Pink Diamonds, a Space-Flown Beagle and the Monogram
Webb's Important Jewels, Watches & Luxury Accessories Online Auction returns this August.
We explore three standout lots: a choker set with documented Argyle pink diamonds, the Snoopy Omega Speedmaster that honours the watch which helped bring Apollo 13 home, and a Louis Vuitton Capucines in alligator leather.
Highlights from Webb's Important Jewels, Watches & Luxury Accessories Online Auction, is on view at the Mount Eden gallery from 4—11 August.
The auction viewing includes a collaboration between Webb’s and Rolls-Royce Motor Cars: two houses united by an uncompromising commitment to craftsmanship. Highlights from the catalogue are being shown alongside a curated display of Rolls-Royce motor cars ahead of online bids closing.
Webb's Important Jewels, Watches & Luxury Accessories Online Auction returns this August with an exceptional catalogue for discerning collectors: a curated selection of important jewellery, collectable timepieces and luxury accessories, each chosen for its quality, craftsmanship, provenance and desirability. Many of the pieces are accompanied by original documentation, presentation boxes and supporting paperwork, qualities increasingly sought after in today's secondary market.
The auction launched with a private preview presented in collaboration with Rolls-Royce Motor Cars. Highlights from the catalogue are being shown alongside a curated display of Rolls-Royce motor cars: two houses united by an uncompromising commitment to quality, heritage and enduring value.
Certain themes run throughout the catalogue.
One of these themes is an appreciation of extraordinary materials and craftsmanship: tantalum paired with rose gold on an Audemars Piguet Royal Oak; exquisite alligator leather on a Louis Vuitton Capucines; ostrich leather on an Hermès Picotin; and a remarkable selection of natural coloured diamonds in shades of pink, brown, champagne and yellow. Another theme is provenance, with original boxes, papers and documented histories adding confidence and collectability, from a 1974 Rolex Explorer II 'Freccione' to a solid gold Submariner. A third theme celebrates milestones, with anniversary editions and heritage maisons marking significant moments in their histories while continuing to refine the craftsmanship for which they are renowned.
In this article we explore three standout lots from the catalogue: Percy Marks' remarkable Colour of the Kimberleys choker, set with documented natural Argyle diamonds; the Omega Speedmaster Silver Snoopy Award 50th Anniversary, commemorating the watch's celebrated role in the Apollo 13 mission; and a Louis Vuitton Capucines in alligator leather, offered as the house marks 130 years since the introduction of its iconic Monogram Canvas.
Lot 17. Percy Marks, 'Colour of the Kimberleys' , An important 18ct White Gold, Multi-Colour Diamond Choker Necklace.
EST. $180,000—$200,000
Lot 23. Stainless Steel OMEGA Speedmaster Silver Snoopy Award 50th Anniversary Chronograph Wristwatch circa 2023.
EST. $28,000—$30,000
Lot 47. Louis Vuitton, Blue / White / Orange Alligator Mississippiensis Capucines, Size Mini.
EST. $30,000—$35,000
The collection will be available to view at Webb's Mount Eden gallery, with bidding taking place online.
COLOURED DIAMONDS
Diamond is composed essentially of carbon, its atoms bonded together in an exceptionally ordered crystal structure. In chemically pure diamond, very little visible light is selectively absorbed, allowing the stone to appear colourless. The remarkable colours found in natural diamonds arise when trace impurities or atomic-scale structural defects alter the way light interacts with the crystal.
Most natural yellow diamonds owe their colour to nitrogen incorporated into the crystal as it formed, creating atomic defects that absorb portions of blue light and leave the stone with its characteristic yellow appearance. In many natural blue diamonds, trace amounts of boron are responsible for the colour, while many green diamonds acquire their distinctive hue through natural radiation altering the crystal structure over geological time.
Pink diamonds occupy a category all their own. Unlike many coloured diamonds, their colour is generally not produced by a trace element but by microscopic distortions within the crystal lattice, created when immense geological forces plastically deformed the diamond after its formation. These structural changes selectively absorb light, producing the extraordinary range of pink hues that have fascinated collectors for centuries.
One of the earliest widely recorded European accounts of a pink diamond comes from the French gem merchant and traveller Jean-Baptiste Tavernier, who described seeing a remarkable pink diamond in the historic Kingdom of Golconda during his travels through India in the seventeenth century. Over the centuries that followed, pink diamonds would be discovered in Brazil, South Africa, Tanzania, Russia, Canada and Australia. Yet it was a single mine in the remote East Kimberley region of Western Australia that would ultimately transform the world's understanding of these extraordinary gems.
For more than three decades, the Argyle Diamond Mine was the world's principal source of natural pink diamonds. Although pink diamonds accounted for well under one per cent of the mine's total production, Argyle supplied the overwhelming majority of the world's pink diamonds until mining ceased in November 2020. The permanent closure of the mine marked the end of new production from history's most prolific source of these exceptionally rare stones.
