Master Setter · 19 years at the bench
Camille R.
Leads the setting department. Trained at the École Boulle, joined the atelier in 2005, sets the majority of our bridal solitaires by hand.
Maison fondée à Lyon · 1986
The Atelier,
Vieux Lyon.
A working studio where every piece is still sketched, set, and polished under one roof — thirty-seven winters, one bench.
Chapter I · 1986
From a single bench on Rue Saint-Jean.
Henri Collet opened the doors on a winter morning in November 1986 — a single bench, three drawers of stock, and the conviction that a piece of jewelry should outlive the hand that made it. He rented the ground floor of a stone building in Vieux Lyon, two streets back from the Saône, and began teaching himself the bench practice that the Lyon jewelry quarter had refined over four centuries.
There were no clients waiting, no investor deck, no wholesale channel. There was a workshop, a sketchbook, and a list — kept in pencil in a drawer that is still in the studio — of the women and men who had trusted him with an engagement, an anniversary, a quiet gift.
Thirty-seven years later, every piece in our catalog is still sketched, cast, set, and polished under this one roof. We have grown — twenty-eight hands at the bench now, a gemological team, an apprenticeship hall — but we have not moved. The cobblestones outside the door are the same; the north-facing window light is the same; the discipline of one maker, one piece, one final polish has not changed.
This is not a brand that licenses its name to a workshop in another city. It is a working studio, and what you order from us is made by the people profiled further down this page, in the building you can visit at 12 Rue Saint-Jean.
Continuity · 1986 — present
Thirty-seven years, one roof.
A compressed history of a maison that has measured its growth in decades, not quarters.
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I.
1986
The bench opens.
Henri Collet founds the atelier at 12 Rue Saint-Jean, Vieux Lyon, with a single bench and a sketchbook.
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II.
1992
The flagship opens.
The ground-floor boutique begins receiving clients by appointment — the same doorway still in service today.
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III.
2003
The apprenticeship hall.
The studio formalises its apprenticeship program. Forty-seven jewelers trained through it in the two decades since.
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IV.
2014 — 2023
Provenance, documented.
RJC member since 2014; Chain-of-Custody certified in Q2 2019; recognised in Robb Report's Best of the Best, 2023.
The Workshop · 28 hands
Twenty-eight hands, one bench.
The team is small on purpose. Every order passes through at least four pairs of hands before it leaves the studio, and each of those hands is named on the inside cover of the bench ledger.
GIA Graduate Gemologist · Sourcing
Étienne M.
Heads our gemological desk and our direct sourcing relationships in Sri Lanka, Colombia, and Madagascar. Every centre stone is selected, graded, and documented by him before it reaches a setting.
Head of Polish · 11 years at the bench
Léa B.
Joined the studio as an apprentice in 2013, now leads final polish on every piece that leaves the house — the last pair of hands to touch the metal before it is wrapped.
The bench jewelers on our team average fourteen years of trade experience. The youngest is in her third year of the apprenticeship program; the oldest has been at this bench since 1998.
Apprenticeship · Since 2003
“A craft is only as old as the next apprentice at the bench. We have trained forty-seven jewelers in this room since the program began — some still work beside us, others carry the discipline to maisons of their own. Either way, the bench is what we pass on.”
Provenance you can verify
The credentials we publish, with the dates attached.
A working studio earns its credentials one audit at a time. The four below are the ones we are most often asked about — every one is documented and verifiable on request.
RJC
Chain-of-Custody · Since Q2 2019
Member of the Responsible Jewelry Council since 2014; Chain-of-Custody certified from the second quarter of 2019 onward, covering the documented path of our recycled gold and platinum from refinery to bench.
Au
Fairmined & Recycled Gold
Ninety-two percent of our catalog is cast in certified recycled gold; the remaining eight percent — our heritage and bridal lines — uses Fairmined gold from certified artisanal sources.
GIA
GIA Graduate Gemologist on Staff
Our sourcing is led by an in-house GIA Graduate Gemologist with direct mine-to-bench relationships in Sri Lanka, Colombia, and Madagascar. Every centre stone is graded and documented before setting.
RR
Robb Report · Best of the Best, 2023
Recognised in the 2023 Robb Report Best of the Best under Independent Fine Jewelers. Cited for atelier continuity and direct mine-to-bench sourcing — the second time we have appeared in the annual.