Spinel Stories: Celebrating the Special Allure of Spinels with the House of Gübelin 

If you’d asked me about underrated gemstones, even as recently as five years ago, I may have been tempted to say spinel. Even though its history is just as fascinating as sapphire, and its colour palette almost as varied as tourmaline, spinel has remained somewhat under the radar among jewellery buyers, albeit not serious collectors. Now, coloured gemstone specialists, like the House of Gübelin in Switzerland, are championing spinels for their radiance and rarity and incorporating them into masterpieces like the Tanzanian Sunrise High Jewellery necklace. I visited the Geneva boutique of the family-owned business to indulge my passion for this overlooked gemstone and explore some of its beautiful creations… 

There are certain companies I turn to when I want to truly understand what makes a best-in-class gemstone. The House of Gübelin is one such specialist because of its incredible tradition of gemstone expertise, education and analysis. On a recent visit, the Gübelin team wanted to show me the natural beauty of some of their finest spinels, and of course, I was happy to oblige! 

Before we dive in, let me tell you a little more about the House of Gübelin. If you are a regular reader of this website, you will know this isn’t the first (or even the fourth) time that I have written about this heritage family business. It produces fine and high jewellery but also operates the Gübelin Gem Lab for testing gemstones and the Gübelin Academy to educate consumers and professionals alike. When it sources and hand-picks gemstones, it does so with an eye on the gemmological factors that make a specimen extra special. Evidence of this can be seen in the Gübelin Gemstone Rating, which assesses the quality and rarity of a specific gem and translates all these attributes into a simple number: the Gübelin Points. I go into this in more detail here, but in essence, it’s a strategy to communicate about gemstones more uniformly and consistently. This is certainly helpful if you don’t come from a scientific background and want assurances of quality, character, rarity and beauty. 

Bearing all this in mind, I know that Gübelin isn’t exaggerating when it tells me something is spectacular or extra special. Its latest spinel creations are a perfect example, combining larger carat weights, rare, saturated colours and wonderful radiance in cocktail rings, earrings and a masterpiece necklace, which I will share more about below. The most common colours for spinel are red and pink, although it can be found in grey, blue, purple, yellow and black, among other shades. Most high-quality spinels are not treated, which means those gorgeous lilac, lavender, violet and raspberry pink hues are entirely natural. 

The Tanzanian Sunrise High Jewellery necklace really capitalises upon the gradients of colour available in the spinel mineral family. The piece centres around a 22-carat cushion-shaped red spinel from Tanzania, which first captured the attention of Gübelin’s designers thanks to its unusual internal landscape (visible only with a microscope), which reminded them of “a dragonfly spreading its wings at sunrise and taking flight”. 

The piece exaggerates this theme of flight with two wing-like curves of custom-cut baguette diamonds, placed in alternating rows with orange and rose-coloured spinel pavé and set in 18k rose gold and platinum. Layered above and below these ‘wings’ are two rows of marquise-cut spinels, sapphires and rubies in a gradient of deep red, dark pink, raspberry, bubble-gum and pale rose shades. Together, they weigh more than 50 carats. Finally, the piece is completed with a feature of the House of Gübelin – an iconic cabochon-cut ruby that symbolises love and passion, placed prominently at the heart of the piece like an artist’s signature on a canvas. I am told that the Tanzanian Sunrise necklace required more than 700 hours of workmanship at the brand’s atelier in Lucerne, Switzerland, and this doesn’t consider the time required for sourcing such a large array of complementary gems. 

Recalling the Gübelin Points I mentioned earlier, this 22.08-carat Tanzanian spinel has a 96.2 rating and a designation of “exceptional”, which really puts it in the upper echelons of coloured stones. Plus, the necklace has been entered into Provenance Proof – Gübelin’s blockchain technology – providing a tamper-proof account of its journey from mine to finished piece. These digital attributes are also matched with Physical Tracers, a type of nano-label, that verify the authenticity of the necklace and promise more security and traceability for the eventual owner. 

More spinel creations come in the form of cocktail rings, including an impressive Classics piece with a Tanzanian spinel over 9 carats. The gem has a purplish-red hue, which is emphasised by mandarin garnets and brilliant-cut diamonds in a rose gold trilogy setting. 

Other pieces spotlight the bright pink colour palette of spinels, ranging from soft and romantic shades to acidic, almost neon pink hues. My favourite is a beautiful cushion-shaped purplish-pink spinel from Myanmar, weighing 4.29 carats, flanked by two lavender-coloured sapphire trilliants in rose gold. Another similar version, this time in white gold, features a 2.73-carat richly pink spinel from Myanmar surrounded by two pink sapphire trilliants. 

As with so many other gemstones, finding perfectly matching pairs of spinels with equally intense saturations and shades of colour is no mean feat. Add to this the need to find similar sizes, cut qualities and proportions, and you get a sense of how difficult this is in real life. That’s why I am drawn to a pair of Gübelin earrings with two pink Tanzanian spinels, each weighing exactly 1.10 carats, two cabochon-cut Greenland rubies, and another pair of pear-shaped lilac sapphire drops. The colours are so rich; it’s amazing to think that these are natural gems! Plus, all these pieces of jewellery have been entered into Provenance Proof, which uses decentralised blockchain technology to provide tamper-proof documentation about the featured spinels and the jewellery creation process. 

My visit to the House of Gübelin helped to refresh my understanding of spinels and reminded me why there’s plenty to love about this mineral species. There’s something so enticing about the blend of purple, red, lilac and pink hues that spinel offers, which, in my opinion, will suit every skin tone and taste. They can be warm or cool in nature, especially when paired with white or rosy metals, and they are (dare I say it) a little bit ‘cooler’ than their corundum cousins. I look forward to my next invitation to the House of Gübelin, where there will no doubt be more beautiful jewellery to discover.