Culture meets craft: Chow Tai Fook’s Timeless Harmony high jewellery dazzles in Hangzhou

Chow Tai Fook debuted its latest high jewellery collection, Timeless Harmony, at Hangzhou’s West Lake. But this was no ordinary launch—it was an exemplar of how cultural heritage can be honoured without resorting to cliché.

Rather than relying on overt Chinese cultural symbols such as dragons or phoenixes, Chow Tai Fook’s creative director of high jewellery Nicholas Lieou crafted something far more nuanced. The Hong Kong-born jewellery designer presented a seven-part collection that draws inspiration from Chinese philosophy and architecture, translating concepts such as stillness, balance and structural harmony into wearable art. Despite being characterised by clean and precise forms, Timeless Harmony was several years in the making, with some of the pieces requiring hundreds or even thousands of hours to complete. The resulting 100-plus pieces—made from precious metals, such as platinum, pure gold and 18 karat gold, as well as jadeite, pearls, diamonds and other, coloured gemstones—that are a quiet ode to the jewellery maison’s eastern heritage.

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The Chow Tai Fook Timeless Harmony high jewellery showcase in Hangzhou (Photo: Chow Tai Fook)

Lotus installation at the Timeless Harmony high jewellery showcase (Photo: Chow Tai Fook)

Traditional Chinese architecture installation at the Timeless Harmony high jewellery showcase (Photo: Chow Tai Fook)

Surrounded by bamboo groves, tea fields and centuries-old Zen Buddhist temples, the Amanfayun resort provided a serene backdrop for the launch event. Lieou conceived the presentation of Timeless Harmony as a journey through a classical Chinese garden: one first steps through a paifang, a traditional Chinese house gate, into a stone courtyard before arriving at a dimly lit wooden courtyard house that dates back to the 1800s.

The showcase of the collection began with the Lotus chapter, a love letter to a flower that has long been a symbol of purity and resilience in Chinese culture. Alongside installations of the aquatic plant, diamond-encrusted pieces with clean arcs and fluid silhouettes paid tribute to the flower just on the cusp of blooming. The next two chapters are a dazzling tribute to Chinese philosophies: Heaven and Earth, and Joie. The former, grounded in the ancient Chinese cosmological belief that “heaven is round and Earth is square”, inspired jadeite and diamond pieces with contrasting circular and square shapes, while the latter celebrates the Chinese character for “joy” through wedding-ready pieces that celebrate Lieou’s fondness for experimenting with baguette-cut diamonds.

Lotus creation on display (Photo: Chow Tai Fook)

Heaven and Earth creation on display (Photo: Chow Tai Fook)

Onto the second floor of the presentation, where, in the remaining four chapters, Lieou composes a paean to various elements key to ancient Chinese architecture. Gate pays homage to the domed nails on traditional palace gates with rounded studs of pearls, rubies and diamonds; a necklace from the Roof Tiles chapter recreates overlapping Chinese tiled roots with a waterfall of half-moon diamonds; a Palace piece mimics the central-axis alignment—a practice unique to Chinese construction—with two strings of almost perfectly colour-matched grey and black pearls, and a black onyx and square diamond pendant; and Great Wall, which pays tribute to the wall’s watchtowers in the form of pieces featuring diamonds arranged in sequences.

As well as this deep exploration of Chinese culture and heritage, it was important to Lieou that he focus on functionality. Transformable pieces are thus central to this collection. For example, there’s a mesmerising, three-layered Heaven and Earth necklace set with jadeite and diamonds which can be taken apart and worn individually or in various combinations.

Palace creation on display (Photo: Chow Tai Fook)

Roof Tiles creation on display (Photo: Chow Tai Fook)

“This launch marks a defining moment in Chow Tai Fook’s long legacy,” says Sonia Cheng, vice-chairman of Chow Tai Fook Jewellery Group. “Each Timeless Harmony creation carries the legacy of Chinese artistry and a vision for its future in the global dialogue. Through its layered and thematic narrative, the collection reimagines high jewellery as expressing identity, memory and meaning, affirming Chow Tai Fook’s position as a global leader in craftsmanship and cultural expression.”

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