Profiles

Anna Maccieri Rossi’s Jewelry Is About Time

The veteran watch designer invented a symbology for living in the moment

by Marion Fasel

February 1, 2024—Carpe Diem is one of the messages about the importance of time Anna Maccieri Rossi communicates through her jewelry. The Latin phrase is not only engraved on the back of pendants, the idea of seizing the day is reimagined in a star motif turning like a second hand on the front of the piece.

“I feel like the mechanism that makes watches tick is magical,” explains the Italian designer “And I wanted to apply that type of magic to jewelry.”

Anna formulated her thoughts about jewelry while mastering the art of watch design. For over 15 years she worked with top luxury brands including Bulgari, Cartier and Jaeger LeCoultre, learning every angle of the field. For an extended period, Anna lived in Le Sentier, a village in the Vallée de Joux where she says it was pretty much only “the watches and snow.”

When Anna returned home to Italy, she fulfilled her dream of designing jewelry with symbols of time and using motifs, techniques and an array of materials from the watch world. In 2019 she launched her vibrant, unexpected and critically acclaimed jewelry collection.

Manufactured largely in Venice and Florence, Anna’s designs are also a reflection of her Italian heritage. “I love thinking about Italian art and things like a gondolier in Venice and the stripes of his shirt, the shape of a fan and Murano glass.”

Anna’s collection named Ora, which means “now” in Italian, plays with concepts of watch complications. The theme of night and day, found in moon phase indicators on watches, appears repeatedly in various jewels.

For Anna it represents the transformation that takes place over the course of 24-hours. How women in particular shift gears from a night to a day mode. “There is a powerful vibration to different parts of the day as well as the seasons,” she explains.

For the Ora Day part of a mismatched pair of Day and Night Half an Hour Earrings, a flat mother-of-pearl surface is hand painted with a clear blue sky and fluffy white clouds. A layer of translucent lacquer is added to the top to protect the surface.

While the technique is the same as the one used on watches, it becomes the only focal point on earrings and feels as vibrant as the sky in the paintings of surrealist René Magritte.

Eternally popular materials for watches are woven throughout Anna’s jewels. White ceramic frames pendants. Hardstones, such as malachite, used on decorative watch dials become a base layer for Anna’s round rings and pendants.

Aventurine glass, which is often used in moon phase watches, is ubiquitous in Anna’s jewels; its history makes it easy to understand why.

A form of blue glass with flecks of gold or copper created in Murano, Italy during the 15^th century, aventurine has an origin story like a fairy tale. It was believed to be either created by accident when metal shavings spilled into glass or invented with a secret technique and named after the Italian word for adventure. Both narratives fit right in with Anna’s poetic approach.

The gold designs in Anna’s Ora collection have a silk-effect texture on the surface. It’s a technique that once again shows Anna’s favorite sources of inspiration: the art of watchmaking and Italian craftsmanship.

The treatment which originates in Florence, Italy is often used in watches.

Each piece is hand-cut on the surface with thin lines that echo silk fabric. Anna further enhances the gold jewels with various symbols.

A diamond and white gold star is often a centerpiece of Anna’s yellow gold designs. “For me the star means, the time is now.”

The star accents large and small jewels including her Cushion Ring and Open Heart pendant. The message of the valentine design is to be open to love and receive it at any time.

Among all her creations the Carpe Diem pendants—featuring a silhouette similar to a petite pocket watch—have the most literal link to watch making. Anna brought the movement of a second hand into the design with the gold star.

The seemingly magical turning of the star to the right once every second is powered by a quartz watch battery embedded in the back of the pendant. (Click here to see the movement of the star on Anna’s Instagram and here on YouTube.)

“It is a small animation, but it translates a very strong message,” explains Anna. “The movement is a reminder that time is precious, and we should be aware of it.”

This post was produced in collaboration with Anna Maccieri Rossi and Muse Showroom.

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