Sparklers for a Christmas list

WE’VE GOT a little over a month before Christmas, so make someone cry tears of joy with collections from some of the best known names in jewelry. Trust me, with just one of these baubles, you’ll get whatever you want this season.

We’re kicking off with Cartier’s classic Juste Un Clou collection (that line that looks like nails), first created in the 1970s. We’re lusting over the Cartier Destinee necklace, a diamond in a bezel setting in rose gold. They come with matching earrings, too. You can’t go wrong with the maison’s Panthere de Cartier line, just to show someone you’d go wild for them.

Over at Van Cleef & Arpels, you’re bound to fall in love with a new line of watches, called the Pont des Amoreux (roughly translated, “Bridge of Lovers”), showing lovers about to meet on a bridge, their figures serving as the hands on the watch’s face. The pieces show them throughout beautifully rendered seasonal backgrounds. The bezel, case, and bracelet are studded with jewels — price upon request, obviously. A more quiet collection shows the Perlee, gemstones in cabochon (that’s rounded) cuts on rounded settings in different colors of gold.

Off at Tiffany’s, gift suggestions include their signature T bracelet with a new coating of robin’s egg-blue enamel, or else mother-of-pearl. The T collection is also refreshed by a new bracelet featuring the brand’s “T” serving as links on bracelets. The tough HardWear collection from a few seasons past makes a comeback this holiday season with pearls and a wrap bracelet design (featuring that line’s ball, chain, and lock). The Paper Flowers line, meanwhile, shows fanciful designs of insects and flowers rendered with gemstones. For a touch of elegance, however, we recommend the Paloma Picasso design collaboration, with motifs of olive leaves, perfect for any age.

We’re ending this with a romp through Chanel’s High Jewelry collection, with the Le Paris Russe de Chanel, which debuted earlier this year at Paris Couture Week. The line features Paris as seen through the eyes of Chanel, just a few years after the Russian Revolution. The capital was teeming with deposed Russian royals and nobles, and Coco Chanel, the house’s founder, had an affair with Grand Duke Dimitri, a possible candidate to the Russian throne, had his cousins not been displaced by the conflict. The line features designs gleaned from Russian folklore and tradition, such as a kokoshnik tiara set with semiprecious stones, or else pieces referencing the double-headed eagle of the Russian Imperial coat-of-arms. — J.L. Garcia