Paspaley marks 90 years with first men's pearl jewelry collection

Paspaley marked its 90th year with DIVER, its first men’s pearl jewelry collection, and put Australian South Sea pearls at the center of a category that has long leaned feminine. The launch tied a new menswear direction to the house’s oldest asset: the pearl divers who have worked its waters for more than nine decades.

Founded in 1935, the family-owned company is now in its third generation, and it used the anniversary to frame the men’s line as a continuation of its pearling history rather than a detour from it. Paspaley says the collection pays homage to its divers, the backbone of its legacy, translating nautical function into refined form for necklaces, bracelets and other pieces built for men.

The design language is unmistakably maritime and industrial. Anchor chains, mooring ropes, compass bearings and bollards appear as references throughout the collection, while ruthenium, black spinel, white gold, yellow gold, leather, nylon, onyx, mother-of-pearl and sandalwood give the line a darker, more architectural finish than the brand’s classic women’s jewels. The result is less decorative flourish than controlled utility, a useful direction for a market where men’s jewelry has moved beyond minimal chains and signet rings into more deliberate, fashion-driven pieces.

Paspaley’s men’s collection page listed 48 designs, including names such as DIVER Pearl Necklace, DIVER Pearl Strand Necklace and DIVER Pearl Strand Bracelet. Other launch coverage put the debut at 46 designs priced from about A$800 to A$32,800, a range that signals a clear effort to stretch pearl jewelry from entry-level luxury into high jewelry territory. That spread matters: it suggests Paspaley is not treating men’s pearls as a novelty, but as a proper product category with room for daily wear and statement pieces alike.

The pearls themselves remain the brand’s main argument. Paspaley says its divers hand-collect wild Pinctada maxima oysters off the remote Kimberley coast of Western Australia, return selected oysters to an ocean-floor nursery, and harvest only a strictly limited number at any one time. Australian South Sea pearls are widely described as the rarest and most valuable cultured pearl variety, and Pinctada maxima is the world’s largest pearl oyster. In a men’s market still learning how to wear pearls without irony, Paspaley is making the case with provenance, scale and a century of maritime memory.