Brief: Graff puts The Golden Empress on display in Monaco

Only one in 10,000 diamonds — like, Graff’s Golden Empress pendant — has a fancy color rating. Photo courtesy Graff.

Only one in 10,000 diamonds — like, Graff’s Golden Empress pendant — has a fancy color rating. Photo courtesy Graff.

BY KAREN AANONSEN

For Graff’s annual Rare Jewels Exhibition in Monaco, the designer is wowing with one of its rarest feats of all. The Golden Empress, a 132.55–carat Fancy Intense yellow diamond, currently owns the spotlight at the brand’s Hotel de Paris-set fine jewelry and watch display. First unveiled in June, the cushion-cut wonder was excised and polished by Graff from a 299-carat rough. Now the stone is magnificently set on a necklace with 31 other yellow diamonds. The astounding piece will continue to rivet with its clarity and color in Monaco — where the label opened its first store outside of the U.K. in 2000 — until August 23.

—Aug. 2015