By the 1950’s, following the invention of the plastic button and the destruction caused by overfishing, the region’s pearl industry reached near extinction. Yet Nicholas remained undeterred. Learning of the success Japan was having with cultivating pearls, he sought out tactical guidance from Japanese experts and continued to develop techniques with a focus on quality, quickly becoming the chief steward of the trade.

Throughout the painstaking process of creating a single pearl, Paspaley carefully safeguards the environments that produce these sublime gems. First, Paspaley divers off the remote shores of Australia’s Kimberly coast hand pick each wild, Pinctada Maxima oyster, then returning them to “nurseries” in an open patch of ocean floor. In order to ensure long-term sustainability of the industry, the number of oysters that are harvested at any one time is strictly limited.

Next comes the critical process of seeding, which takes place aboard the brand’s state of the art pearling vessel, the MV Paspaley 4. With artful precision, Paspaley technicians delicately plant a polished sphere made from mussel shell into each oyster, before returning them to the depths of the sea and nurturing them to thrive for a 2-6 year period.

When harvested, the pearls are graded on a scale of exacting standards, which the company refers to as The Five Virtues, lustre, complexion, color, shape and size.

Classic strands of white pearls are given a contemporary edginess with a studied mixture of shapes, while round pearls encased in delicate, 18k gold netting evoke images of the antique glass buoys that once marked the brand’s pearl beds.

The fully articulated wings of a cicada can open and close around its pink pearl body in Paspaley’s Blushing Cicada Pearl Pedant, and opera length strands of baroque pearls evoke beachy vibes of the Australian coast.