Gemmyo marks 15 years with Canada and South Korea expansion

Gemmyo turned 15 by doing what its founders have always said the house was built to do: make fine jewelry feel less forbidding, while keeping production firmly in France. The Paris-based jeweler is preparing to expand into Canada and South Korea after deepening its ties to Callistorea, its longtime workshop in Nice, a move that puts craftsmanship at the center of its international push.

Founded in 2011 by Pauline Laigneau and Charif Debs after a disappointing search for an engagement ring in Paris, Gemmyo has built its identity around a softer, more modern idea of luxury. The brand says its name points both to gems and to Genmei, the 8th-century Japanese empress, a reference that now looks prescient after its permanent Tokyo boutique opened in late 2024. Gemmyo’s boutiques currently span Paris, Lyon, Bordeaux, Aix-en-Provence, Toulouse, Brussels, Geneva, Zurich and Tokyo.

The company has been explicit about the mechanics behind that promise. Gemmyo says every piece is made in French workshops and then checked twice before it is boxed, first by the workshop and then by Gemmyo specialists. In a category where provenance can be reduced to marketing language, that double inspection matters. It signals not just origin, but oversight, and it gives the brand a tangible way to argue that craftsmanship is not being diluted as the business grows beyond Europe and Japan.

That argument has become more important as Gemmyo scales. In January 2026, it announced a stake in Callistorea in Nice, strengthening control over production at a moment when artisan capacity in France is increasingly tight. The brand has described itself as a “smart luxury” house, with sales split roughly evenly between e-commerce and brick-and-mortar retail, a balance that helps explain why it can sell a made-to-order emotional story online while still grounding the experience in physical boutiques.

The international expansion also lands at a moment of internal consolidation. Industry reporting says the founders raised their ownership to 80 percent in 2025, while the company has grown by more than 20 percent year on year on average since launch. Sophie Garric, named chief executive in 2024 after roles at Richemont and Jaeger-LeCoultre, now leads the next phase. For Gemmyo, Canada and South Korea are not just new markets. They are a test of whether French workshop culture, carefully controlled and clearly explained, can still carry emotional weight far from Paris.