Tiffany & Company’s High Jewelry — for Men

Exactly when a man’s lapel became the stage for displays of patriotic fervor, tribal affiliation or cultural distinction is open to interpretation. French men since at least Napoleon have loved exhibiting their décorations — medals, crosses or discrete bar pins, color coded to represent different honors bestowed by the nation — and Freemasons have long signaled fellow brothers with badges denoting rank.

Next month, the badge of honor gets an upgrade with Tiffany & Company’s first dedicated men’s pieces for its annual Blue Book high jewelry collection. Blue Book functions as “the creative laboratory for Tiffany, a place to experiment, to try new settings, techniques and concepts,” says Reed Krakoff, Tiffany & Company’s chief artistic officer. Traditionally, the brand’s statement jewelry has been worn by princesses or movie stars. And yet, Krakoff notes, “half of Tiffany’s customers are men.”

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The new designs took over two years of development, during which rare gemstones, found everywhere from Botswana to Russia, were “auditioned” by Tiffany & Company’s chief gemologist, Melvyn Kirtley. Among the 12 pieces are a gold bird’s-head-shaped signet ring with a row of rubies subtly inset on one side, as well as a “handkerchief” brooch featuring a 5-carat emerald-cut diamond at its center and a line of baguette diamonds peeking out between its layers of 18-karat gold — brushed in front and polished to a high shine on the reverse side, where only the wearer will see it. There’s also a platinum brooch in the form of a beetle, its body glittering with diamonds and its jaws clutching a giant 7-carat blue spinel.