure consistency in color vibrancy and fluidity – which form an extraordinary tassel concealing a pave diamond watch face, suspended from a platinum chain.
This masterpiece is a truly transformable jewel, as it can be styled in three different ways: as a single piece, individual brooches or as a single brooch with a mesmerizing tassel. Out of the fine elements composing this pièce unique, the tassel is truly fascinating, and the addition of a secret watch suspended from such a delicate platinum chain does add to the surprise and the intrigue.
The same tassel is framed by two ornate brooches, with pear shape sapphires at their centres, embraced by the finest diamonds, linked to each other by five rows of stunning sapphires and diamonds beads.
Thank you then to Graff, to let me access its faboulous world made of magnificent stones, beautifully articulated jewellery settings, and complex watchmaking in innovative designs. CC
Post by Claudia Carletti, Jewellery Through Time. Material courtesy of Graff’s Press Office.
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