In a store that is named after a precious stone, one would expect a special level of service when it comes to jewellery. Marina Cremers and her team do not disappoint. The store offers carefully selected pieces from Italian designer Marco Bicego and Danish brand Shamballa Jewels, as well as a jewellery appraisal service, but the majority of its jewellery activity is centered around the creation of bespoke jewellery pieces for its discerning customers.
For Marina Cremers, there are three distinct kinds of bespoke jewellery request, each of which A L’Emeraude is perfectly capable of satisfying thanks to its excellent long-standing relations with a Swiss jewellery workshop and a precious stone dealer, not to mention Marina’s own extensive experience and her archive of previously realised pieces. It is only because of such relationships of trust that the family-owned company is able to deliver the quality for which it is renowned.
“A customer might bring an existing piece of jewellery that she would like transformed,” explains Marina Cremers. “It could be a ring that has been inherited, for example. In this particular case the attachment to the object can be very emotional. We usually remove the principal stone and create a new, more modern setting around it to suit the customer’s tastes. Alternatively, we could start with the stone itself. Its colour and what it evokes inside us will then serve as the inspiration for the design of the piece.”
Then there is the truly bespoke piece. “A customer might come to the store with no idea of what she wants,” says Marina Cremers. “In this case we will guide them and accompany them throughout the entire creative process. We would essentially start with a blank sheet of paper.” There are no limits and, as a pair of bespoke cufflinks prove, the service is equally appreciated by men as well as women.
The blank sheet of paper is, of course, more likely to be a blank computer screen. But the questions needed to fill it remain the same. What is more important to the customer? Is it the quality or the size of the stone, the colour of the gold? As the answers to these questions emerge during a dialogue with the customer, the design starts to take shape.
“What is very interesting is to be able to have a genuine dialogue with the customer,” says Marina Cremers. “They will usually give us a lot of information that allows us to design something that really fits with their personality.”
The resulting creations are produced in a jewellery workshop in Geneva that ensures the level of quality required, but also a continuity of style, always with a trace of A L’Emeraude’s own style in each piece. It’s a style that Marina Cremers describes as “very pure, fine, airy and timeless”.
The entire process can take up to a month, which seems thoroughly reasonable for a unique piece created from scratch. The cost naturally varies depending on the project and the customer’s requirements, but falls within the same range as the watches offered by A L’Emeraude. Swiss quality naturally comes at a premium over settings made elsewhere, but Marina Cremers points out that the prices offered by A L’Emeraude are fair and honest. In any case, price is irrelevant as far as bespoke jewellery is concerned, since it is impossible to “compare” prices for a unique piece. And no price can be put on the proximity A L’Emeraude enjoys with its local Swiss craftsmen.
