While most people can only dream of having the best of everything, there are a few individuals around the world, who are able to buy expensive houses, cars, and phones, pay outlandish prices for holidays while staying in luxurious hotels, and buy only the best and most expensive lines in clothing and jewellery.
Since just about every person, especially women, loves jewellery, let’s have a look at 10 of the most expensive pieces of jewellery in the world today.
- The Winston Blue - $23.8 million
Named in honour of Harry Winston, the legendary founder of the company, by CEO Nayla Hayek, the Winston Blue weighs in at a whopping 13.22 carats! This works out to about $1,8003 per carat, making it a world record paid for a blue diamond.
The Winston Blue is a vivid blue colour and a perfect pear shape. It has no inner flaws, and is the same size as the Blue Moon Diamond, but not as saturated in colour. This shows that blue diamonds are not the same, with each having its own personality and hue.
- The Hutton-Mdivani Jadeite Necklace by Cartier
Valued at a cool $27 million, this magnificent necklace is made up of 27 large jadeite beads ranging in size from 15.4mm to 19.2mm.
The magnificently coloured beads were all carved from the same rock and mounted with a beautiful diamond and ruby clasp by Cartier. The design of the necklace was specially created by Frank Woolworth in 1933 for his daughter and gifted to her for her first marriage to Prince Alexis Midivani.
- The Orange Diamond
This 14.82-carat diamond, valued at $36 million, cancelled out previous records when it was auctioned off at Christie’s Geneva! The fancy vivid diamond with VSI clarity gets its unique colour because of the presence of nitrogen, the same element that is responsible for the colour in yellow diamonds.
The spectacular gem, at nearly $2.4 million per carat, also breaks the world record per carat, for any coloured diamond sold through an auction.
- The Pink, Emerald-cut, Graff Diamond
Graded by the Gemmological Institute of America as “Fancy intense pink,” this 24,78-carat emerald-cut, fancy intense pink diamond was bought by Graff in 2010 at an auction in Switzerland, for the enormous amount of $46 million.
The magnificent stone is now mounted in a ring, nestled between Graff shield-shaped shoulders. 
- The Blue Moon of Josephine
Discovered in a mine in South Africa during 2014, the Blue Moon of Josephine, valued at $48.4 million is the biggest cushion-shaped, Bluestone, classed as “fancy vivid,” to ever be offered at an auction.
The diamond was purchased that year by Hong Kong billionaire, Joseph Lau Lue-hung, a convicted felon fugitive.
According to the head of Sotheby’s international jewellery division, David Bennett, the sale of the Blue Moon fetched the highest price ever per carat. This resulted in the diamond also becoming both the world’s most expensive diamond, irrespective of its colour, as well as the most expensive gem ever sold at an auction.
- The L’Incomparable Necklace
Unveiled by the world-famous Mouawad Jewellery Company, this necklace, with a value of $57.5 million, still holds first place as being the most valuable necklace on earth!
The necklace is decorated with 90 white diamonds of 230-carats, in various shapes and sizes, including 35 round-shaped, 9 heart-shaped, 27 pearl-shaped, 5 cushion-shaped, 5 emerald-cut, 3 Asscher-cut, 4 oval, and two radiant-cut diamonds.
- The Pink Star
The Pink Star was mined by De Beers International of South Africa, the world-famous corporation of diamond miners. Valued at $72 million, the Pink Star was graded by the Gemmology Institute of America, as the biggest, Internationally Flawless, Fancy Vivid Pink diamond ever known, up to today.
The Etoile Rose was known in 2013, to be the most expensive diamond on earth.
- The Wittelsbach-Graff Diamond
The Wittelsbach-Graff Diamond was discovered in a mine in India during the 1600s and was originally owned by the Nawabs of Punjab. It is also rumoured that King Phillip IV of Spain owned the diamond at one time, and made it part of the dowry of his daughter, Margarita Teresa when she became engaged in 1664 to Leopold I, Emperor of Austria.
The current owner of the Wittelsbach-Graff Diamond, a member of the Qatari royal family, bought it for around $80 million!
2. The Peacock Brooch
Made by Graff Diamonds, the Peacock Brooch first made its appearance in the Netherlands, at the TEFAF art fair. A stunning piece of jewellery, the Peacock Brooch, as its name implies, has the shape of a peacock with its feathers fanned out.
With a total of 120.81 carats, the brooch contains more than 1,300 stones in orange, blue, yellow, white diamonds, as well as one extremely rare, pear-shaped, dark blue diamond in the centre, which on its own, weighs an impressive 20.02 carats. It is no wonder that the Peacock Brooch has a value of $100 million!
- The Hope Diamond
Topping the list is the Hope Diamond, the most expensive piece of jewellery in the world today and more than likely, the most famous as well. Weighing an enormous 45.52 carats, the beautiful blue Hope Diamond was found in India, in the Golconda mines, and has changed hands several times over almost four centuries.
The earliest records show that the gem was bought by Jean-Baptiste Tavernier, a French gem merchant, in 1666. The Tavernier Blue was cut, and the largest portion being named “Hope,” when it appeared in a catalogue in 1839.
After a variety of owners, the stone was bought by Evalyn Walsh McClean, a Washington socialite, who wore it frequently, on various occasions.
Harry Winston bought the Hope Diamond in 1949, and travelled around showing the stone for several years, and eventually donated it to the Smithsonian Institution, where it has remained on permanent display.
In conclusion
There is little doubt that you would have to be a billionaire to afford any of the above-mentioned pieces of jewellery. Those who are able to indulge in the world’s most expensive pieces of jewellery, do so, not only because they can afford it, but also because it makes them feel good.
Many believe that the wealthy buy expensive jewellery because they are bored. However, according to the American Psychological Association, rich people buy expensive jewellery items for the simple reason that they have a “need” to be the owners of everything expensive, including jewellery!
While we may not hold the most expensive jewellery in the world here at Vintage Tom, our collections of fabulous rings and jewellery will satisfy the most discerning of buyers.
Please feel free to browse our collection of Vintage Engagement Rings and do get in touch if you have any questions.