Harry Winston reveals a Victoria Falls necklace centered on a 5.9-carat emerald

Harry Winston has unveiled a new high-jewelry suite called Victoria Falls, built around a necklace carrying 285 stones and roughly 100 carats. Its center is a detachable 5.9-carat emerald set into a platinum collar. A matching pair of earrings completes the set.

The emerald is not the only color. A row of round sapphires lies against the neck on the interior of the collar, while tsavorites, tourmalines and light-blue sapphires are used to suggest the foaming, churning water of the falls that give the piece its name. Price is on request.

The New York jeweler is known as the King of Diamonds, from the Hope Diamond to a red-carpet loan tradition that dates to 1944. Yet the house's own legend starts with a green stone, and this necklace is as much an homage to that history as to the waterfall.

The story the maison tells is that Harry Winston's passion for gems began with an emerald. At twelve, the future founder found a green stone priced at 25 cents in a pawn shop. He recognized a two-carat emerald, bought it, and sold it two days later for $800.

By fifteen, the story goes, he had dropped out of school to join his father in the jewelry shop. He was already well versed in gemstones through the family business, and the instincts that would define his name were set in place before he was old enough to vote.

The waterfall the piece is named for is on the border between Zambia and Zimbabwe, where the Zambezi River plunges over a basalt cliff. Locals know the site as Mosi-oa-Tunya, or "the smoke that thunders", because its mist can rise more than 1,600 feet into the air.

The roar of the water can be heard for miles, and the necklace is designed to announce itself the same way. The emerald anchoring the collar echoes the lush microclimate around the falls, and it is carefully matched to the smaller stones scattered throughout the necklace.

Harry Winston has long carried a reputation for colored gemstones as well as its famous white diamonds. This piece leans into that tradition: green tsavorites and tourmalines and pale blue sapphires turn the falling water into graduated bands of color rather than a single sweep of white.

A suite built to announce itself

The necklace is part of a suite that includes the matching earrings, and the piece is described as announcing its arrival from afar, much like the waterfall it references. The collar is platinum, and the emerald that anchors it detaches from the rest.

As an adolescent, the founder could hardly have imagined the cascading effect of his shrewd eye for color and clarity. The Victoria Falls suite is a later answer to that early instinct, and it puts a green stone back at the heart of a house better known for diamonds.

The emerald's pairing matters as much as its size. Five and nine-tenths of a carat is a serious stone, but the necklace earns its name through the supporting cast around it: round sapphires close to the neck, then tsavorites, tourmalines and pale sapphires arranged to suggest spray.

Our brand page on Harry Winston tracks the house that grew from those stories, from the Hope Diamond to the red-carpet lending that began in 1944. This commission follows that lineage, and it extends it in a color-led direction the diamond house does not always lead with.

The founder's origin story is a fixed part of the house's telling, and the Victoria Falls piece is the latest work to draw on it directly. Where the boy's emerald was sold for $800 within days, this one is set in platinum, a stone meant to stay.

What the piece is made of

The construction is platinum throughout. The collar carries an emerald that detaches, which suggests the necklace can be worn two ways: with the green stone as the focal point, or with the sapphires and tsavorites carrying the line on their own.

No price has been published, only the phrase price upon request. A house at this level quotes commissions privately, and the missing figure suggests a piece meant for a client list rather than a cabinet display. The maison has not said how many suites will be made.

It has also not said whether the earrings are sold with the necklace or separately. What is on record is the identity of the materials, the 285 stones, the roughly 100 carats and the name of the place that inspired them, all given above.