Rihanna’s Chopard jewels, rare blue and pink diamonds headline Geneva sale

A tiny R C mark tells you as much as the stones do. Rihanna’s Chopard demi-parure is one of the loudest draws in Geneva, but the real lesson for vintage buyers is quieter: learn to read the signature, the clasp, the setting, and the detachable parts, because that is where rarity hides.

Sotheby’s has lined up 123 lots for its Geneva High Jewelry live sale on 12 May 2026 at 2:00 PM CEST, and the headliners are unapologetically spectacular. A 6.03-carat Internally Flawless Fancy Vivid Blue diamond anchors the top tier, while The Glowing Rose, a 10.08-carat Fancy Vivid Pink diamond, was separately previewed at around $20 million. Those stones will dominate the room, but they also sharpen the eye for collectors who shop estate cases and auction catalogs for something more wearable.

Rihanna’s Chopard set, estimated at CHF 200,000 to 300,000, is the more accessible kind of star power. The unique gem-set demi-parure includes a bib-style necklace and matching earrings built from tsavorite and spessartite garnets, pink and yellow sapphires, blue topazes, carved turquoises, and ruby accents. Sotheby’s says Rihanna debuted the collection in Cannes on 19 May 2017, during the festival’s 70th anniversary and Chopard’s 20th year as an official Cannes partner. She also insisted on fair-mined gold, and every piece carries the R C mark, a detail that matters because the best signed jewels are often as collectible for their provenance as for their sparkle.

For readers trying to borrow the look without chasing a red-carpet budget, the useful clues are right there in the construction. Search for bold, articulated collars, colored-stone mosaics, and suites that balance a necklace with earrings or a brooch. The mix of tsavorite green, spessartite orange, sapphire pink and yellow, and carved turquoise feels current because it echoes the color-first approach that has long powered strong estate finds, especially when the work is cleanly made and properly signed.

The most overtly vintage lot in Geneva may be the one that feels closest to a jewel box discovery. Sotheby’s is offering a circa-1928 Lacloche Frères ruby-and-diamond cravate necklace, only the second example of its kind to come to auction in recent times. The detachable design can also be worn as a pair of bracelets with an additional clasp fitting. Cravate, or tie, necklaces were a short-lived fashion from the late 1920s to about 1935, made for the low-back evening dresses of the era and also produced by houses such as Van Cleef & Arpels and Mauboussin. That is the kind of piece that turns a sale into a lesson: check the maker’s mark, read the purity stamps, study the fittings, and the past starts to look wearable again.