Van Cleef & Arpels’ Parfum de Rose Ring and Its 9.97-Carat Pink Sapphire

Key Highlights

• Central stone: cushion-cut pink sapphire weighing 9.97 carats
• Selected for homogeneous and vivid pink colour throughout the stone
• Part of the Maison’s ongoing Expertise in Gems series
• A one-of-a-kind High Jewellery creation; pricing by private request only
• The rose motif traces a continuous thread in Van Cleef & Arpels’ creative history

First Look

Van Cleef & Arpels has turned the lens of its Expertise in Gems series onto the Parfum de rose ring, a High Jewellery piece anchored by a 9.97-carat cushion-cut pink sapphire. The Maison distils the stone’s character into a single phrase: it carries “the shimmer of a fresh rose bud.”

The cushion cut, an antique-style shape with softly rounded corners, was chosen because its broad facets concentrate hue rather than scatter it. The result is a velvet-like internal glow that lets a sapphire of this saturation read as the natural thing the name evokes.

Colour Above All

Pink sapphires at this weight are among the most demanding corundums to source. Carat size alone is insufficient: the stone must combine clarity with a saturated, evenly distributed colour throughout its entire depth. Van Cleef & Arpels cites that homogeneous, vivid pink as the decisive criterion in choosing this particular gem.

The Maison’s selection process begins with the stone, not with a design sketch. Within the Expertise in Gems format, each post isolates a single gem and traces the reasoning behind its inclusion — cut, carat weight, and the specific qualities that earned it a place in the atelier. The Parfum de rose ring is one such argument, made in mineral form.

Heritage & the Rose Motif

The rose has been a recurring presence in the Maison’s creative language since the Rose de Noël clips of the 1970s, continuing through the Jardin de la Rose ring in the 2023 Le Grand Tour collection. In Parfum de rose, the flower is not carved in gold or rendered in pavé: it exists entirely within a single sapphire, its freshness held in the stone’s facets.

Founded at 22 Place Vendôme in 1906 by Alfred Van Cleef and the Arpels family — two dynasties already versed in diamond cutting and gemstone trading — the house distinguished itself early by selecting stones for character rather than weight alone. That instinct is on full display here. For collectors familiar with the Maison’s recent watchmaking pieces such as the Lady Rencontre Celeste or the Ludo Secret, the same gem-first philosophy governs both disciplines.

Place Within the Collection

Across recent High Jewellery collections — Le Grand Tour, Treasure Island, and the 2026 Fascinating Egypt — pink and mauve sapphires have appeared repeatedly as centrepiece stones, reflecting a sustained preference for the warm end of the corundum spectrum. The Parfum de rose ring sits firmly within this lineage.

The piece is a one-of-a-kind creation. As is customary for High Jewellery of this calibre, pricing and availability are disclosed only on private request through Van Cleef & Arpels boutiques. The current President and CEO, Catherine Rénier, who took up the role in September 2024, oversees a house whose Mystery Set™ technique — patented in 1933, allowing stones to appear without visible prongs — remains one of the defining technical signatures in place Vendôme jewellery.

For more on horology and High Jewellery that matters in the Gulf, sign up for our weekly editorial briefing.