Marie Lichtenberg’s Smash lockets turn heartbreak into luxury gifts

A client’s locket, crushed after being run over by a car, became the spark for Marie Lichtenberg’s Smash capsule, a set of five flattened lockets that turns damage into desire. The idea suits a designer who has always treated jewelry as a carrier of memory, not just polish, and it places her newest pieces squarely in the sweet spot of giftable luxury: emotionally loaded, unmistakably personal, and priced from $6,740 to $7,040.

The five designs are the Clover Smash locket, Heart Smash locket, Luck Smash locket, Love Smash locket and Fuck Smash locket. National Jeweler said the pieces are made in 18-karat yellow and white gold with accents in ruby, emerald, garnet or diamond, a material mix that keeps the collection in fine-jewelry territory while preserving the wit of the concept. In a market crowded with immaculate, interchangeable pendants, these lockets stand out because the imperfection is the point. They look like something that has lived a life, and that makes them easier to give for a milestone that matters.

That storytelling sits at the center of Lichtenberg’s brand. Her official history traces the locket tradition to a piece passed from mother to daughter, and says she received a locket as a teenager, an experience that shaped her emotional connection to jewelry. The love lockets also draw on her mother’s Martinican roots. Lichtenberg spent 12 years as a fashion editor at ELLE France before launching her jewelry brand in 2019 after a trip to India, where she began building the manufacturing relationships that would support the label. Her first piece was created for her daughter, and 40 Love You To the Moon and Back necklaces sold out in 48 hours after being posted on Instagram.

Smash feels like a natural extension of that history, not a stunt. It also follows the playbook that has made her lockets cult objects, from Paris to a broader luxury audience that responds to jewelry with a point of view. When imitators surfaced, JCK reported that she answered with Raiz’in, a collection that reworked the lockets into fashion-jewelry form. Smash goes one step further by making the accident itself part of the aesthetic. For a buyer looking for a push present, anniversary piece or heirloom with a sharper story than a conventional diamond pendant, these lockets offer something rarer than perfection: personality with staying power.