Windsor Jewelry wins heart-motif honors with ombré halo agate pendant

Windsor Jewelry’s Ombré Halo Heart pendant necklace won both First Place and Retailer’s Choice in the INSTORE Design Awards 2026 Best Heart Motif category, and it did so with a heart that looks more geological than saccharine. Set in 14K yellow gold, the pendant centers a 45 mm by 45 mm heart-shape dendritic agate, then surrounds it with an ombré halo of peach and pink morganites totaling 1.60 TCW, spessartite garnet totaling 1.23 TCW and citrine totaling 0.80 TCW on a Starburst Station Katherine & Joseph chain. The price is $10,040.

That gemstone mix is what makes the familiar symbol feel newly considered. Dendritic agate is prized for its natural, branch-like inclusions, and in this cut it reads less like a blank heart outline than a miniature landscape, with the halo pushing the shape into color rather than cliché. Viviana Langhoff captured the appeal in one line: “A unique dendritic agate cut.”

The award also fits the wider mood of the 2026 competition. INSTORE said the awards drew 229 entries, matching the prior year, and colored gemstones stood out across the field. In that context, Windsor Jewelry’s pendant feels like a precise response to what buyers and judges are responding to now: symbolic forms that carry more texture, more color and more material character than a simple outline in gold.

Heart jewelry has been building that case for several seasons. In 2025, Pompos Jewelry Corporation took INSTORE’s Best Heart Motif category with a $50,000 heart ring in platinum and 18K yellow gold, centered by a 2.01-carat internally flawless heart-shape modified brilliant-cut natural fancy yellow diamond. In 2024, Shy Creation won the same category with the Puffy Amor Heart bracelet, a 14K yellow gold piece with 0.78 TCW of diamonds priced at $2,400. Windsor’s win lands in that line of designs, but its strength comes from restraint and contrast rather than sheer carat weight.

Windsor Jewelry already carries a broader heart-pendant assortment, and that matters here. The winning necklace does not treat the motif as a novelty; it treats it as a framework for stone selection, color progression and scale. The result is a heart that feels collected rather than sentimental, and proof that the motif still has room to surprise when the cut, the materials and the setting do the talking.