History:Originally established in 1879,Backes & Strauss is the one of the oldest diamond merchants in the world. In the year of the French Revolution, Georg Carl Backes, the founding father of the company, was first registered as a goldsmith in Hanau, Germany. In 1814, his son Johann Franz opened a branch office in London at 10 Hatton Garden. Even though the building no longer exists, the B&S Group still has offices in Hatton Garden.Max Strauss, the second founding father, entered the London office in 1856. Fifteen years later he was managing J.F. Backes & Co. and two years later the company started trading as BACKES & STRAUSS. Today, a Backes & Strauss bracelet decorated with a classical Assyrian design is exhibited at the British Museum in London. Manufacturing activities in Great Britain started in 1877. In 1892, the activities were redirected from manufacturing to the trade of diamonds and precious stones. Today, the B&S Group is known amongst global high jewellers and finest watchmakers as suppliers of the finest polished diamonds.
The ostrich as trademark:Ever since Max Strauss joined the company at the beginning of the 19th century, the ostrich was used as trademark on all Backes & Strauss creations. As a matter of fact the German word “strauss” means ostrich. The ostrich remains to this day the symbol of the brand.
DIAMONDS
In its long history, Backes & Strauss has built its renown among the most prestigious clients worldwide as the experts in polishing and cutting of high quality diamonds. Today, the company’s proficiency lies predominantly in the Ideal Cut.
The Ideal Cut:Mathematician Marcel Tolkowsky was the first to discover the exact angles to which a diamond must be cut in order to produce maximum brilliance. In an Ideal Cut, all of the light that enters the stone refracts internally from 57 precisely placed facets and disperses through the top of the diamond, producing maximum fire and brilliance. The Ideal Cut diamond remains the undisputed “king of cut” in the diamond world. If the diamond is shallow or deep, light escapes from the diamond and its brilliance is affected. This cut follows the strict proportions prescribed by Marcel Tolkowsky. Polishers at Backes & Strauss have perfected the ideal cut and are able to obtain the best cut for the maximum beauty and brilliance of the diamond.
Hearts and Arrows:The proof of Backes & Strauss’s expertise in diamond cutting is the Hearts and Arrows pattern shown by each Backes & Strauss diamond when viewed with a special instrument called ‘Hearts and Arrows viewer’. The pattern is a series of eight arrowheads when viewed from above the crown with one eye and eight heart shapes when viewed from below the pavilion. The Hearts & Arrows viewer (included in each Backes & Strauss watch box) is merciless when it comes to detecting any deviation from perfection.
Hearts and Arrows diamonds are the ultimate, most magnificent and brilliant Ideal Cut diamonds. The team of expert diamond cutters and polishers at Backes & Strauss takes extensive care to manually polish each diamond to perfection, a skill they have refined in over 200 years of the company existence. Each natural diamond is planned, cut and polished in an effort that requires hundreds of hours of meticulous work. Almost 50% of the rough diamond is lost in the achievement of the perfectly polished Backes & Strauss diamond.
WATCH MAKING
Backes & Strauss, the Masters of Diamonds, joined forces with the masters of watchmaking for its first watch collection. All Backes & Strauss timepieces are manufactured in the Franck Muller workshops in Switzerland. The Franck Muller Group is renowned worldwide for its innovative spirit and technical brilliance; it is on of the remaining manufactures that conceives, produces and assembles the entirety of its watch components in Switzerland. Every element of every Backes & Strauss timepiece is produced in-house and every watch is carefully assembled by a dedicated team in the Franck Muller Watchland workshops.A master diamond cutter and a master watchmaker share the same mathematical precision, the same combination of art and science, and the same manual dexterity. From the meeting of these two ancient crafts the first Backes &Strauss watch collection was created. It is the remarkable combination of the crafts of watchmaking and diamond-cutting that makes Backes & Strauss the ultimate diamond watch company.
DIAMOND ELEMENTS IN THE WATCH
Jewel in the Crown:Every Backes & Strauss watch has at least one diamond, which is set in the crown.
Dial:
• A special stamping was designed in line with the diamond theme – the diamond stamping – which is unique to the Backes & Strauss dials.
• Every numeral and index is polished by hand and carefully applied to the dial paralleling the hand-polishing and setting of a diamond.
• The pyramids marking the seconds (five by five) on the dial are also reminiscent of a polished diamond.
Backes & Strauss watches draw heavily on the London heritage. In the early 19th century,when Georg Backes established his company in London, the British capital was already a cosmopolitan centre buzzing with activity. The Backes & Strauss family followed with interest the advances in technology and transportation that allowed the expansion of the British Empire. A marine chronometer, the instrument invented by John Harrison which allowed to determine latitude and hence the conquest of the high seas, was part of the Backes & Strauss private collection. This unique piece is exhibited in the Backes & Strauss showroom in London.The fi rst three collections – The Regent, The Berkeley and The Piccadilly – celebrate three landmarks of London, Regent Street, Berkeley Square and Piccadilly Circus. The Backes & Strauss designers studied closely the work of the famous 19th architect John Nash, who designed Regent Street, Regent’s Park, St. James’ Park and Marylebone Park. The same classical proportions can be seen in the sweeping curves and bold symmetry of the three collections.
The Backes & Strauss London showroom:The Backes & Strauss showroom represents the temple of the brand. It is located at 30 St. James’ Street, in the chic area of London often referred to as “clubland” in that it is the home of many of the best-known gentlemen’s clubs. The Backes & Strauss showroom shares the same sense of intimacy, privacy and exclusivity that can be found in a traditional gentlemen’s club, except that it obviously welcomes a female clientele.Designed by English interior architect Suzy Hoodless, the Backes & Strauss showroom is quintessentially British. Its elegant yet cosy atmosphere will allow clients and journalists to really take the time to view the collection in an oasis of peace in central London. Any Backes & Strauss agent can bring or send their clients or journalists to the showroom, provided they book in advance. The interior decoration of the London showroom is conceived to be locally reproduced in order to pursue an architectural consistency all around the world.
Official website:www.backesandstrauss.com
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