Van Cleef & Arpels Paysage d’Opal clip from the Cal­i­for­nia Rêverie collection

As I walked along sunny Fifth Avenue yes­ter­day, tourists from around the world chat­ted away in every lan­guage, and busi­ness­men slowed their quick­ened pace just to get an extra minute in the warmth before head­ing up to their air-conditioned offices. Buses lum­bered and taxis zipped by; a smil­ing face floats away and a blur of yel­low fol­lows it. The sound of honk­ing horns, in sharp, uneven tones, wafts in the back­ground. It is a typ­i­cal Man­hat­tan afternoon.

Then I entered the VCA flag­ship at 744 Fifth Avenue, where I was lead up to the mez­za­nine, and asked if I wanted sparkling or flat water. As I sipped my bub­bly selec­tion, I was lead to a case that housed the clip you see above. The Ethiopian opal weighs 100.11 carats. It is a tour-de-force metaphor mounted in gems and metal: the sun sets, palm trees sway in the breeze, the ocean’s blue water and white foam caress the land­scape — we aren’t in Kansas any­more, Toto. Not even in New York City.

Some­how I’ve arrived in Cal­i­for­nia, yet nei­ther Hol­ly­wood nor Bev­erly Hills. I’m in the Cal­i­for­nia as seen through the lens of Ansel Adams when he pho­tographed Yosemite, or some­one explor­ing the wide open, and well-preserved parks that the local gov­ern­ment saw fit to pro­tect for pos­ter­ity — the state where cac­tus bloom, and pop­pies blos­som, and painted with VCA’s magic brush in multi-colored sap­phires or chal­cedony and dia­monds. This new col­lec­tion, enti­tled Cal­i­for­nia Rêverie, goes boldly west and takes us on a tour of the lyri­cal and evoca­tive places and organic trea­sures that define the left coast of the United States. Some motifs are dreamy con­coc­tions of fan­tasy, or taken from iconic archi­tec­ture, and still oth­ers, plucked from the wilds of nature. All of it is remarkable.

The col­lec­tion will be launched offi­cially in October.

Next week, the Jew­el­ers of Amer­ica show…