An independent magazine of high jewelry & watches: the great maisons, the famous stones, and the people behind them.
Every great jewel has two lives. The first is the one we see: the flash of a stone under light, the line of a necklace against the skin. The second is the one we rarely hear about: the mine it came from, the hands that cut it, the vault where it waited, the auction room where it changed everything.
The Carat Post exists for that second life. Each issue opens the archive of a single maison, from Place Vendôme to Fifth Avenue to Via Condotti, and follows the founders, designers, clients and craftsmen who turned metal and stone into legend.
Between issues, we write about the legendary stones themselves: the diamonds, rubies and emeralds whose journeys read like novels, and whose prices have rewritten the record books.
We are independently owned. We welcome partnerships with maisons, watchmakers, auction houses and luxury retailers through clearly labeled sponsored stories, features and affiliate links. When you buy through some of our links, we may earn a commission, at no extra cost to you. Paid content is always marked Sponsored or In Partnership, and our editorial judgment is never for sale.
A partner may open the vault. The story is still ours to tell.
The Editor
Meet the Editor
Eleven years at the bench
From La Chaux-de-Fonds to Basel to Mexico: Karina, the watchmaker behind The Carat Post.
Before The Carat Post was a masthead, it was a workbench. Our founding editor, Karina, began her career eleven years ago inside Corum in La Chaux-de-Fonds, the Swiss mountain town where watchmaking is less an industry than a way of life. There she learned the discipline of the craft: taking a movement apart wheel by wheel, and putting it back together under a loupe.
That training opened the doors to the wider world of haute horlogerie. She walked the halls of Baselworld, where the great houses once unveiled their most important pieces of the year, from grand complications to high jewelry. In Mexico, she attended SIAR, the Salón Internacional de Alta Relojería, where maisons such as Audemars Piguet present their collections to the region’s collectors.
In October 2025 she returned to SIAR México, held at the St. Regis in Mexico City, where she attended Bvlgari’s presentation. There she saw the Serpenti Pallini Secret Watch – México Special Edition up close: Bvlgari’s tribute to Frida Kahlo, unveiled at SIAR 2025 and made in only three pieces.
Her curiosity has since turned from the movement to the stone. Karina is now studying gemology with the Gemological Institute of America (GIA), and in September 2026 completed its Colored Stone Essentials course through the GIA Professional Development Division, bringing the same eye for detail from the escapement to the ruby, the emerald and the sapphire.
Why The Carat Post
After eleven years inside the industry, Karina saw how much of its real story never reaches the public. Brands announce the novelty and auction houses publish the result, but the craft, the history and the people in between are too often left out. Collectors deserved better than press releases, and the pieces deserved better than price tags.
So she started The Carat Post: an independent journal written from the inside, with a collector’s eye and a watchmaker’s hands. When we write about a movement, a stone or an auction record, we write as people who have held these pieces and opened the casebacks, and who understand what makes them matter.
Contact the Editor
Karina reads every message personally: story tips, corrections, collector questions and press. Write to editor@the-carat-post.com.
The Carat Post is based in Florida, USA
Credentials, stated precisely
- Experience: 11 years in fine watches, beginning as a watchmaker at Corum, with work at Baselworld and SIAR.
- Completed: GIA Colored Stone Essentials (September 2026).
- In progress: gemology studies with GIA.
- Not held: Karina is not a GIA Graduate Gemologist, a certified gemologist or an independent appraiser, and nothing on this site is an appraisal.
- Role: founding editor of The Carat Post, which she writes and edits.
How Karina evaluates a recommendation
Every commercial recommendation says how it was judged. Unless an article says otherwise, pieces are evaluated from the retailer’s published specifications and the laboratory grading information on the listing, on the date shown, and compared with other pieces available at the same price. Karina does not claim to have inspected a piece in person unless the article says she did; stories based on first-hand reporting carry the label Reported in Person. Affiliate commissions never decide which piece is chosen or how it ranks. The full rules are in our editorial standards and why you can trust our recommendations.
Buying guides by Karina
- The best fine jewelry from $5,000–$10,000
- Natural versus lab-grown diamonds: prices, resale and which to buy
- The diamond 4Cs explained
- How much to spend on an engagement ring
- Diamond stud earrings: carat size, settings and cost
- What a watchmaker checks before you buy a pre-owned watch
- All buying guides
What we cover
I.
Maison Histories
How the great houses of Paris, New York and Rome came to be, and the icons that defined them.
II.
Legendary Stones
The diamonds and gems whose journeys, owners and auction records read like novels.
III.
The Craft
Settings, cuts and the artisans who make the impossible look effortless.
IV.
The People
Designers, collectors and the clients who made jewels famous.
Planning a purchase of your own? Start with The Carat Post’s fine jewelry buying guides, or see our selection of the best fine jewelry from $5,000–$10,000.