It’s not often that I have a visceral reaction to a product I see advertised. But flipping through a jewelry magazine one day, I came across an ad on the back page for men’s wedding bands that simply took my breath away.
I have both a technical (engineering) and a creative background so the slogan “Where Architecture Meets Art…” spoke volumes to me. I could immediately see the beauty and clarity of the lines, both satisfying in structure and design.
The Carlex line of men’s rings was established in 2008 as part of the CrownRing stable. Intended as a wedding band, I could see these rings also being worn for the sheer beauty of the pieces. Carlex themselves are encouraging potential customers to include their architectural line of rings in their choices for a special “right hand” ring.
While they were originally promoted as jewelry for men, many women would be as enchanted with the rings as I am. The rings are decidedly unisex, with designs that range from tough and masculine, to clean and softer lines that would fit beautifully on any woman’s hand.
Of course, in terms of the special day, men do make up 90% of the customer base for matrimonial jewelry, so it made sense to bring out a strong line of wedding rings intended for the groom.
In the visualization stage of the exclusive line Thierry Bellisha, the creative genius behind Carlex, evaluated what jewelry men are most likely to favor.
“We wanted to create a really sleek wedding ring for men…and I realized the one piece of jewelry a man wears with confidence is a wrist watch.”
Taking Rolex and Cartier as being highly desired brands in the world of watches, he was inspired to create a line of rings strongly reminiscent of watch bands from both companies. The result was “Carlex”, a distinctive collection of wedding rings designed to “[pay] homage to these two iconic labels”.
The materials used and the transference of the design shapes to a different medium give the rings a decidedly modern, cutting edge industrial look. There is a solid feel, a circle that is strong enough to endure the strains put on the average marriage.
New technology has made possible the exacting architecture of the rings. Carlex uses specialized machinery that can be programmed to perform all the tasks required to cut and polish individual rings with precision. Each unit costs $750,000.00 and Carlex shares five of them with their mother company CrownRing. This state-of-the-art machinery represented a huge financial risk for the company, but it has turned out to be the wisest decision that Bellisha and his partner Haimy Mann (founders of CrownRing and Carlex) could have made.
The Carlex collection has been a success both nationally and internationally. While 100 dealers currently carry the line, the goal is to place the rings in at least 250 of the 500 retail stores already handling CrownRing’s products by the year 2012. To achieve this goal Carlex is launching an aggressive marketing campaign, so expect to become very familiar with these rings.
And don’t just think of them in terms of weddings, every ring in this collection is like a wearable sculpture that will leave a lasting impression no matter what the occasion.
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