The rarity of natural coloured diamonds has long made them among the most desirable gemstones offered at auction. The Gemological Institute of America (GIA) grades fancy-coloured diamonds according to hue together with the combined effects of tone and saturation, using descriptions including Fancy Light, Fancy, Fancy Intense and Fancy Vivid. While stronger colour often commands a premium, value is ultimately influenced by a combination of colour, size, clarity, cut, rarity and provenance.
Lot 17. Percy Marks, 'Colour of the Kimberleys' , An important 18ct White Gold, Multi-Colour Diamond Choker Necklace.
EST. $180,000—$200,000
Historic auction results demonstrate the enduring appeal of exceptional coloured diamonds. The 24.78-carat Graff Pink, graded Fancy Intense Pink achieved approximately US$46.2 million at Sotheby's Geneva in 2010. The 13.22-carat Winston Blue, a Fancy Vivid Blue flawless diamond, realised approximately US$23.8 million at Christie's Geneva in 2014, while The Orange, a 14.82-carat Fancy Vivid Orange diamond, sold for approximately US$35.5 million at Christie's Geneva in 2013.
Among the highlights of Webb's upcoming auction is Percy Marks' Colour of the Kimberleys, an extraordinary sculptural necklace designed by Jennie Lo Russo for the Australian Gemmological Association Jewellery Competition and handcrafted by renowned Australian jeweller Percy Marks.
Executed in handcrafted 18-carat white, yellow and rose gold, the necklace is set with twenty-five natural diamonds documented as originating from the Argyle Diamond Mine. The design incorporates pink, brownish-pink, brown and white diamonds, celebrating the extraordinary palette for which Argyle became internationally renowned. Accompanied by its original Percy Marks presentation case, original 2001 Percy Marks valuation and a contemporary independent valuation, the necklace possesses exceptional provenance that complements its striking sculptural design.
More than simply an important piece of jewellery, Colour of the Kimberleys captures a pivotal moment in Australia's diamond history. Today, with the closure of the Argyle mine and increasing international appreciation for documented Argyle diamonds, it stands as both an artistic statement and a celebration of one of the world's most remarkable gemstone deposits.
Percy Marks—Colour of the Kimberleys, 2001. Designed by Jennie Lo Russo for the Australian Gemmological Association Jewellery Competition, this handcrafted sculptural necklace is executed in 18-carat white, yellow and rose gold and set with twenty-five natural diamonds documented as originating from Western Australia's Argyle Diamond Mine. Accompanied by its original Percy Marks fitted case, original 2001 valuation and contemporary independent valuation, the necklace celebrates the extraordinary natural colours that made Argyle the world's most celebrated source of pink diamonds.
Auction Highlights
Lot 1. Tiffany & Co, Jean Schlumberger, 18ct Yellow Gold / Platinum Diamond Ring.
EST. $23,000—25,000
Lot 3. Sutcliffe, An important, 18ct Yellow Gold / Platinum, 3.00ct Marquise Cut Diamond Solitaire Ring, HRD certified.
EST. $45,500—$48,000
Lot 17. Percy Marks, 'Colour of the Kimberleys' , An important 18ct White Gold, Multi-Colour Diamond Choker Necklace.
EST. $180,000—$200,000
Lot 18. 18ct White Gold, 1.01ct Fancy Pinkish Brown, 0.64ct Diamond Cluster Ring.
EST. $11,000—$14,000
Lot 63. 18ct White Gold, Modern, 8.82ct High Quality Watermelon Tourmaline / 1.42ct Diamond Pendant on 18ct White Gold, Cable Link Chain.
EST. $14,500—$16,000
THE OMEGA SPEEDMASTER SILVER SNOOPY AWARD 50TH ANNIVERSARY
Since 1968, NASA has entrusted the face of its flight safety programme to an unlikely figure: Snoopy, the beagle of Charles M. Schulz's Peanuts comic strip, whose creator granted the space agency use of the character without charge. The 'Silver Snoopy Award' that grew from that arrangement is unusual among institutional honours in that recipients, chosen in recognition of exceptional contributions to the safety and success of human spaceflight, are selected by the astronauts themselves, and each winner receives a sterling silver lapel pin that has flown in space.
Watchmaker Omega earned its place on that list of award recipients in 1970 after some dramatic events. On 13 April that year, two days into the Apollo 13 mission, an oxygen tank in the spacecraft's service module exploded, forcing the crew to abandon their lunar landing and shut down nearly all onboard systems, including their digital timers, to conserve power. Drifting off course more than 300,000 kilometres from Earth, the crippled spacecraft required a manually controlled engine burn of precisely 14 seconds to correct its re-entry angle; too shallow, and the capsule would skip off the atmosphere with no possibility of recovery. Command module pilot Jack Swigert timed the burn on his NASA-issued Speedmaster Professional while commander James Lovell controlled the craft. NASA's mission log records that the burn began 105 hours, 18 minutes and 28 seconds into the flight and ended exactly 14 seconds later. The crew splashed down safely on 17 April. On 5 October 1970, astronaut Thomas Stafford, commander of Apollo 10, presented Omega with the Silver Snoopy Award, accompanied by a certificate signed by all three Apollo 13 astronauts.
