No one need apologise for having filed pearls away, until now, in the – let’s say – conservative category. Pearls were worn with a certain style; during the boom of the last century’s second half, the single-strand pearl necklace went with the two-piece suit like the nodding-dog on the parcel shelf of an Audi 80 – and only felt appropriate from a certain age.
Only pearl studs were somehow timeless. Even young women from the golf and sailing set, in polo shirts under a blazer and loafers with slim trousers, looked distinguished in such earrings – a class apart. That stars like Grace Kelly or Audrey Hepburn wore pearls was fine, it was part of their elegant status. But women like you and me, in pearls every day? No.
That has changed massively. Why, and whether wearing or gifting pearls is an option today, we discussed with none other than Europe’s largest direct importer of cultured pearls: Jörg Gellner. We meet the German-born dealer at his home in the Zurich area; he has just flown in from Hong Kong, business sending the savvy businessman all around the globe. Despite the jet lag he’s in good spirits – pearl prices are soaring, it will be a good year for the globally operating trader. His parents Tove and Heinz Gellner once founded the business: the father, originally a jewellery sales rep, was eventually allowed to sell pearls on his own account, founded his company in 1967 and carved out a firm place in the pearl trade.
That the son, Jörg, would one day take over the firm was far from obvious. The lad was fairly open-minded, had attended a business-focused grammar school and was keenly interested in economics as such. He pictured something in banking or tax – but take over the family business in those shimmering treasures? It sounded boring.
So what did make you join the family business after all?
Jörg Gellner: It was the time of the fall of the Wall, I was on semester break, and none of my father’s sales reps really wanted to go east and do business there. I said: let me do it – and in East Germany I rather got a taste for it. I was successful, and it was real fun. Then my father was diagnosed early with Parkinson’s and, by the mid-1990s, was no longer in good shape. The firm wasn’t doing well either, so I interrupted my studies for a year to put structures in place. I still wrote my diploma thesis, but I was thrown right into the business. For me it was the right path – I told myself I had nothing to lose anyway.
How did you pull off the turnaround for Gellner?
Jörg Gellner: Until then we were a trading house, also buying jewellery in Asia. I cut that out and focused on design. The next step was to bypass all the trade levels and buy pearls directly from the farmers. That was decisive – we were pioneers back then and rose to become Europe’s largest direct importer of South Sea pearls. Today, by buying South Sea pearls, we support pearl farming as a particularly sustainable form of active environmental protection.
And the jewellery you offer under your own name – do you design it yourself?
Jörg Gellner: I’m fully involved in the design process, many ideas come from me – but I can’t draw. The execution is handled by our workshop manager and his team.
They say you have the world’s most expensive pearl necklace in your range?
Jörg Gellner: The first high-end necklace, from 2007, had pearls 18 to 22 millimetres in diameter – very rare sizes. It sold in Stuttgart for 1.2 million euros. After that we made another, which went to Dubai for about a million. Now we have one, «Maxima», priced at 2.5 million – prices have risen enormously. It hasn’t been sold yet.
Why are pearls rising so much in value right now?
Jörg Gellner: Because the Chinese in particular are buying pearls like mad. But you can’t simply ramp up production as you could with a Rolex, even if you wanted to. A pearl is a slowly renewable raw material: it takes five years before you can harvest one. The oyster needs three years before the nucleus is implanted, and the pearl another two to grow. In some oysters a second implantation with a larger nucleus follows; after another two years you have a much bigger pearl. In this final cycle the oyster dies and is processed further – into cosmetics, for instance; the flesh is eaten, the mother-of-pearl becomes jewellery.
Are pearls still found in the wild?
Jörg Gellner: You practically have to open 10,000 oysters to find one natural pearl – that’s not ecologically sound. Queen Elizabeth I was an absolute pearl fanatic: she employed 40,000 pearl divers in the Persian Gulf who did nothing but dive for oysters and find pearls for her. Until the early 20th century, pearls – so rare in nature – were reserved for royal houses.
Is it a good idea today for a man to give a woman pearls?
Jörg Gellner: For me the pearl is the only jewel that has life. You have to hold a pearl once – it feels really good, not like dead matter, like stone or gold. And it’s the only jewel that already comes perfect; I don’t have to cut anything. Pearls are magical, and women who love pearls feel the same. I sense that it’s precisely the young, those in their 20s and 30s, who are finding their way back to the very classic white pearl necklace – simply in a far more contemporary design. In general, though, I find it hard for a man to give jewellery: women like to have a say in what they wear.
In your current campaign, men wear pearl jewellery too. Is that just your idea, or is it really so?
Jörg Gellner: The world of cultured pearls is colourful – there are wonderful large pearls in rich, mysteriously shimmering hues, from deep green through bronze-brown to metallic blue and warm aubergine tones. Men like to wear pearls as a bracelet. But there’s also a class of men who want to wear pearl necklaces.
You yourself too?
Jörg Gellner: I wear pearls on my wrist – and always one in my trouser pocket as a lucky charm!
Gellner pearl jewellery isn’t exactly cheap …
Jörg Gellner: The prices are in a range that’s normal here in Switzerland. We don’t do costume jewellery. And we produce everything in Germany.
How do you commute between Switzerland and Germany? By car?
Jörg Gellner: At first I drove back and forth in my BMW 5 Series, then I bought my dream car, a 911 Targa – but with it I was constantly stuck in traffic, in Sindelfingen or Zurich. I think in black and white, I don’t like the middle ground. So I took a car break, travelled by train for four or five years, and when I needed a car, car-sharing. Now I’ve bought myself a Tesla 3. For me it’s not a car in the classic sense but the product of a software company on wheels, a means of getting about. I’m a tech freak, I always need the latest computer. The Tesla drives me almost autonomously from here to Pforzheim – very relaxing, I can unwind beautifully while driving.
Everything about the world of the farmers from whom Jörg Gellner buys pearls exclusively, and whom he visits regularly: gellner.com. The jewellery is available at selected jewellers and in his own boutique, Gellner & Friends, on Zurich’s Strehlgasse, which also carries seven other jewellery brands.
This article appeared in MEN issue 2/23 (November 2023).
