Buccellati Appoints New CEO

The Buccellati 18k “Star Collection,” necklace and earrings made of more than 1,700 white and yellow diamonds and 20 pieces of Imperial jade.

Italian luxury jewelry brand, Buccellati, has named Thierry Andretta as its new CEO, according to reports.

Andretta, was most recently CEO of the French couture house, Lanvin, where he doubled sales to more than 236 million euros during his four-year tenure. Prior to Lanvin, he worked in senior positions at Ungaro, Céline, Moschino and Gucci Group.

Monday's announcement came less than four months after Italian private equity fund, Clessidra, took a majority stake in Buccellati, Reuters reports.

Buccellati is known for its signature lace rings and necklaces (many one of a kind) worn by monarchs and movie stars. Some of its pieces sell for more than $1 million. Members of its founding family still design many of its pieces. The company also is known for not routinely lending its jewelry to actresses on the red carpets at high-profile events such as the Cannes film festival or the Oscar ceremony.

Andretta told  Reuters the brand will develop its watch business as well as its presence worldwide, particularly in new markets such as the Middle East and Russia.

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Graff, Blancpain among Top-Rated Luxury Brands

Heart-shaped diamond necklace by Graff.

The Luxury Institute released its 2011 Luxury Brand Status Index survey of wealthy U.S. consumers. Watches, jewelry and automobiles (selling for at least $100,000) were rated on a one-to-ten scale by consumers who earn at least $200,000 a year. The top three brands in each category follows:

Blancpain L-Evolution

Jewelry
Graff 8.38
Buccellati 8.19
Asprey 8.05


Watches
Blancpain 8.35
Rolex 8.01
Vacheron Constantin 7.85

Ultra-Luxury Autos
Maybach 8.44
Bentley 8.32
Bugatti Veyron 8.22

Brands were rated based on quality, exclusivity, social status and overall ownership experience. In addition, these affluent consumers based their selection on price worthiness, their willingness to recommend it and the likelihood they'll buy it next time they make a purchase in the category.

Buccellati Unveils $485,000 iPad Case at Baselworld 2014

As I noted in February, Buccellati is undergoing an image update. The Italian luxury jeweler revealed this new look at Baselworld 2014 by unveiling products for a 21st Century consumer while maintaining the traditional craftsmanship that is the hallmark of the company’s identity. It was one of the few companies that used the recently concluded watch and jewelry show to make bold product statements. 

The Italian haute jeweler unveiled its first ever engagement ring collection, a bespoke timepiece program and introduced its new logo at Baselworld 2014. The company also plans to relocate its Madison Avenue store.

The new releases were led by what the company calls the “world’s most expensive” iPad and iPhone cases. The one-of-a-kind pieces are being sold for $485,000 and $208,000, respectively. These are the first products designed exclusively by Lucrezia Buccellati, the fourth generation designer of the family operated company. 

Gold iPhone case

While expensive and made with precious materials, these are not blinged-out tech adornments that are more commonplace in the high-end marketplace. Instead, these are new products for a new generation that reflect the techniques, traditions and refinement of the Buccellati brand. 

The gold cases feature Rigato etching, one of the company’s best known metal techniques in which parallel lines are cut onto the surface of the metal to obtain a sheen effect. Atop the gold are sunburst designs made of white gold and diamonds. Lucrezia said she was inspired by Leonardo da Vinci’s drawings of the sun. 

The new, sleeker Buccellati name logo is placed discretely on the covers as it also appears on the company’s redesigned website, which it quietly launched recently. 

These are the first cases that the company will produce for phones and tablets and perhaps other tech products under the Unica collection name. 

Buccellati one-diamond engagement ring using the company's Rigato metal technique.

The engagement ring collection, known as Romanza, is a first for the company. Again, it is an attempt to bring the traditional design and craftsmanship of the jeweler to a newer, younger audience. 

Three-diamond engagement ring using the Buccellati Oranto technique.

The pieces were co-designed by Lucrezia and her father, Andrea, who is the company’s head designer. The lead designer has always been a member of the Buccellati family. There are one-diamond and three-diamond rings that employ many of Buccellati’s best known techniques, including Rigato; and the signature Ornato patterns, which are decorations based on nature forms, such as animals, leaves and flowers. 

The most interesting rings to me are based on Buccellati’s famously delicate honeycomb patterns (pictured above), which resemble the netting of a bride’s tulle veil. It is a labor-intensive and time-consuming process in which an artisan uses a fine blade to saw pentagon-shaped holes in the gold. These rings already existed. Buccellati added diamonds in traditional bridal one-stone and three-stone settings to create the engagement rings. 

The Romanza engagement ring collection starts at $10,000. 

The company is using technology with its old-world jewelry techniques to allow men and women to create their own timepieces. Alberto Milani, CEO of Buccellati Americas, explained at Baselworld that this isn’t watchmaking in a traditional sense, but as interpreted by Buccellati. 

