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Our craftsmanship
Made by hand, judged by daylight
Eight stations, eleven karigars, no shortcuts — the making of an Aquison jewel.
Machines are consistent; hands are attentive. Nearly everything that distinguishes an Aquison piece — the weight of a hinge, the seat of a stone, the temperature of a polish — is decided by a person holding the work an arm's length from their eyes.
These are the stages every piece passes through, whether it is a slender everyday bangle or a ceremonial bib two months in the making.
The journey
Eight stations, one standard
01
Drawing
Every design is first painted in gouache — gold rendered in ochre and light — so proportions are settled before metal is ever touched.
02
Wax carving
The drawing becomes a carved wax model. This is where a ring's shoulder gains or loses the half-millimetre that changes everything.
03
Casting
Gold is alloyed and poured at dawn in the workshop's coolest hours, then quenched, pickled and inspected for the faintest flaw.
04
Raising & filing
Castings are filed, pierced and trued at the bench. Hinges and clasps are cut and fitted by hand until they close with a whisper.
05
Setting
Under magnification, each stone is seated and each claw pressed home individually. A pavé band can hold sixty stones — and sixty decisions.
06
Polishing
Tripoli, rouge and patience. Fluted and satin textures are finished last, so every surface catches light exactly as drawn.
07
Hallmarking
Pieces travel to the assay centre to earn their BIS hallmark and unique HUID — then return for our own house mark.
08
The window
Final inspection happens under a north-facing window. Daylight is the harshest, fairest judge; only what passes earns the Aquison box.
Materials
Only what we can stand behind
Gold — 14K, 18K, 22K
Alloyed in-house to the house's own shade cards, hallmarked 585, 750 or 916 without exception.
Diamonds
Kimberley-Process-compliant, selected loose by our own graders for cut before carat.
Coloured gemstones
Rubies, tourmalines and onyx bought directly from lapidaries the house has worked with for decades.
Pearls & mother-of-pearl
Freshwater pearls matched strand by strand; mother-of-pearl cut and inlaid at our own benches.
The promise in every box
If a piece carries our name, it was made in our atelier, by our hands, to a standard we would inherit ourselves.