The world's second largest diamond makes its debut here in Singapore
SINGAPORE – Earlier in January this year, Louis Vuitton made headlines when the luxury house bought the Sewelô rough diamond, drawing ‘oohs’ and ‘ahhs’ around the world. To be certain, this is a bold statement to showcase the house’s growing ambitions to capture the high jewelry market.
Sewelô, whose name means “rare find” in Setswana, is the second largest rough diamond ever discovered in the world.
According to Bloomberg, the CEO of LVMH, and France’s richest man Bernard Arnault scooped up the precious stone in a “deal to carve up the second-biggest diamond ever recorded in the history books.” However, Arnault is very hush-hush about the buy, and will not reveal the details of the purchase.
The Sewelô diamond is the largest to be unearthed since 1905, and the 1,758-carat rough diamond was recovered from the Karowe mine in Botswana.
In comparison, the world’s largest diamond, Cullinan, was found in 1905, at the Premier Mine in Pretoria, South Africa. The 3,106-carat, 1.33 pounds diamond was discovered during a routine inspection by the mine’s superintendent. The superintendent presented the diamond that same afternoon to Sir Thomas Cullinan, who owned the mine. Cullinan then sold the diamond to Transvaal (a province of South Africa) provincial government, which presented the stone to Britain’s King Edward VII as a birthday gift.
Fast forward today, three of the cut Cullinan stones are on display in the Tower of London with Britain’s other crown jewels.
In Singapore, Yahoo Lifestyle SEA was one of the few lucky media to observe the rare Sewelô diamond in its truest form at the showcase.
What’s so special about the Sewelô diamond
The Sewelô diamond measures roughly the size of a tennis ball, measuring 83mm x 62mm x 46mm, and weighing 352 grams. The initial analysis of the Sewelô characterises the stone as ‘near gem quality’ with ‘domains of high-quality white gem’.
The Sewelô is spectacular not only for its immense size but also for its intriguing characteristics of shape, colour, formation and composition.
The rough diamond is largely covered in a very thin layer of black carbon, enveloping yet hinting at the full extent of variations in colour and clarity of the diamond yield underneath.
Louis Vuitton plans to use the Sewelô diamond to offer clients the opportunity to create bespoke, custom-cut diamonds, in tune with the house’s heritage of special, made-to-order commissions.
A luxurious High Jewellery and High Watchmaking collections have also been specially flown in to complement this exclusive showcase if you’d like to know how precious stones are set into final products.
Sethunya joins Sewelô diamond at a rare exhibit
In less than a year, the maison recently announced the discovery of yet another extraordinary diamond. This time, a magnificent 549 carats white diamond, found to be of exceptional purity, lustre and colour - named Sethunya.
Sethunya, meaning flower in the Setswana language, is a gentle homage to Louis Vuitton’s emblematic Monogram flower. Estimated to be one to two billion years old, it is remarkable both for the consistency of extreme purity and whiteness throughout the crystal and is expected to yield exceptionally beautiful polished stones of the highest quality in clarity and colour.
For the first time ever, Sethunya has been specially flown into Singapore and is currently showcased from 16th to 23rd December at the Louis Vuitton Island Maison. This is also the first time ever, where two extraordinary rough diamonds of such exquisite rarity and caliber with Sewelô, still covered in a thin layer of black carbon and Sethunya, in its original white purest form, are presented together in one location.
To admire the Sewelô and Sethunya diamonds here in Singapore, interested viewers can contact client service at 6788 3888 for a private appointment which is held at Louis Vuitton’s Island Maison at Marina Bay Sands from now until 23rd December 2020.
