Harry Winston Chronology

Harry Winston Chronology

1896 : Harry Winston is born in New York; four years after his father opened a small jewelry shop in Manhattan.

1920 : Harry Winston opens his first business, the Premier Diamond Company, at 535 Fifth Avenue in New York.

1925 : Harry Winston pays $1 million for the entire jewelry collection of Mrs. Rebecca Darlington Stoddard, followed by the acquisition of the equally famous collection of Mrs. Aravella Huntington, for $2 million in 1926.

1930 : Harry Winston buys a 39-carat emerald cut diamond, at the time the largest diamond ever to come on the
US market.

1932 : Debut of the newly founded Harry Winston salon, located in Rockefeller Center in New York.

1933 : Harry Winston marries Edna Fleischman, a style arbiter in her own right, who will remain his life-long confidante and muse.

1943 : Harry Winston is the first jeweler to lend jewelry to an actress for the Academy Awards. Jennifer Jones wears classic Winston diamonds when she accepts an Oscar for best actress.

1946 : Winston meets the Duke and Duchess of Windsor. "My friends tell me you have such wonderful things," Wallis Windsor remarks.

1946 : Winston acquires the Briolette of India, a diamond with a history dating back to Eleanor of Aquitaine.

1947 : Katherine Hepburn attends the Academy Awards wearing Harry Winston's famous Inquisition Necklace.

1949 : Harry Winston purchases the Hope Diamond.

1949-53 : Harry Winston's first exhibition of rare gems travels throughout the United States. 'The Court of Jewels' includes the Hope Diamond, the Earl of Dudley Necklace, the Indore Pears, the Star of the East, the Jonker Diamond, the Sapphire of Catherine the Great, and both the Mabel Boll and McLean Diamonds. Proceeds from the show are dedicated to the March of Dimes.

1951 : Harry Winston buys the famed Portuguese Diamond.

1955 : Harry Winston opens in Geneva, Switzerland, followed by a 1957 opening in Paris.

1958 : Harry Winston donates the Hope diamond to the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C. as a gift to the
American people. Harry Winston embarks on an extravagant acquisition of exceptional gemstones, including: the Nur-ul-Ain
pink diamond, seventeen emeralds weighing 256-carats, and the tiara of the Duke of Westminster, complete with the famous Ascot diamonds.

1960 : Harry Winston moves to a distinguished townhouse on Fifth Avenue and 56th Street, designed by famed French interior designer Stephane Boudin of Jansen.

1962 : Harry Winston appoints Ambaji V. Shinde from India as head designer. Shinde's creations revolutionize jewelry design.

1967 : Winston acquires a 241-carat uncut diamond, which produces an exceptional 69.42 carat pear shaped jewel.
The gem is purchased by Richard Burton for his wife, Elizabeth Taylor. The magnificent gem becomes known around the world as the Taylor-Burton diamond.

1972 : Harry Winston purchases the third largest diamond ever found: the Sierra Leone weighing 970- carats.
After a year of study, the rough diamond is cleaved, as the world watches by television. The state of Sierra Leone issues a postage stamp commemorating the event, making Harry Winston the only jeweler ever to see his name published on a stamp.

1974 : A $24.5 million transaction between Harry Winston and DeBeers' Harry Oppenheimer becomes the largest
deal in the history of diamonds. Oppenheimer throws in the "Deal Sweetener," a 181 carat rough diamond.

1978 : Harry Winston dies in New York. His son Ronald Winston assumes control of the firm.

1986 : A Harry Winston salon opens in Beverly Hills on Rodeo Drive. To commemorate the event, a cake studded with diamonds is created.

1988 : Harry Winston opens in Tokyo on the Ginza.

1989 : Winston introduces a collection of watches known as 'The Ultimate Timepieces."

To celebrate the 50th anniversary of The Wizard of Oz, Ronald Winston re-creates Dorothy's red shoes in precious rubies.

1990 : Harry Winston creates the Centennial Tiara, comprised of seven fancy colored diamonds weighing 100 carats.

1995 : Harry Winston introduces the Perpetual Biretrograde Calendar timepiece, positioning the House of Harry Winston as an innovator in the esteemed Swiss tradition of complicated horology.

1997 : The Harry Winston Gallery at the Smithsonian Institution opens with the Hope Diamond as its centerpiece.
Harry Winston becomes the only jeweler to have a museum gallery in its name.

1998 : Harry Winston opens in Osaka, Japan.

1999 : Gwyneth Paltrow, in a real life "princess moment," wears a Harry Winston Princess Necklace to win her Academy Award. The firm's princess design is acclaimed by the media worldwide.

2001 : Harry Winston introduces Opus 1, a resonance chronometer designed by Francois-Paul Journe, which makes headlines for its unprecedented technology and innovation as an Haute Horlogerie project. Halle Berry, wearing Winston's Pumpkin Diamond ring, a rare orange gem, becomes the first African-American woman to win an Academy Award for Best Actress.

2004 : Aber Diamond Corporation purchases a majority interest in Harry Winston, Inc., combining the strategic 'bookends' of the diamond business-- mining and retail. The house regains possession of the legendary Lesotho I, a 71.73 carat flawless emerald cut diamond with a beautiful champagne hue. Harry Winston continues its worldwide expansion, opening salons in Las Vegas and Taipei. Richard Avedon photographs an advertising campaign for Harry Winston with Angelica Houston, Julie Delpy, Mena Suvari, Cecilia Dean and Malgosia. It is his last commercial work.

2005 : Harry Winston opens new salons in Miami and Honolulu.

2006 : Famed architect Thierry Despont redesigns the Harry Winston Salon in Beverly Hills. Harry Winston opens in London, Dallas and Omotesando, Tokyo. Aber acquires 100% ownership of Harry Winston.

2007 : Harry Winston commemorates its fifth year of providing the award for cinematic excellence at the Taormina film festival. Salons open in Beijing, Chicago and Hong Kong.

2008 : Harry Winston opens a new salon at South Coast Plaza, in Orange County, California and a watch boutique in Shanghai.

2009 : The New York Collection debuts, celebrating the unsurpassable style, spirit, and glamour of Manhattan. Winston opens its 19th global retail salon in Singapore. Harry Winston celebrates the Hope Diamond by designing a new setting for the legendary gem.