JCK spotlights Jewelers’ Choice winners, from tourmaline mantis to sapphire earrings

Subtle is over in this year’s Jewelers’ Choice Awards

JCK’s 2026 Jewelers’ Choice Awards, announced on May 4 and revisited in a May 8 editors’ follow-up, read like a manifesto for jewelry with nerve. Because the awards are judged by retailers, editors, and influencers, the winners land with a particular kind of authority, and editor-in-chief Victoria Gomelsky said the brands that keep winning have one thing in common: they are “not afraid to take risks.”

That is exactly why these pieces matter to birthstone jewelry right now. The strongest gems are no longer being asked to sit politely inside familiar mounts; they are being given creatures, symbols, and color combinations that turn a stone into a character. JCK also points readers to its Best of the Best digital flip-book, where the full roster of winners and finalists sits in one place, but the editors’ standouts already tell the story of the season.

Nelson Jewellery turns tourmaline into theater

Karen Dybis’s pick, Nelson Jewellery’s praying mantis brooch, won Best Statement Piece in the $10,000 to $50,000 price point, and it is hard to imagine a more pointed rebuttal to generic birthstone jewelry. The brooch is centered on a 93.68-carat tourmaline, a stone large enough to command attention on its own, but the design refuses to stop there. It also includes 5.85 carats total weight of sapphires, 1.4 carats total weight of diamonds, and 1.22 carats total weight of emeralds, so the jewel reads as a tiny ecosystem rather than a single gem with decoration.

Priced at $27,000, it sits squarely in the realm of collector-minded jewelry, yet the pleasure of it is not just in the materials. The praying mantis motif gives the stone a point of view, and that matters for anyone who wants a birthstone piece to feel witty, not wan. Tourmaline is already a gemstone with range, but Nelson Jewellery shows how a birthstone can be transformed when the design behaves like sculpture instead of a placeholder.

Trésor makes sapphire feel painterly

Melissa Rose Bernardo chose Trésor’s Desir 18k yellow gold multi-sapphire drop earrings, winner in Colored Stone Jewelry in the $2,501 to $5,000 price point, and they make a compelling case for abundance handled with discipline. The earrings carry 15.23 carats total weight of blue, pink, orange, and yellow sapphires, a palette that feels curated rather than merely colorful. At $4,950, they are not entry-level jewelry, but they are also not stratospheric, which makes their workmanship and color authority part of the appeal.

Trésor’s Miami base adds another layer to the story. Bernardo has followed the brand since JCK featured one of its multicolored bracelets 16 years ago, and that continuity makes Puja Bordia’s vision feel unusually coherent. Bordia is a 19th-generation jeweler who founded Trésor in 2009, favors rainbow moonstone, emeralds, and multicolor tourmaline, and designed her first piece as a bracelet set with multicolor tourmaline, mandarin garnet, tsavorite garnet, and diamond.

That history explains why these earrings feel less like a seasonal flourish and more like a signature. Bordia has spent years treating color as a language, not a decorative afterthought, and the result is a pair of sapphire drops that could satisfy a birthstone buyer who wants elegance without predictability. Here, sapphire is not locked into one solemn blue mood. It is moving, bright, and fashion-aware.

Khepri Jewels gives fancy color diamonds a symbolic frame

The third editor’s pick, Khepri Jewels’ Cartouche charm fancy color diamond necklace, won in the Colored Diamond Jewelry category, and it extends the same appetite for distinctive forms into diamonds. Even without the flash of a giant center stone or a riot of mixed gems, the piece stands out because it pairs fancy color diamonds with a shape that already carries meaning. A cartouche is a vessel for identity, which makes it especially apt for jewelry that is meant to speak for a name, a date, or a memory.

That is why this necklace feels so important to the birthstone conversation. It suggests that the most compelling personal jewelry does not need to announce itself with overt sentimentality; it can be encoded in form, color, and proportion. Fancy color diamonds bring a natural rarity, while the charm format keeps the piece intimate enough to wear as an everyday signature.

What these winners say about birthstone jewelry now

Taken together, the JCK picks point toward a more expressive birthstone vocabulary. The pieces that linger in the mind are not the ones that explain themselves most plainly, but the ones that combine named stones with strong silhouettes, whether that means a mantis, a multicolor drop, or a charm necklace that turns identity into design.

For shoppers, the lesson is practical as well as aesthetic. A birthstone piece can still honor the month or the memory, but it looks far fresher when the stone is asked to do more than sit in a conventional setting. Nelson Jewellery gives tourmaline drama, Trésor gives sapphire movement, and Khepri Jewels gives fancy color diamonds an emblematic frame, which is where birthstone jewelry feels most relevant now: personal, stylish, and unmistakably alive.