Why mixing metals is making a comeback on watches and jewellery: Cartier refreshes its Trinity design, Bulgari collaborates with K-pop star Lisa of Blackpink … and for Rolex, it never went away

For Marie-Laure Cérède, creative director of watches and jewellery at Cartier, it was no mean feat to tinker with a design as recognisable as the Cartier Trinity. Last year marked the 100th anniversary of the deceptively simple design: three intertwined bands of white, rose and yellow gold, worn by everyone from Jean Cocteau to Grace Kelly.

As Cérède told journalists at celebrations in Paris, it is “hard to reinvent an icon, something that’s already perfect”.

“When we thought about redesigning Trinity, we realised that it wouldn’t be easy. It’s an icon because it’s perfect and Trinity is very unique in its signature, so we started asking ourselves what the fundamentals of Trinity are: three intertwined bands. But what are the other fundamentals of this ring, besides the meaning? Everyone plays with it, like a fidget toy, so we wanted to keep that and also to say something else [ ... but] not something completely different from what already exists.”

While the maison introduced new shapes for the Trinity, including a square cushion-shaped ring, the harmony of the mixed metals remains.

Cartier isn’t the only jeweller to play with mixed metals. Some, such as Los Angeles-based Spinelli Kilcollin, have made it their signature with linked rings in seemingly endless combinations of silver, shades of gold and precious stones, worn by everyone from Meryl Streep to Emily Ratajkowski.

The trend speaks to a shift towards value over volume, and perhaps too an evolution of tastes. After all, two-tone watches were big in the 1980s, and that much-maligned era has made a triumphant return in both watchmaking and fashion.