Boucheron Brand
Boucheron Presents Its New, Innovative Capsule: "Quatre 5D Memory" Ring
Luxferity, 10.12.2024
There is nothing more precious than a memory. Nor anything more ephemeral. What would happen if we could capture these fleeting moments and preserve them forever? This year, Boucheron accomplished the feat of encapsulating the memory of water for billions of years within its jewelry icon. The Maison now unveils the “Quatre 5D Memory” ring, born of cutting-edge innovation serving a creative and artistic dream.
“‘Quatre 5D Memory’ perfectly embodies Boucheron’s vision of pushing boundaries. By succeeding in encapsulating an audio work within a jewelry design, we are exploring new territories of expression and opening up limitless realms of possibility. The “Quatre 5D Memory” ring becomes the vessel that holds a memory, an emotion, that is given to future generations.” - Hélène Poulit-Duquesne, CEO of Maison Boucheron
“Through the ‘Quatre 5D Memory’ ring, I wanted to encapsulate, for billions of years, a memory of my childhood spent by the ocean. This piece proves that we have still not reached the boundaries of jewelry, and we will continue to push to them, so as to fully express the strength of our creative vision.” - Claire Choisne, Creative Director
Purple Storm
Innovation in jewelry
Ever since the Maison was founded, Boucheron has stood out by its innovations. Claire Choisne, the Maison’s Creative Director, is following in the footsteps of Frédéric Boucheron by introducing new materials into the Carte Blanche collections, which question the meaning of preciousness.
To this end, the Maison has unveiled capsule editions every year since September 2020, applying this innovative approach specific to the Carte Blanche High Jewelry collections to its jewelry icons. Following the combination of denim and diamonds in 2020, the Holographique edition in 2021, Cofalit®* in 2022, and aluminum in 2023, Boucheron has now succeeded in encapsulating the memory of water inside its iconic Quatre ring.
*Cofalit® is a brand of the Europlasma Group
Encapsulating the memory of water
Having shared water’s preciousness in the 2024 Carte Blanche Or Bleu collection unveiled in Paris in late June, Claire Choisne now goes even further. If she had to choose only one memory of water to give to future generations, it would be the endless sound of the waves. The sound that was the lullaby of her childhood spent beside the Atlantic Ocean. As the vessel to hold this precious message, she chose the Quatre ring, which this year is celebrating its 20th anniversary.
The Maison collaborated with IRCAM (the French Institute for Acoustic/Music Research and Coordination) – Centre Pompidou to develop this unique score. IRCAM – Centre Pompidou is now one of world’s largest public research centers dedicated to musical creation and scientific research. It is in this singular institution, where artistic futurology dovetails with scientific and technological innovation, that the audio work was developed, in collaboration with Maison Boucheron.
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A technological feat serving a creative work
How is it possible to encapsulate this audio work inside the Quatre ring? By using an optical storage process for digital data, known as “5D memory”. An ultrafast nanostructuring technique invented by Peter Kazansky, Professor at the University of Southampton and the Chief Science Officer of SPhotonix whose technology is now adopted by a High Jewelry Maison for the first time. This makes it possible to encode, for billions of years, immense quantities of information in nanostructured glass, one composed of birefringent microscopic structures with features measuring just a few nanometers. This means that text, images, videos and sound can be engraved in the form of a binary code using a femtosecond laser, a laser which emits optical pulses with a duration of a just a few hundreds of femtoseconds (one femtosecond equals 10-15 seconds).
The key to reading data also involves light. By using polarized light illumination, the birefringent data points will change the polarization of the light passing through them. By viewing these changes using a polarized light microscope, the data can be read and translated into their original format.
Quatre: a time(less) capsule
For the Quatre ring, in part due to its size, 5D engraving made it possible to record up to 100 megabytes of data in the material, which will last for billions of years. This technology makes the “Quatre 5D Memory” ring a true time(less) capsule. The data is, in fact, protected by being written within the material, rather than on its surface.
Boucheron relied on an equally innovative material, Glassomer®, to achieve this tour de force. This silica glass possesses unique optical properties and was shaped in collaboration with the company of the same name to reproduce Quatre’s distinctive aesthetic. Being extremely sturdy and very transparent, it was clearly the ideal medium for this memory to last for billions of years. The Quatre ring’s patterns have been sculpted into the material, with the exception of the line of diamonds, set in white gold. The audio work developed by IRCAM – Centre Pompidou is located in the center of one of the motifs of the Clou de Paris.
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Hear the audio work
“Quatre 5D Memory” is much more than an innovative capsule version of this iconic ring. It holds an audio work that will endure for future generations who hold the key to this secret. Nevertheless, Boucheron will offer the chance to listen to this composition in an immersive sound experience at two exclusive events. There will first be a special preview of the “Quatre 5D Memory” ring in September 2024 in New York City, at an event celebrating Boucheron’s arrival in the United States. The official launch will then be held at 26 Place Vendôme in Paris, Boucheron’s original location.
