BIOGRAPHY

Rowena Murray is a British jewellery and watch designer who over the past 15 years has designed collections for luxury brands such as Van Cleef & Arpels, Links of London and Audemars Piguet. An award-winning graduate of the Royal College of Art and qualified gemmologist, she also delivers courses and lectures on the subjects of gemstones and design.

Rowena began her career as a design intern at renowned German watchmaker A.Lange & Söhne, based in Switzerland. Then in 2007 she was hired by the French jewellery house Van Cleef & Arpels to develop the concept and designs for jewellery and watch collection, ‘Une Journée à Paris’. This project began life as a student pitch during her time at the Creative Academy in Milan and was launched on the market in 2009. The resulting watches went on to be nominee and prize winner in the ‘Ladies Watch’ category at the Grand Prix d’Horlogerie de Genève in 2009 & ‘10. She has since consulted for leading watch and jewellery brands throughout Europe, in both the fashion and fine jewellery sectors.

Since 2014 Rowena has also worked in education, delivering gemmology courses at GIA’s London campus, as well as masterclasses in gemstones at the London Design Festival, Birmingham Jewellery Quarter and Shoreditch Design Triangle. In 2018 she was recruited by the Handwerkskammer in Lower Franconia, Germany, to develop a design module for master-watchmaker and goldsmith apprentices in Bavaria. The following year saw a gemmology module and intensive design course developed for master-watchmaker students in Germany's watchmaking centre, Glashütte.

Rowena founded her eponymous spin-off brand for children and young families in 2018, the first product of which was named ‘Brilliant!’. This takes the form of a 3D origami booklet for children, explaining all about diamonds through interactive play.

<- For a downloadable version of Rowena's Murray CV, please click on the image 

To view examples of Rowena Murray's work, please visit her portfolio page here