The 1992 De Beers Diamonds International Award

Our Story · The Award

The 1992 De Beers Diamonds International Award.

A single design selected from 2,118 entries across 43 countries. Rakesh Khanna was the first Indian to win the award — recognised as the "Oscar" of the jewellery industry — presented by Mrs. Oppenheimer in Tokyo for this diamond cuff-bracelet, and covered as front-page news back home.

Rakesh Khanna holding the De Beers Diamonds International Award trophy, Tokyo

Rakesh Khanna with a De Beers representative, Tokyo award ceremony

Rakesh Khanna at the De Beers award exhibition, Tokyo

Tokyo, 28 January 1992

The night of the De Beers Diamonds International Award.

Rakesh Khanna received the award from Mrs. Oppenheimer in Tokyo — recognised as the "Oscar" of the jewellery industry — for an invisibly-set, ikat-patterned gold and black enamel cuff, a defining night for the house documented here alongside the winning piece itself.

The De Beers award-winning cuff bracelet, reflection detail

Making the De Beers award-winning cuff bracelet, hand enamelling

Making the Cuff

The same hands, the same pattern.

Decades after it won the De Beers award, the cuff's ikat pattern is still worked entirely by hand — black enamel laid stroke by stroke into channels invisible enough to let the diamonds appear to float.