The Bite Magazine - Spring/Summer 2020 - Issue 27

Jada Brookes gets her mind blown away by the exquisite high-end luxury diamond and gem-encrusted timepieces from legendary and renowned English jewellery brand Backes & Strauss. bite watches The Exquisite Piece A s the world’s oldest diamond company, Back- es & Strauss had much to celebrate last year when they reached their 230th anniversary. With a wealth of heritage and know-how as well as hundreds of years in diamond expertise, this renowned company has built its reputation among the most prestigious clients worldwide. They are also experts in polishing and cutting high-quality diamonds. Celebrating this wonderful milestone, they vowed to continue being the quintessential jewellery timepiece creator. The story of Backes & Strauss begun with founder, Georg Carl Backes, who was born in Steinfurth, Germany in August 1763. When he was eight years old, his family moved to Hanau, near Frankfurt. It was in this town, an important jewel- lery centre, in those days, that he first registered as a goldsmith in 1789, marking the birth of Backes & Co. By the early 1800s, the business was doing so well that Georg Carl sent his 24-year-old son Johann Franz to London to open up a new office. After his father died in 1819, Johann con- tinued to trade and manufacture diamonds and jewellery, separating the London operation from the German one and renamed the compa- ny J.F. Backes and Co. Several years later, his two sons, Charles and William joined the business. In 1856, they employed an office boy called Max Strauss who would go on to manage the company 15 years later and change the trading name to Backes & Strauss in 1873. Known for selling jewellery than anything else, the com- pany decided to concentrate more on diamonds in 1892. They also expanded their international reach and travelled around the world to cities like Alexandria in Greece, Vienna in Austria, Rome in Italy, Bucharest in Romania, and Paris in France. “Our historical archives reveal the extent of the sig- nificant role Backes & Strauss provided in sourcing the finest rough diamonds, polishing and distributing them to an inter- national clientele.” In the early 1950s, Backes & Strauss opened its office in Ant- werp, Belgium under the direction of Robert Lee and Gustave Ponet. Soon after Lee retired in 1986, entrepreneur and busi-