Sports, automobiles, art and even real estate — the world of jewelry and watches has long crossed paths with those of other luxury sectors. And now, beauty and fragrance are taking the same road.
Dior, for example, teased its jeweled Rouge Premier lipstick case during the Diorexquis high jewelry event, held in May at Château de la Colle Noire, once the summer residence of its founder, Christian Dior.
The one-of-a-kind creation — an 18-karat gold case set with more than 1,000 miniature flowers and insects in Paraíba tourmalines, turquoise, opals and other gems — was the brainchild of Victoire de Castellane, Dior Joaillerie’s artistic director, and Peter Philips, Dior’s creative and image director for makeup. The case is suspended from a gold chain, also accented with gem-set flowers.
The refillable case, with 12 lipstick shades, was formally introduced in June (price on application). “The idea of the Rouge Premier,” Mr. Philips said on Instagram, “is the bond between a mother or a grandmother.” He likened the gem-studded case to “an object that holds a lot of sentimental value, that you can pass down from generation to generation.”
Hannah Teare, the editor-at-large at Tatler magazine in London who also is a stylist and a costume designer, echoed Mr. Philips’s sentiments, calling the Rouge Premier a modern design that hearkened back to the past.
“It reminds me of a time when a woman had only one face compact, one lipstick, one mascara — and those pieces really meant something,” she said. “They were beautiful cases, like your one Estée Lauder lipstick. It’s a riff on that time. It’s really special and feels like an heirloom that you pass down.”
Beauty products played starring roles in the Blush Watch Capsule Collection that Chanel introduced this spring during the Watches and Wonders industry event that took place in Geneva (prices on application). The dial of the limited-edition Boy.Friend Coco Art watch, for example, depicted Gabrielle Chanel, the founder of the brand, checking her reflection in the mirror of a powder compact.
The white gold dial featured a fun, pink background in grand feu enamel, which matched the 38 baguette-cut sapphires on the bezel. And, according to the company, the tampography printing technique was used, with 12 prints of the image manually stamped in succession on the dial.
Another watch, the Mademoiselle Privé Pincushion Beauty Art, was a riff on the pincushions used by seamstresses, a watch design conceit that Chanel has played with in the past. This one featured a dial dotted with makeup essentials such as two tubes of lipstick, an eye shadow palette, nail polish and blush, all crafted in blackened gold, miniature painting and enamel, and joined by tiny diamond and pearl necklaces.
Chanel’s beauty theme was also present in pendant watches with covered dials, what the industry calls secret watches. The Secret Watch Kiss Me necklace, for example, dangled a faux lipstick tube in black titanium from an 18-karat yellow gold chain accented with mini onyx lipstick tubes, rhodolite beads and a 0.70-carat diamond.
Eye makeup also got a look in courtesy of the Talisman Watch Give Me Luck pendant timepiece that recreated Chanel’s signature Les 4 Ombres eye shadow palette. Set with rubellite cabochons, pink tourmalines and diamonds, the medallion-style jewel featured a gem-set watch dial on its reverse.
And the eye became the focus for the Amulet Watch Protect Me pendant timepiece that dangled from an 18-karat gold, gem-set chain, the watch dial set with an eye crafted in grand feu enamel, and accented with 332 diamonds in white, beige and brown hues.
Ms. Teare described the Chanel Blush collection as “upbeat, fun and pieces to collect and stack.”
She added she was not surprised that large luxury brands have been mashing up their beauty and jewelry offerings, especially given the resilience of the two categories. “The pandemic also showed us that the sweet spots of jewelry and makeup specifically are moments that don’t go away,” she said. “People still spend on them in times of recession and financial uncertainty.
”The mega luxury brands are being incredibly clever,” she added, “and on top of that have the artistry and creativity to really create offerings that are really wonderful.”
Fragrance also is getting its share of attention, as many jewelry and watch houses, including Cartier, Van Cleef & Arpels, Chopard and Jaeger-LeCoultre, have their own perfume lines.
“Scent and fragrances are very associated with emotions — it’s very direct in the brain,” said Dominique Ropion, a perfumer who has created scents for the French brand Editions de Parfums Frédéric Malle, as well as fashion houses including Dior, Yves Saint Laurent and Issey Miyake.
Last year, Mr. Ropion partnered with a watchmaker for the first time, collaborating with the couturier Yiqing Yin on a scented strap for a Vacheron Constantin concept watch. The Égérie model’s calfskin strap was embedded with microcapsules of a perfume created for the project, which released slowly as the watch was worn.
Speaking at the watch’s unveiling last year, Ms. Yin said she wanted “to propose a narrative and sensorial experience” with the timepiece.
“I’m fascinated by perfume and its transcendental power to carry one somewhere else,” she added. “It’s an immediate reality that blurs the line between subjective and the real, memory and imagination.”
Other brands also have been experimenting with wearable fragrance. For example, Victoria Beckham created a gold-brushed brass necklace with a three-centimeter (1.2-inch) wide enamel bottle for her Portofino ’97 fragrance (The $410 piece comes with a tiny funnel, but the perfume, with notes of Calabrian bergamot, amber and vetiver, is sold separately).
The perfumer Veronique Gabai also has an adjustable necklace with a pendant 2.5-milliliter atomizer, available in either gold or silver, that may be filled with the owner’s favorite perfume ($390).
And the candle and fragrance specialist Thompson Ferrier in New York City also has embraced the wearable element. Its Un Rêve perfume bracelet of 18-karat gold on brass has an openwork floral design and comes with four interchangeable ceramic inserts that can be infused with the wearer’s preferred scent ($495).
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