Red diamonds are the brightest stars of jewellery sale

Diamonds, coloured stones, jadeite and antique watches worth more than HK$326 million will be up for auction next week. The jewellery sale consists of more than 300 pieces which are expected to sell for more than HK$310 million.

Quek Chin Yeow, head of Sotheby's Hong Kong jewellery department and deputy chairman of Sotheby's Asia, said the auction house wanted to offer diamonds, gemstones and jewellery in Hong Kong to reflect the strong Asian market trends from last year, particularly for diamonds and coloured diamonds.

Auction highlights include a pair of red diamonds, and diamond and natural pearl pendant earrings, worth HK$8.6 million to HK$10 million. Diamonds with a predominantly red colour are rare and more so when a pair matches in colour, shape and size. The red diamonds weigh 0.93-carat and 0.82-carat and are 'of exceedingly red colour saturation', according to Sotheby's.

The auction house said the diamonds were the first pair of such colour and symmetry to be analysed and graded by the independent Gubelin Gemmological Laboratory of Switzerland.

The jadeite section includes a translucent emerald green pendant from the 1940s. The pendant is carved as a pepper, a symbol of wealth and fortune in Chinese culture. The Chinese pronunciation of the word pepper is also said to indicate an affluent life.

The pendant, which is valued between HK$4 million and HK$5 million, is from the private collection of a prominent Chinese family in Southeast Asia. The Important Watches sale is divided into two themes: Exceptional Private Collections, which features more than 115 complicated watches drawn from private collectors and watch connoisseurs in the Asia-Pacific, and Important Watches. The latter consists largely of Patek Philippe watches, as well as timepieces from well-known watchmakers, including Cartier, Piaget and Vacheron Constantin.