Tiffany releases its ‘gravity defying’ diamond

This week Tiffany & Co debuted the new Titan Setting, which creates the illusion of a hovering diamond. The effect is possible thanks to the Floeting “platform”, a patented creation from a New Zealand jewellery company that includes a micro-engineered round brilliant diamond and its accompanying mounting, set without prongs or bezels.

“The diamond appears to sort of defy gravity,” says Floeting’s co-inventor Chris Benham, speaking from Wellington.

The launch is the latest effort from the LVMH-owned house to elevate its standing in the high-end jewellery segment, where its promise has been slow to materialise despite the French conglomerate’s investment in its rebranding since 2021. The LVMH group does not report individual brand performance, but sales of its watches and jewellery division struggled to perform in 2024, closing the year with revenues down 2 per cent over 2023 on an organic basis. Despite an improvement in Tiffany’s performance, investment in the category weighed on operating profit.

Under LVMH, Tiffany in 2023 unveiled a complete redesign of its Manhattan flagship store, which has been described as “the biggest investment in the history of luxury”, and a number of collaborations with names such as Supreme, Fendi, Nike and Beyoncé. The Titan Setting itself is part of a new instalment of the Titan collection, a collaboration with Louis Vuitton men’s creative director, recording artist and producer Pharrell Williams that the house debuted last year.


Tiffany is the first jewellery house to use the Floeting platform, which took 17 years to perfect, with input from science and gemstone laboratories, and even an ex-Formula One engineer. The stone that comes with it features 89 facets, about 50 per cent more than your average round brilliant diamond, and ultra-precise micro grooves to connect the setting.

The development of the first round brilliant diamond is credited to Belgian diamantaire Marcel Tolkowsky in 1919, and the cut has long been Tiffany’s wheelhouse — its patented Tiffany setting engagement ring features a round brilliant diamond held by six prongs. But the shape today has become increasingly indistinguishable in the market and a harder sell as consumers seek more interesting and unusual fancy cut stones.