The Winston Blue

A stone without a past

Almost nothing is known about the diamond before 2014. It was consigned anonymously and catalogued simply as 'The Blue.' A history of the stone published by a diamond producers' organization says its origins before it reached the auction block remain unknown, and that experts, judging by its hue, believe it probably came from the Cullinan mine in South Africa, the source of the Cullinan Diamond and of many natural blue diamonds of this shade. That is a judgment, not a record, and no document consulted names the mine, the cutter or any earlier owner.

Its color comes from boron. Trace amounts of boron that enter a diamond's crystal while it forms deep in the Earth make it absorb light selectively, so blue dominates what the eye sees. Diamonds with enough boron to turn blue belong mainly to Type IIb, which accounts for less than 0.1 percent of natural diamonds. Many Type IIb diamonds conduct electricity, a property most other gems lack.

The Gemological Institute of America grades the strength of a colored diamond's color on a scale that runs from Fancy Light through Fancy, Fancy Intense, Fancy Vivid, Fancy Deep and Fancy Dark. Fancy Vivid is the most saturated. On March 25, 2014, GIA graded The Blue Fancy Vivid Blue, natural color, and Flawless, confirmed it as Type IIb, and issued a letter calling it the largest Flawless, Fancy Vivid Blue natural-color diamond it had graded as of that date.

One night in Geneva

The stone led a sale of about 250 jewels held at the Four Seasons Hotel des Bergues in Geneva on Wednesday, May 14, 2014. Before the sale it was described as the largest flawless vivid blue diamond in the world, and the pre-sale estimate was CHF 19 million to 23 million, which one business news report put at $21 million to $25 million. A spokesperson told that outlet that blue diamonds are much rarer than white diamonds of any size, and that flawlessness and vivid color only added to its rarity.

It sold for CHF 21,445,000 including fees, reported as nearly $23.8 million, or close to $1.8 million per carat: a world record per carat for a blue diamond. The sale as a whole brought in more than $154 million, with 85 percent of lots and 94 percent of value sold, the highest total for any jewelry auction up to then. The record held until 2023, when the sale of a single collector's jewels topped $202 million.

Other lots that night included a Belle Époque diamond brooch by Cartier at more than $17.5 million, a 75.97-carat D color flawless pear-shaped diamond at more than $14.4 million, and the Ocean Dream, a 5.50-carat triangular blue-green diamond that set a record for its color at more than $8.6 million.

Most accounts of the stone, including the main reference entry and a 2026 history, date the sale May 15, 2014, the day it was reported. The lot record shows the sale closing on May 14, and a contemporary report written on the 15th says the diamond was bought 'on Wednesday,' which was May 14.

The buyer: the King of Diamonds' old firm

The winning bidder was Harry Winston, Inc. Harry Winston, who traded diamonds through his own company from 1920, opened his first store in 1932, and the firm took its present name in 1936. It built its reputation buying, cutting and resetting famous stones: it bought the 726-carat Jonker rough in 1935 and cut it into twelve stones, bought the collection of heiress Evalyn Walsh McLean, including the Hope Diamond, in 1949, and gave the Hope to the Smithsonian Institution in 1958, sending it by registered mail. That gift helped establish the Smithsonian's National Gem Collection.

Harry Winston died in 1978. In January 2013 the Swiss watch group Swatch bought the jewelry business for about $750 million plus debt, and Nayla Hayek, a member of the Swatch Group board since 1995, became the brand's chief executive that May. A year before The Blue sold, the firm had bought a 101.73-carat colorless diamond at auction in Geneva for $26.7 million, about $254,400 per carat, a record per carat for a colorless diamond, and named it the Winston Legacy.

After the sale Hayek renamed the stone The Winston Blue. 'In January 2013 we purchased Harry Winston and since then my ambition has been to acquire the most desirable and unique gems,' she said. 'When [the auction house] announced they were offering the largest flawless fancy-vivid blue the GIA had ever graded, I had to buy it. Today, I am proud to own the most beautiful blue diamond in the world: The Winston Blue.'

