David Yurman is celebrating its first men’s high jewelry collection with a new campaign.
The luxury jewelry brand has tapped actor Michael B. Jordan to be the face of its campaign for the collection, titled “The Vault,” which kicks off his appointment as global brand ambassador.
Jordan is seen in the campaign sporting styles from the 30-piece high jewelry collection, which offers necklaces, bracelets, rings and cufflinks made with gemstones like tanzanite, rubies, sapphires, black opals, emeralds and diamonds set on 18-karat white and yellow gold. The campaign was photographed by Tyler Mitchell and styled by Jason Bolden.
While David Yurman, which officially entered men’s jewelry in 2004, has released one-off high jewelry pieces in the category, “The Vault” is its first full high jewelry line. The collection ranges in price from $50,000 to $325,000 and is available exclusively by appointment at select David Yurman stores.
“We’re calling it ‘The Vault,’ which really is a reference to just the exclusivity and the special nature of these pieces,” said Evan Yurman, the brand’s president and chief creative officer. “A lot of [the pieces] when I complete them, I put them in my vault and I’m almost reluctant to sell them because I just am so in love with them. In a way, they’re my personal pieces that I’ve poured my heart and soul into — the artistic, creative and technological knowledge of making jewelry into — and therefore they are the highest form of men’s jewelry that we are able to make.”
He explained the collection leverages many of David Yurman’s signature design codes, such as its Cable and Chevron collections. Yurman combined these styles with an Art Deco architectural inspiration, creating pieces like a yellow gold chain bracelet adorned with rubies or a chain-link bracelet designed with black diamonds.
He also highlighted one of the key pieces in the collection as a diamond signet ring that he explained uses an “invisible setting,” which is meant to make the style give “this essence of ice.”
The executive explained he’s seen a growing demand for a high jewelry collection among the brand’s male customers as there has been more interest in the overall men’s jewelry category for the last decade. He named pieces like chains, signet rings, pendants and amulets as popular styles among today’s customers.
“It started off very traditionally with cufflinks, [wedding] band rings and classic chains,” he said. “Then we were able to move into more signet rings with different materials like titanium and black diamonds, and then it evolved into using more classically diamond things — more fashion pieces and more creative styles with storytelling.”
Yurman stated the brand will release new men’s high jewelry pieces each year focusing on storytelling and spotlighting unique gemstones
“There was this void in the market for men to have really significant pieces, just like they own very significant watches,” Yurman said. “There really wasn’t that in the market for jewelry.”