Fine Jewelry Made in Our Own Atelier

Built From the Bench Up

I founded Aquae Jewels in Dubai in 2013. I had been travelling across Asia, learning to read precious and semi-precious stones, and I wanted to settle somewhere that stayed international. Dubai was the city that fit.

I began with a few minimalist designs. They sold — and that is the point where most brands hand production to an outside workshop. I did the opposite, and built my own.

The reason was control, and it has not changed since. Every stage, from the first sketch to the final polish, happens under one roof in Dubai. Nothing is subcontracted, nothing is ordered from a catalogue of someone else's castings. When you ask what a piece is made of, the answer comes from the people who made it — and from me.

That is also how you end up with clients rather than customers. AlMaha has been with us for more than ten years and owns over thirty pieces; another client bought her first in 2017 and still wears it. They are the reason the workshop exists in this form.

Jewellery runs further back in my family than I knew: a great-grandfather kept a shop in the centre of Prague. I found him in a family tree, three generations after the trade had left us.

Catherine Klastersky — Founder, Aquae Jewels