The Pink Legacy (Winston Pink Legacy)

A century in one family

Little is on record about the stone's early life. It was found in a South African mine about a hundred years before its 2018 sale, around 1918 by one account, and first cut in 1920. The specialists who sold it said it had probably not been changed since. The sale records do not name the mine.

At some point it came to the Oppenheimer family, who built De Beers into the world's biggest diamond trader. The sources do not say when the family acquired it. When it came to auction in 2018 it was listed as 'the property of a lady,' with the Oppenheimer family as its provenance, and the seller was not named.

The auction house's own account of the sale said the diamond had 'descended from the Oppenheimer Family' and called its sale 'a major moment in auction history.'

Pink with nothing else in it

Most pink diamonds have a second color, such as purple, orange, brown or gray. The Pink Legacy shows none. Its pink is pure and evenly spread, and it carries GIA's top intensity grade, Fancy Vivid. Only about one diamond in a million has color strong enough to be graded Fancy Vivid. GIA's 2018 report, number 2191528443, also lists VS1 clarity and Type IIa.

Type IIa diamonds contain little or no nitrogen and make up less than 2 percent of gem diamonds. They are among the most chemically pure diamonds and often have exceptional transparency. Large pinks of this type are prized for their even color and lack of inclusions, unlike the smaller, often included pinks found in other deposits.

Its shape is unusual too. A rectangular step cut is traditionally used for colorless stones, and getting a Fancy Vivid pink in that shape takes, in GIA's words, 'the strongest body-color in the rough crystal.' It was the largest cut-cornered rectangular vivid pink ever offered at auction. Fewer than 10 percent of pink diamonds weigh more than one-fifth of a carat, and the house that sold it counted only four pure vivid pinks over 10 carats in some 250 years of sales.

Five minutes in Geneva

The diamond, set in a platinum ring with fancy-cut diamonds, was shown to the press in Geneva on November 8, 2018. It was the main lot of a jewelry sale there on November 13, with an estimate of CHF 30 million to CHF 50 million, reported as $30 million to $50 million.

At least five people bid by phone, but the winner was a Harry Winston representative sitting in the front row. The underbidder was described as an important Asian collector. Bidding lasted about five minutes. The price with fees was CHF 50,375,000, reported as about $50 million.

Reports put the price per carat at about $2.6 million, a world auction record for a pink diamond. A rival house later calculated it at $2,656,909 per carat. The record it replaced was set in November 2017 by the Pink Promise, a 14.93-carat oval Fancy Vivid pink that sold in Hong Kong for $32,480,500, or $2,175,519 per carat. The whole sale brought about $110 million, and 86 percent of the lots sold.

The specialist who sold it said the stone's saturation and intensity were 'as good as it gets' in a colored diamond. A senior colleague called it 'the Leonardo da Vinci of diamonds.'

Harry Winston's Legacy collection

The buyer was Harry Winston, the New York jeweler owned since 2013 by the Swatch Group. Its chief executive, Nayla Hayek, is the daughter of Swatch founder Nicolas Hayek. The firm renamed the stone the Winston Pink Legacy right after the sale.

The name links it to an earlier purchase. In 2013, soon after Swatch acquired Harry Winston, the firm bought a 101-carat D-color flawless diamond and named it the Winston Legacy, which began what it calls its Legacy collection. The founder, known as the 'King of Diamonds,' had once owned stones such as the Jonker, the Indore Pears and the Hope.

In February 2021, to mark the 125th anniversary of Harry Winston's birth, the house showed the stone in a new ring. The 18.96-carat diamond sits between two shield-cut diamonds weighing 3.55 carats in total, set in 18-karat rose gold and platinum. The ring was on view at the New York salon from February 26 to March 1, Harry Winston's birthday.

A record overtaken

The Pink Legacy kept the per-carat record for a pink diamond until October 7, 2022. That day the 11.15-carat Williamson Pink Star sold in Hong Kong for $5,178,124 per carat, nearly double the Pink Legacy's figure.

When it sold, it was one of only a few pure Fancy Vivid pinks over 10 carats ever offered at auction, and the largest cut-cornered rectangular one. Its per-carat record has since been passed, but its Oppenheimer provenance and its 1920 cut remain.

The numbers

Carat weight

18.96 carats

Color / clarity

Fancy Vivid Pink / VS1; Type IIa

Origin mine

A South African mine; not named in the sale records

Cutter

Not recorded; first cut in 1920

Cut

Cut-cornered rectangular cut (emerald cut)

Measurements

17.64 x 14.47 x 8.64 mm (as published from GIA report 2191528443)

Timeline

1. 1918

   About this time, the rough is found in a South African mine.

2. 1920

   The stone is first cut. It has probably not been altered since.

3. 2013

   The Swatch Group acquires Harry Winston, which buys the 101-carat Winston Legacy and begins its Legacy collection.

4. Nov 2017

   The 14.93-carat Pink Promise sets a per-carat auction record for a pink diamond of $2,175,519.

5. 2018

   GIA issues report 2191528443: 18.96 carats, Fancy Vivid Pink, VS1, Type IIa.

6. Nov 8, 2018

   The diamond is shown to the press in Geneva before the sale.

7. Nov 13, 2018

   It sells at auction in Geneva for CHF 50,375,000 (about $50 million) to Harry Winston after five minutes of bidding, a per-carat record for a pink diamond. Harry Winston renames it the Winston Pink Legacy.

8. Feb 17, 2021

   Harry Winston unveils the stone in a new rose gold and platinum ring with 3.55 carats of shield-cut side stones for the 125th anniversary of the founder's birth.

9. Feb 26, 2021

   The ring goes on view at Harry Winston's New York salon through March 1.

10. Oct 7, 2022

    The Williamson Pink Star sells for $5,178,124 per carat, nearly double the Pink Legacy's per-carat price.

The world in 2018

• Oct 16, 2018

  Canada legalizes the sale and use of cannabis, the second country to do so.

• Oct 23, 2018

  The Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macau Bridge, the world's longest sea crossing, opens.

• Nov 6, 2018

  The United States holds its midterm elections.

• Nov 8, 2018

  The Camp Fire ignites in Butte County, California, and becomes the state's deadliest and most destructive wildfire.

• Nov 11, 2018

  Nations around the world mark the centenary of the armistice that ended World War I, signed in 1918, about when the Pink Legacy was found.

• Nov 26, 2018

  NASA's InSight probe lands on Mars.

• Nov 28, 2018

  Chinese scientist He Jiankui announces in Hong Kong that he altered the DNA of twin baby girls.

Price record

A realized auction price is what a buyer actually paid on the date shown, including the buyer's premium where the sale reported it. It is the strongest kind of reference price, and it is a record of one sale of one object on one day, not a promise of what the next example will bring.

By reference price, The Pink Legacy (Winston Pink Legacy) is number 5 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 (5 here) is editorial: how much an object defines its field, not price alone.

Did you know

• The stone has probably not been recut since 1920, so it is likely the same cut it was given about a century ago.
• Only about one diamond in a million has color strong enough to be graded Fancy Vivid.
• The winning bidder sat in the front row and outbid at least five phone bidders.
• The auction house that sold it counted only four pure vivid pink diamonds over 10 carats in some 250 years of sales.
• Its per-carat record lasted almost four years, until the Williamson Pink Star nearly doubled it.
• It was sold set in a ring. Harry Winston later reset it in rose gold and platinum for the 125th anniversary of its founder's birth.