The day and night watch features two dials and two movements that can be worn for casual and formal events. 

For example, in traditional watchmaking the movement often dictates much of the design of the watch, so the outer design in a large sense is dictated by what’s inside. The Buccellati formula is to have their clients work with company artisans to design the watch from the outside, including case shape and size, dial designs and types of precious materials used. Then decide on the movement. To provide a great deal of flexibility, Buccellati is working with five Swiss movement manufacturers in order to create watches with any number of complications. 

The combination of the designs and movements for the service, known as Autore, provides its clients with a menu of options to build a bespoke watch. The process takes approximately six months. Not only the does the client receive the watch but it also receives the tools, which were specially made by Buccellati to build the watch. The cost starts at $160,000.

Finally, it’s pretty much decided that the luxury jeweler will relocate its New York boutique, according to several sources. It will move from 810 Madison Avenue a few blocks south to a four-story building on 714 Madison Avenue. That space is currently the home of French arts jeweler, Mauboussin. 

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Luxury Jeweler Buccellati Begins A New Chapter

Sketches of Buccellati's new solitaire engagement ring, which will be unveiled in March.

The Italian high jewelry house, Buccellati, is undergoing a rebranding effort in an attempt to present a more contemporary image. It includes the company’s first-ever engagement ring line; a high-tech, high-jewelry introduction; a redesigned logo; and something new in the watch category that is “top secret.” 

The focal point of this change is the promotion of its youngest family member, Lucrezia Buccellati. The 24-year-old recently began working as the company’s fourth-generation designer. She will be sharing the design duties with her father, Andrea, in creating new jewelry collections. She explains that it’s a tradition in the fiercely independent family firm that two generations of the family create the designs. Her promotion came about when her grandfather, Gianmaria, in his mid-80s, recently announced his retirement.

“Now it’s my dad and me, before it was my grandfather and father. Always two generations in the design part. That’s how it works,” she recently said inside Buccellati’s cream-colored boutique on Madison Avenue in New York. “I step now in his chair. It’s a continuation of the generation. I think it’s a big challenge, there’s a little bit of pressure. You never know if it’s going to work, you’re young and it’s your first step in this world. It’s wonderful that there is somebody next to you to help you out like my father.”

In another sign of changing times at Buccellati, Lucrezia is the brand’s first female designer. She thinks this will influence future designs.

“I think that females have a different point of view than men,” she said. “Men think of an ideal woman. A female definitely thinks of a woman as someone more attached to fashion and art and what’s going on in the world around her.”

The family members were tight-lipped when discussing the new products, as they prepare for a March unveiling, but they did provide some details. 

The engagement jewelry collection is the first Buccellati line Lucrezia co-designed with her father. She said the rings are based on a more contemporary version of rings already available in the company's "honeycomb" pattern, perhaps the best-known of all of the jewelry-making techniques used by the company. It is appropriate because the pattern is similar to the Tulle netting technique for fabric often used for veils. In order to create the honeycomb shape, an artisan uses a labor-intensive and time-consuming technique of sawing pentagon-shaped holes with a fine blade.

The fine, net-like patterns will be enhanced with a center stone, which is what their clients want, according to Maria Cristina Buccellati, another member of the firm and Lucrezia’s aunt.

“The way we are used to seeing the solitaire is fine, but we wanted to add a touch of Buccellati so we created a round center stone with more workmanship,” Maria Cristina said. “We realized that a lot of people say they like this as an engagement ring but it doesn’t have a center stone so we designed a special collection with this kind of workmanship with this style and with a center stone.”

The high-tech introduction will be a one-of-a-kind iPad and iPhone cover. This was Lucrezia’s solo project. She said it will be “the most expensive and exclusive iPhone and iPad cover in the world.” It will include diamonds and signature gold engraving techniques. However, she promises it will be more refined and elegant than similar blinged-out products that are available. Leonardo DiVinci is the inspiration behind the design.

The company will also unveil a redesigned logo, as early as March, as part of year-long effort to make the brand appear more contemporary and attract a younger clientele. 

The one thing that won’t change is the craftsmanship behind Buccellati’s 18k jewelry. The company works exclusively with a stable of nearly 300 artisans throughout Italy who are skilled in a specific technique of making jewelry. Most are family shops, like Buccellati, that hand down their craft to the next generation. Because of this, the company only produces one-of-a-kind or extremely limited-editions of their pieces. It produces approximately 4,000 pieces per year, which includes its handmade silver objects (which the company also is known for) and watches.

For example, to create a one-of-a-kind collection using a particular kind of antique filigree technique (which involves delicate beading or threading of precious metal), the company had to go to Sardinia to find a family firm who still did this kind of work.

These are family firms that share the same value for craftsmanship as Buccellati, Lucrezia said.

“We know them all (personally) and we know their families,” she said. “You grow together. We learn from them and they learn from us. Our treasure for us is not the jewelry. Our treasure is our artisans."

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