Chanel Comete Shooting-Star Necklace (white gold + diamonds)

Diamonds to fight the Depression

The comet in Chanel jewelry dates to 1932. Three years after the crash of 1929, the Diamond Corporation of London wanted to revive the world's interest in diamonds, and it turned to Gabrielle Chanel, the couturière who had made costume jewelry fashionable. Her answer was Bijoux de Diamants, a collection the house calls the world's first high jewelry collection, and her first and only one.

"I wanted to cover women in constellations," she said when she presented it. Stars, comets, the moon and the sun ran through the pieces, along with fringes, ribbons and feathers. Accounts of the size of the collection differ: one puts it at 35 pieces, others at an estimated 50, with white and yellow diamonds set in platinum and yellow gold.

The jewels were shown from November 7 to 12, 1932, in Chanel's private apartment at 29 rue du Faubourg Saint-Honoré in Paris. They were designed without clasps, to be worn day or night, and many were convertible: necklaces became bracelets and brooches could be worn in the hair. Among them was a comet necklace that wrapped gently around the neck, displayed, like the rest, on lifelike wax mannequins against mirrors.

A couturière among jewelers

Chanel's attachment to stars is often traced to her childhood at the abbey of Aubazine, where she was raised in an orphanage and where five-pointed stars, a crescent moon and a sun appear in the mosaic floors and the abbey's coat of arms. "My stars! How could one find anything more fitting and eternally modern?" she is quoted as saying.

The exhibition was a sensation. Visitors paid 20 francs to see it, and the money went to charities for poor mothers and families; one account says about 30,000 people came, princes and ambassadors among them. Chanel's own account of the result is that the Diamond Corporation's shares rose two days after the opening.

The established jewelers of the Place Vendôme and the rue de la Paix were outraged that a dressmaker had entered their trade and, by several accounts, demanded that the collection be dismantled and the stones returned. Gabrielle Chanel never designed another high jewelry collection.

1932

Bijoux de Diamants opened in a year of fear and turning points. The Depression was deepening, and in March the infant son of Charles Lindbergh was kidnapped in New Jersey. In Germany, Adolf Hitler gained citizenship in February and spent the year pressing to be named chancellor.

In March the Sydney Harbour Bridge opened, and in May Amelia Earhart flew solo across the Atlantic to Northern Ireland. In September the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia was proclaimed. On November 8, days before Chanel's show closed, Franklin D. Roosevelt was elected president of the United States.

The shooting-star necklace today

Chanel's fine jewelry division sells the Comète line as one of its signature collections, describing the comet as an icon of the house since 1932 that curls around the body, nestling at the nape of the neck or orbiting the wrist. The house credits Lorenz Bäumer with adapting the 1932 comet bracelet and necklace for later collections.

The shooting-star necklace in white gold is the most direct everyday descendant of the 1932 comet. The maker's current version, the Étoile Filante necklace (étoile filante is French for shooting star), reference J10813, is made of rhodium-plated 18k white gold set with 23 brilliant-cut diamonds totaling 0.24 carat. Earlier and resale versions vary in stone count and carat weight.

The Comète family has gone through many forms. A 2019 collection recast it around the five-pointed star in white gold, diamonds and pearls, including a necklace of two shooting stars in yellow and white gold. Chanel's U.S. Comète necklaces in October 2026 ran from the small Comète Géode at $5,000 to transformable pieces above $40,000.

When checking a Chanel shooting-star necklace, match the reference number on its paperwork, such as J10813, to the maker's description: metal, number of diamonds and total carat weight. Chanel itself notes that carat weight and the exact number of stones can vary slightly from one piece to another.

From 1932 to 1932

Chanel has returned to the founding collection again and again. For its 80th anniversary in 2012, Patrice Leguéreau, who led the house's fine jewelry studio from 2009 until his death in 2024, created an 80-piece tribute.

For the 90th anniversary in 2022 came the 1932 high jewelry collection, 81 pieces, 15 of them transformable, built on three symbols: the comet, the moon and the sun. Its Comète Volute necklace held a 19.32-carat oval diamond, and the Allure Céleste necklace, centered on a 55.55-carat sapphire, sold within the first days. Some pieces were worn on the runway at the house's Fall/Winter 2022/23 haute couture show.

The small white-gold shooting star sits at the opposite end of the same idea: the comet that Gabrielle Chanel draped around a mannequin's neck in 1932, made small enough to wear every day.

The numbers

Carat weight (J10813)

23 brilliant-cut diamonds, 0.24 ct total (maker's figure)

Metal

18k white gold, 750/1000, with rhodium plating

Motif

Five-pointed star with a comet tail

Maker

Chanel Fine Jewelry

Motif introduced

November 1932, Bijoux de Diamants

Production

Current model; no production figures published

Timeline

1. Nov 7, 1932

   Gabrielle Chanel opens Bijoux de Diamants in her Paris apartment, with a comet necklace among the pieces; it runs through November 12.

2. Nov 1932

   The Diamond Corporation's shares rise two days after the show opens, according to Chanel.

3. 2009

   Patrice Leguéreau takes charge of Chanel's fine jewelry creation studio.

4. 2012

   Chanel marks the 80th anniversary of Bijoux de Diamants with an 80-piece collection.

5. Dec 2019

   A new Comète fine jewelry collection is built around the five-pointed star.

6. Feb 2022

   The first part of the 1932 high jewelry collection is unveiled.

7. Jul 5, 2022

   Comet, moon and sun necklaces appear on the runway at Chanel's haute couture show in Paris.

8. 2024

   Patrice Leguéreau dies.

9. Oct 2026

   The Étoile Filante shooting-star necklace in white gold and diamonds retails for $7,500 in the U.S.

The world in 1932

• Feb 25, 1932

  Adolf Hitler obtains German citizenship, opening the way for him to run for president.

• Mar 1932

  The infant son of Charles and Anne Morrow Lindbergh is kidnapped in New Jersey.

• Mar 19, 1932

  The Sydney Harbour Bridge opens.

• May 20, 1932

  Amelia Earhart flies solo across the Atlantic to Northern Ireland.

• Sep 23, 1932

  The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is proclaimed.

• Nov 8, 1932

  Franklin D. Roosevelt is elected president of the United States.

Price record

This is an asking price, not a sale. It is what a seller wanted on the date shown. Asking prices often sit above what buyers pay, but an ask is not a ceiling: a sale can land on either side of it. It is not a value.

By reference price, Chanel Comete Shooting-Star Necklace (white gold + diamonds) is number 77 of 100 in the jewelry entries of the FLOAT 100. 44 of those 100 rest on a realized sale; the rest carry an asking price or a guide value, and each page says which. Rank within the FLOAT 100 itself (78 here) is editorial: how much an object defines its field, not price alone.

Did you know

• Bijoux de Diamants was commissioned by a London diamond syndicate to revive demand during the Depression.
• The 1932 jewels had no clasps, so they could be worn and transformed freely.
• Visitors paid 20 francs to see the 1932 show, and the money went to charity.
• Paris's established jewelers demanded the collection be dismantled; Chanel never designed another.
• Étoile filante is French for shooting star.
• The 2022 Comète Volute necklace carried a 19.32-carat diamond, a nod to the year 1932.