It was the Duchess of Windsor who, in 1938, first suggested to Renée Puissant, Van Cleef & Arpels’ ­then–­artistic director, that the maison create a piece based on the humble zipper. It took the atelier more than a decade to debut the zipperlike Collier Fermeture Eclair, a flexible jewel that could be converted from a necklace to a bracelet. This circa-2012 zipper necklace, featuring a ribbon set with bright pink sapphires, is a dazzling riff on the original. It sold at an April 7 Sotheby’s auction in Hong Kong—following fervent bidding that nudged the final purse to $484,777,