The coffee bean transforms into a motif combining radiance and 50s glamour in Cartier’s Grain de Cafe collection

Movement, light, opulence, and joy... These qualities have been masterfully captured in Cartier’s latest Grain de Cafe jewels, which elevate the humble coffee bean into a motif of sheer desire.

Make no mistake, it has always been the maison’s stylistic vocabulary to see beauty where it is unexpected, and exalt the ordinary into something precious. With its ubiquity in our lives and its rounded fullness, the seemingly insignificant coffee bean could not have been a better candidate.

What a vision

Yet, the luminous Grain de Cafe isn’t a contemporary creation. It was back in 1938 when Jeanne Toussaint, the maison’s creative director and brains behind the emblematic Cartier Panthere, who first elevated this little gift from nature into a gleaming statement of beauty.

Smooth or striated, gadrooned or braided, mesh or articulated, the ebony bean became the expression of voluminous, playful creations that shone in gold until her departure from Cartier in 1970. During the Golden Age of the 1950s and 60s, Grain de Cartier jewels became a huge hit, especially with the Cote d’Azur style set.

Lending her elegance and charisma to this collection was Grace Kelly, who had received a full set for her wedding to Prince Rainier III of Monaco. A cherished part of her Cartier collection, her necklaces, bracelets, and earrings ranged from the most intimate to the most formal.

Precious comeback

Cartier’s modern-day versions are imbued with a renewed, multi-sensory vibrancy, thanks to the wonders of gold and the imagination of the maison. According to its jewellery and watchmaking creative director Marie-Laure Cerede, the metal is elevated through “playing with light, finishes, and volume to create an acoustic collection brimming with soul”.

The Grain de Cafe collection of rings, pendants, earrings, and brooches — crafted from all three colours of gold — light up the skin with an enchanting radiance. Rose gold is paired with engraved obsidian coffee beans in lively clusters accented with diamonds set within white gold, rustling with the slightest movement. In the yellow gold creations, platinum-set diamonds light up the multi-textured coffee beans and braided bands of the necklace, ring, and earrings.

In an even more luscious interpretation, a ring and a bracelet are decorated with rubellite beads studded gold nails or diamonds, evoking juicy berries amid a bed of yellow gold coffee beans, engraved gold hemispheres, and diamonds set in platinum. For the matching necklace, Cartier pulls out all the stops with two extra strings of shimmering gold beads under a top row of coffee beans and gold-studded rubellites.

Aesthetics and materials aside, the Grain de Cafe collection is also remarkable in its jewellery craftsmanship. The beans are made hollow composed of two parts, then assembled to avoid impact between them. One part is curved while the other is arched, with either a smooth or gadrooned surface. All the elements are polished individually with a steel brush to enhance the finish.

And how else do you know that no effort is spared in Grain de Cartier’s revival? More than 60 prototypes were produced and some 30 artisans were roped in for this collection, all intended to make you shine brighter this season.