Talk to me, Harry Winston, tell me all about it
There are a great many love stories. There are no less stories of love to diamonds. But the biggest worshiper of these gems was, definitely, Harry Winston — a distinguished jeweler who became renowned for his passion to big diamonds and established one of the greatest jewelry brands — Harry Winston.
Harry Winston is a legend who rarely appeared in public, almost never gave interviews, didn’t interact with mass media. But everyone knew everything about him as well as about his passion to diamonds that had appeared in childhood. He inherited his love to jewelry from his father who had kept his own jewelry shop. Certainly, no one supposed that time that Winston’s name would become a brand, though there were some preconditions.
Business instinct was developing in Harry Winston in parallel with his passion to diamonds. They say, in his 12 years Harry could already recognize a gem among dozens of simulants. Once he purchased a true 2-carat emerald at careless pawnshop owner, and resold it for 800 dollars.
Harry Winston was not just a wonderful jeweler, he was a sales genius. People talked about him that he could sell even snow in winter. Even the Great Depression of 1930s didn’t undermine Harry Winston’s business, and the admirers of his mastery still continued purchasing his jewelries.
The jeweler treated every jewel with special awe. The gem was central for him, and the setting should have underlined the diamond’s beauty, but never overload it with its solidity and floridity. That is why every Harry Winston’s jewel has an elegant small setting. This became Harry Winston brand’s distinguishing sign.
Apart from purchasing collections, Harry purchased single gems as well. His passion to diamonds led him to the biggest and most famous ones. For example, Jonker (125.35 carats), Lal Oyla (70 carats), The star of indepen dence (75.52 carats), Winston legasy (101.73 carats) and other diamonds amaze with their magnificence. One of these gems brought the jeweler additional popularity. Having purchased the Sierra Leone diamond in 1972, Harry arranged the greatest performance in the history of television and jewelry — the gem of 970 carats was cut into 17 gems and the operation itself was translated on television. After this event, Sierra Leone issued a stamp with a picture of Harry Winston. Thus, he became the first jeweler in history who was imprinted on a post stamp.
Harry Winston jewels are constant guests of Oscar ceremonies and red carpets, they were screened repeatedly. Katharine Hepburn became the first who put this jewelry house’s jewels (it was in 1947). And Marilyn Monroe mentioned Harry Winston jewels in her famous song «Diamonds are a girl’s best friend», where she asked him to tell everything about diamonds («Talk to me, Harry Winston, tell me all about it»). Since then, Harry Winston diamonds jeweled almost every Hollywood star (and not only a star).
Today, Ronald Winston, the son of Harry Winston, runs this business. Thanks to him, the brand now manufactures watches. But the one thing stays unchanged — devotion to jewelry mastery and love to gems.
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