The Gold Standard

The setters' room faces north. It has to. Northern light never flatters and never lies, and a stone that sparkles there will sparkle anywhere. The maison's setters — there are nine, and they have between them two centuries of experience — will not work under anything else.

Watson Glow works exclusively in eighteen-karat gold and champagne diamonds: stones chosen not for perfect whiteness but for warmth, the faint blush of evening in them. Each is set by a single pair of hands, from first claw to final polish.

A finished piece is passed around the room before it leaves. Nine approvals, or it stays. The record for a single cuff is eleven days of revisions. Nobody apologised.