EMAIL TO A FRIEND  

VIEW GALLERY

JEWELRY DESIGNER INTERVIEWS

Backes & Strauss photo

The Regent Moon Phase watch with three rows of diamonds, $60,375

Backes & Strauss

The world's oldest diamond firm pushes the limits of innovation

Franck Muller might be the master of complications. But when it comes to watches, Backes & Strauss are the kings of bling.

That’s because Backes & Strauss is the oldest diamond company in the world, founded in 1789, the same year as the French Revolution. The London-based firm has supplied diamonds to top jewellers such as Tiffany, Asprey, Boucheron and Cartier since the earlier 20th century.

In 2003, Vartkess Knadjian bought Backes & Strauss and, being a watch collector himself, decided to launch a line of timepieces.

“To build credibility as a watchmaker would have taken years,” Knadjian recalled on a recent visit to Mindham Fine Jewellery in Toronto. “But we had been supplying diamonds to Franck Muller, who is an horological genius, and we had this wonderful relationship. So we had this idea of fusing the two crafts, each focusing on our strengths and creating the ultimate diamond jewellery watch.”

Where other watch houses simply add diamonds as an afterthought, diamonds are fundamental to Backes & Strauss watch designs.

Most of the diamonds used, even the tiniest ones, are ideal cut, a perfectly symmetrical form that results in all the light entering the stone being reflected internally and dispersed out the top. Devised in 1919, the ideal cut is rarely used because so much of a diamond’s weight must be sacrificed in the process, making the ideal cut less than ideal for the bottom line.

Baguettes are also used, in colours ranging from D to F, and VVS1 to flawless. The stunning Prince Regent has a dial that is completely encrusted with rings of tapered stones that are grooved on the sides so that each diamond can lock into the one next to it. This way no gold is visible on the dial – hence the name invisibly-set.

“Another watchmaker would not take this type of challenge on,” Knadjian says. “Most watch companies are afraid of diamonds. We are not. We know what we are doing. And it’s understandable. It’s not their business. For them, the easiest thing is to put diamonds around the watchcase and say we have a diamond watch.”

Even the Backes & Strauss crown is an innovation. “The traditional way of setting a diamond in the crown is with the stem in and the culet out,” Knadjian points out. “I wanted it the other way around.” So the crown was expanded, resulting in an automatic movement that is a pleasure to wind.

Cases are carved out of solid gold and numerals are faceted and individually polished then set, so they stand up in relief from the dial.

“The dial is a very underrated part of the watch,” Knadjian believes. “I think it’s the most beautiful part of the watch and it’s the most difficult part to make. Unless of course you just print numbers on it.”

The laborious process of crafting Backes & Strauss watches means only 750 are expected to come to market this year. And there are special editions in the works, including a lime and white diamond checkerboard dial that Knadjian has been collecting stones for for two years.

Backes & Strauss watches are available at Theo Fennell Harrods and Selfridges in London, Asprey in London, New York and Beverly Hills, and Mindham Fine Jewellery in Toronto. See BackesandStrauss.com for a complete list of retailers.