Bulgari’s award-winning “Blue Iridescence” necklace features eight sapphires, totaling 187.48 carats and offset by pink spinels. Photo courtesy Bulgari.

Icy diamonds — 97.47 carats-worth — make vivid sapphires pop even more on Graff’s sublime cuff. Photo courtesy Graff Diamonds.

BY KAREN AANONSEN

Sapphires beguile in just about every color. But it’s the September birthstone’s most well-known hue, blue, that breathtakingly inspires jewelry designers again and again. Striking blue sapphires inform current collections from the likes of Bulgari, Van Cleef & Arpels, Piaget, Fabergé, Boucheron, and more. A vibrant and durable gem, it oft adorned royal garb throughout history as a symbol of wisdom and good fortune. Associated with sincerity, truth, and faithfulness, as well, sapphires are believed by some to ward off evil and provide healing powers. One thing’s for certain: the blue stunners eternally turn heads.

—September 2015