Britt’s Pick: Jake Matluck’s Magnum Opus Aquamarine Necklace

By Brittany Siminitz | August 24, 2026

On my trip to the recent Melee show, I came across a number of memorable jewels (you can read about the trends I spotted here). But no piece has taken up more space in my brain than this necklace from Jake Matluck.

A wave of Montana sapphires at the show led me to assume that this, too, must contain the in-demand gem, but not so. Imagine the surprise when my team and I learned that the stones set into this special piece were not sapphire, but aquamarine.

Not just any aquamarine, as it turns out. The necklace’s 26 stones were cut from a single vein in Zambia, a lesser-known source for the gem that Matluck says can yield material rivaling the aquamarines for which Brazil has historically been prized.

“Beyond the source, the stones were cut by one of my color stone partners, who specializes in sourcing the highest-quality rough and then cutting everything in-house by hand,” Matluck says. “The lapidary work is second to none in all their work, but this set in particular is really quite stunning. The extraordinary cutting is what really brings out the stone’s natural color.”

That color is remarkable: a deep, saturated blue worlds away from the pale, watery hue many consumers associate with aquamarine. And therein lies an opportunity for jewelers, according to Matluck.

“Aquamarine has long been thought of as a semiprecious, less desirable stone, largely because paler varieties are found in much higher volumes,” he says. “But stones with this level of saturation are far rarer and don’t often come to market.”

The discovery of enough remarkably well-matched stones to create an entire necklace might sound like a painstaking feat of sourcing, but Matluck admits there was some serendipity involved. The parcel was offered only as a complete set of 26 stones—and once he saw them together, there was no question of separating them.

“Splitting them into smaller pieces felt like a disservice to the stones,” he says. “They deserved to stay together, just as they were found in the rough.”

And so they became a rivière—a distinctly Matluck one.

Jake Matluck Magnum Opus necklace — *The aquamarines set into Jake Matluck’s Magnum Opus necklace are a vivid blue, paired with a combination of old European– and old mine–cut diamonds.*

A bench jeweler who fabricates everything in his collection, Matluck has a deep interest in historical goldsmithing techniques. For this necklace, he looked to the rivière necklaces popularized in the mid–18th century, which were often made in silver-topped gold with cut-down collets.

Here, the aquamarines are set in patinated sterling silver collets and connected by hand-fabricated 22k yellow gold jump rings. The box clasp features an oval diamond and a tiny 1.7 mm old European–cut diamond at the push.

“For me, authenticity and honoring historic craft is paramount,” Matluck says. “I think you have to use the same techniques the originals did, otherwise that sensibility misses the mark.”

Yet there’s nothing particularly old-fashioned about the finished jewel. That’s perhaps what made it so arresting in that Melee display case in the first place.

“The shocking blue of the aquamarines, laid out tip to tip, feels distinctly modern, while the construction, craft, references, and old mine–cut diamonds honor historic precedent,” he says.

It’s also a compelling example of what can happen when a jeweler takes a gemstone that customers think they know and gives them a reason to look at it again.

“Customers and retailers alike are always looking for something new and exciting, and sometimes that ‘new’ thing is really a reinterpretation of something that already existed but now with a different, distinct point of view,” Matluck says.

He sees that desire extending well beyond aquamarine. Through his custom business, Matluck says clients increasingly seek stones and materials that feel unique, authentic, and singular—from natural conch pearls to Panjshir Valley emeralds and lesser-known deposits of otherwise familiar gems.

“When I’m sourcing, I’m looking for whatever stands out,” he says. “Usually for me that is the highest-quality material available, or a stone with unique properties but often only available in small quantities and sometimes just a single stone.”

That philosophy is also why so much of Matluck’s work is one of a kind. And when lightning strikes and he does find an exceptional group of stones? He’d rather let them tell their story together.

“I rarely find stones I love in volume,” he says, “and when I do, I try to keep the parcel together.”

In the case of these 26 extraordinary aquamarines, thank goodness he did.

Top: Magnum Opus necklace in patinated sterling silver and 18k and 22k yellow gold with 7.22 cts. t.w. vivid blue aquamarines and 3 cts. t.w. old European–cut and old mine–cut diamonds, price on request; Jake Matluck