How to identify it

The Winston Blue is a pear-shaped diamond of about 13.22 carats, graded Fancy Vivid Blue, natural color, Flawless, Type IIb, under GIA report number 17490678, dated March 25, 2014. At the 2014 sale it was flanked by two pear-shaped diamonds of about 1.00 and 0.96 carat, each graded D color and Internally Flawless by GIA in May 2008 (reports 16935589 and 16875165), and it came in a fitted blue leather case.

It has since appeared in at least one other mounting. In a later Harry Winston setting, the blue pear sits within a cluster of mixed-cut colorless diamonds in platinum, in the house's signature style.

A record that started a run

The Winston Blue's per-carat record did not last. Within a few years larger and more costly blues followed: the 12.03-carat Blue Moon of Josephine sold for $48.4 million in 2015, the 14.62-carat Oppenheimer Blue for about $57.5 million in 2016, and the 15.10-carat De Beers Blue for $57.5 million in 2023, which the 2026 history calls the current auction record for a blue diamond. That history argues the 2014 sale helped set the trajectory.

What still sets The Winston Blue apart is the combination on its report. At the time of sale, GIA had never graded a Fancy Vivid Blue diamond this large with a Flawless clarity grade.

The numbers

Carat weight

13.22 (approximate)

Color

Fancy Vivid Blue, natural

Clarity

Flawless

Diamond type

IIb

Shape

Pear

Origin mine

Not documented; believed by experts to be the Cullinan mine, South Africa

Cutter

Not documented

GIA report

17490678, March 25, 2014

Timeline

1. 1932

   Harry Winston opens his first store as Harry H. Winston Jewels, Inc.

2. 1958

   Harry Winston donates the Hope Diamond to the Smithsonian Institution.

3. 1978

   Harry Winston dies; his sons take over the firm.

4. May 12, 2008

   GIA grades the two pear-shaped side diamonds, of about 1.00 and 0.96 carat, D color, Internally Flawless.

5. Jan 14, 2013

   Swatch Group buys Harry Winston, Inc.

6. May 2013

   Harry Winston buys a 101.73-carat colorless diamond at auction in Geneva for $26.7 million and names it the Winston Legacy.

7. May 2013

   Nayla Hayek becomes chief executive of Harry Winston.

8. Mar 25, 2014

   GIA grades the 13.22-carat pear Fancy Vivid Blue, Flawless, Type IIb, and calls it the largest such diamond it has graded.

9. May 14, 2014

   Sold at auction in Geneva as 'The Blue' for CHF 21,445,000, about $23.8 million, to Harry Winston, Inc.

10. May 15, 2014

    News reports carry the stone's new name, The Winston Blue, given by Hayek after the purchase.

11. 2015

    The 12.03-carat Blue Moon of Josephine sells for $48.4 million.

12. 2016

    The 14.62-carat Oppenheimer Blue sells for about $57.5 million.

13. 2023

    The 15.10-carat De Beers Blue sells for $57.5 million.

The world in 2014

• Mar 8, 2014

  Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 disappears en route to Beijing.

• Mar 21, 2014

  Russia formally annexes Crimea.

• Apr 14, 2014

  Some 276 girls and women are abducted from a school in Chibok, Nigeria.

• Apr 16, 2014

  The South Korean ferry Sewol sinks, killing 304 people, most of them high school students.

• May 6, 2014

  The Eurovision Song Contest opens in Copenhagen.

• May 26, 2014

  Narendra Modi is sworn in as India's prime minister.

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 Winston Blue is number 18 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 (17 here) is editorial: how much an object defines its field, not price alone.

Did you know

• The stone was sold under the plain name 'The Blue'; it got its current name only after Harry Winston bought it.
• Many Type IIb blue diamonds conduct electricity, which most gems cannot do.
• Type IIb diamonds make up less than 0.1 percent of natural diamonds.
• The firm that bought it had given the most famous blue diamond of all, the Hope, to the Smithsonian in 1958, and mailed it there by registered mail.
• A year earlier, the same buyer paid a per-carat record for a colorless diamond, the 101.73-carat Winston Legacy.
• The 2014 Geneva sale set a record for a jewelry auction total that stood until 2023.