Omega has commemorated the honour three times: in 2003, in 2015 with an edition of 1,970 pieces, and in 2020 with the Speedmaster Silver Snoopy Award 50th Anniversary, an example of which, dating from circa 2023, is offered in this catalogue.
The 42mm stainless steel chronograph carries a dial of solid Ag925 silver with an embossed Snoopy medallion at nine o'clock, rendered in the exact style of the NASA pin, beneath a blue ceramic bezel with a white enamel tachymeter scale. Its caseback is animated: when the chronograph is engaged, Snoopy in his Command and Service Module traverses the far side of the moon, visible for precisely 14 seconds, while behind him an Earth disc rotates once per minute in sync with the small seconds hand. Within is Omega's Co-Axial Master Chronometer Calibre 3861. Though neither numbered nor formally limited, production has never met demand, and the model trades at a significant premium over its retail price.
"We've seen a lot of 'anniversary' Speedmaster models come through Webb's, but the Silver Snoopy 50th is the one that globally consistently outperforms its estimates," says Sam Shaw, Manager of Fine Jewels, Watches & Luxury Accessories at Webb's. "Buyers aren't just paying for a cartoon dog, they are buying into the only spaceflight story where a watch was the backup plan."
Lot 7. 18ct Yellow Gold, Rolex Submariner Date, Automatic Wristwatch, circa 2021. EST. $60,000—$70,000; Lot 44. 18ct Yellow Gold, Rolex Yacht-Master II Automatic Wristwatch, circa 2008. EST. $55,000—$65,000.
LOUIS VUITTON: 130 YEARS OF THE MONOGRAM
When Louis Vuitton opened his first store at 4 Rue Neuve-des-Capucines in 1854, steps from the Place Vendôme, Paris boasted hundreds of established trunk-makers. Vuitton distinguished himself by rethinking the object itself, replacing the domed, leather-covered trunks of the era, shaped to shed rainwater from carriage rooftops, with flat-topped trunks in coated canvas: lighter, stronger and stackable in the holds of trains and steamships. For a travelling class that might journey with thirty or forty trunks at a time, it was a significant evolution.
Success brought imitation, and the house answered with a succession of proprietary canvases: the striped Rayée of 1872, then the Damier check of 1888, the first to carry the Vuitton name on its exterior. When the Damier was copied in turn, Georges Vuitton, who had led the company since his father's death in 1892, designed a new pattern in 1896. Interlacing the initials LV with stylised quatrefoils and flowers, and drawing on the Japonism and heraldic motifs then fashionable in Paris, the Monogram Canvas was conceived both as a tribute to his father and as a defence against counterfeiting, and was patented accordingly. There is a certain irony in the fact that a pattern devised as a security measure became one of the most recognised emblems in the world. A new coating process developed in the late 1950s made the canvas supple enough for soft bags, carrying the Monogram from luggage onto the handbags that would define the maison for the modern era.
Sam Shaw, Manager
Fine Jewels, Watches & Luxury Accessories
According to Sam Shaw: "the LV Monogram is one of the few patterns that genuinely transcends fashion cycles; it was already iconic when Audrey Hepburn carried a Speedy in the 1960s, and it's still the reference point for every other logo bag on the market."
As the house marks 130 years of the Monogram in 2026, the example offered at Webb's honours its origins by other means. The Capucines, introduced in 2013 and named for the street where the first store opened, is the apex of Louis Vuitton's leather goods: an understated, all-leather design whose handle mounts recall the fittings of the historic trunks, with a flap worn two ways to reveal either a Monogram Flower or the LV initials. Each example passes through some 250 separate operations in the making. The bag offered here, a Capucines Mini in American alligator (Alligator mississippiensis) in blue, white and orange, represents the house's craftsmanship: a fitting counterpoint, in its anniversary year, to the canvas that started it all.
Louis Vuitton—Capucines Mini, American alligator (Alligator mississippiensis) in blue, white and orange. Named for the Rue Neuve-des-Capucines, where Louis Vuitton opened his first store in 1854, the Capucines stands as the apex of the house's leather goods, each example passing through some 250 separate operations in the making. Its handle mounts recall the fittings of the historic trunks, while the flap may be worn to reveal either a Monogram Flower or the LV initials. Offered as the maison marks 130 years of its Monogram Canvas, this example represents Louis Vuitton's craftsmanship.
Webb's Important Jewels, Watches & Luxury Accessories online auctions present a rare, highly coveted selection of jewels, timepieces, and luxury accessories. This ultimate, premier curation attracts the most discerning of collectors and those attracted to craftsmanship, provenance, and pieces of distinction. All items are available for viewing in our Mount Eden gallery, with bidding taking place online.
Important Jewels, Watches & Luxury Accessories
Online Auction | 29.07.26–11.08.26
Launch Event | Tuesday 4 August, 6–8pm
On View | 5–11 August
33a Normanby Road, Mount Eden, Auckland
webbs.co.nz
Contact
Sam Shaw
Manager, Fine Jewels, Watches & Luxury Accessories
[email protected]
+64 22 499 5610
View all articles & videos here