Tatler explores how a snowdusted holly wreath on a December night inspired Harry Winston’s revolutionary diamond setting—the Winston Cluster is a holiday moment of wonder that transformed high jewellery forever
The holiday season has always been a time when light takes on special meaning—candles flickering in windows, frost catching moonbeams, diamonds glittering against velvet. It’s a season of wonder, when we notice beauty differently; more acutely. On one such December evening in the 1940s, Harry Winston paused at the doorstep of his Scarsdale estate in New York and witnessed something that would forever alter the course of jewellery designing: a holly wreath hung against his door, its entwined branches laden with fresh snow. In that crystalline moment, Winston saw past the wreath’s rigid structure to the beauty of nature itself—and realised that in jewellery, diamonds, like the glistening leaves, should command the design while their metal settings quietly recede into shadow.
This holiday revelation gave birth to the Cluster setting, a quiet but radical rethinking of diamond jewellery that rejected conventional, metal-heavy frameworks in favour of stones as expressive, almost architectural forms. The technique arranges diamonds at varying angles to maximise light and create three dimensional sculptures that seem to defy gravity—each piece echoing the original wreath’s natural geometry and winter magic.
Ultimate Emerald Signature High Jewellery Timepiece (Photo: Courtesy of Harry Winston)
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The Cluster setting is deceptively simple but demands extraordinary precision and craftsmanship. Each diamond, with its distinct cut and shape, is chosen not only for quality but also its unique personality ,then positioned with architectural exactness to optimise sparkle and dimension; the nearly invisible platinum settings play merely a supporting role, focusing all attention on the stones themselves.
Signature pieces include the Wreath Necklace: an interlaced array of stones that echoes natural geometry without losing clarity or brilliance. The process can take over a year to complete—a reminder of the level of dedication required to execute the Cluster technique. Earrings and rings similarly champion jewels that eschew flatness or stereotype in favour of dynamic shape and light.
