time-keeper


The evolution of a jewellery brand: an introduction to Marli timepieces

May 2026


The evolution of a jewellery brand: an introduction to Marli timepieces

Twelve years after founding one of New York’s most distinctive jewellery brands, Maral Artinian presents Marli’s timepiece collection – not as a departure, but as the most complete expression yet of what Marli has always been.

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arli New York was born from the belief that fine jewellery is a language, and everyone deserves to speak it on their own terms. In 2014, Founder Maral Artinian had a vision: to set clients free from convention with creations that transcend adornment, and to honor individuality in all its forms.

The design language that grew from this vision is immediate and consistent: clean geometry, angular forms, a visual vocabulary rooted in architectural precision. These are not aesthetic choices made in isolation – they are the expression of a way of thinking about objects, about how they are read, and about what it means for something to feel both strong and effortless on the body. New York, where Marli was founded, gave this instinct its sharpest edge: a city whose confidence and clarity of line are present in everything the brand makes.

Marli’s pieces are architectural in spirit, but they are made to move through real life. They are designed to be stacked, layered, worn without ceremony – to become part of the daily gesture rather than interrupt it. That ease is not accidental: it is the result of a design process that begins with the wearer, and a manufacturing standard that ensures nothing is compromised in the making.

Marli has always been more than a creative proposition. Behind it stands the Artinian Group – a vertically integrated luxury group founded and led by Arto Artinian (Chairman & CEO) and Saro Artinian (President & COO), with close to three decades of experience in jewelry design, manufacturing, and diamond trading. It is this foundation – deep expertise, integrated manufacturing, and an approach to materials that admits no compromise – that has allowed MARLI to evolve as it has.

The group operates three centers of expertise. In Antwerp, a diamond trading office ensures full control over the quality and provenance of every stone – from the smallest melee diamond to the most exceptional solitaire. No stone is purchased without first being seen, touched, and understood. In Bangkok, an atelier of 800 artisans produces the jewellery and high jewellery creations of the group’s brands, supported by the Artinian Atelier Academy – a specialist training program built around a rigorous Learn–Practice–Work curriculum of 1,000 hours.

And in Le Locle – the historic cradle of Swiss watchmaking and a UNESCO World Heritage site – Marli’s own manufacture, PreciTech SA, brings the same standards of precision and uncompromising finish to the architecture of the timepiece that the group has long applied to the architecture of the jewel. Marli is Headquartered in New York City.

The wrist is where jewellery comes alive – constantly in motion, constantly in view, read by others and felt by the wearer in every gesture. It is a space Marli knows intimately, through countless bracelets and cuffs that have made it one of the brand’s most instinctive territories. From there, the step to a timepiece is a short one: the same wrist, the same design language, the same standards of craft – with a dial at the center. A jewel that defines time.

What gives this step its full legitimacy is that, save for the Swiss-made movements, Marli makes these timepieces itself. The manufacture in Le Locle, the diamond expertise brought to bear on every set stone, the uncompromising approach to materials that runs through everything the Artinian Group produces – these are not borrowed credentials. They are the foundation from which this collection was built, and the guarantee behind every piece that leaves it.

Marli’s inaugural timepiece collection comprises three references: L23 and L30, which carry Marli’s jewelry authority to a distinctive interpretation of time; and the L35, which expresses it architecturally, sculpturally.

The L23 and L30 share a rounded case architecture – adorned with a scalloped bezel set with EF VS diamonds, machined directly from the solid in white or rose gold and stainless steel – that holds a deliberate tension with the angular precision of the dial within it. The effect is of strength and softness held in equilibrium: a piece that settles on the wrist as naturally as a bracelet, whose presence registers before its nature does.

Every diamond across both models – from the 36 brilliants on the bezel to the four set into the pyramid-shaped crown – is selected to EF VS grades, at the very top of the color and clarity scales. The crown merits particular attention: shaped as a miniature pyramid and set with four diamonds, it carries Marli’s visual signature to its smallest functional component, so that the gesture of setting the time becomes a small act of recognition for those who know the language. The faceted dauphine hands – discreet enough not to crowd the dial, angled to bring contrast and light to its surface – ensure legibility without interrupting the composition. Both models are fitted with Swiss quartz movements.

The L23 and L30 are offered on interchangeable straps – satin in five colors, or alligator in three, each with an ardillon buckle – as well as on a gold bracelet that is, in itself, a design statement. Inspired by the rectilinear grid of Manhattan’s city blocks, the bracelet is composed of links whose linear striations, assembled with a jeweler’s precision, produce the effect of a structured fabric of gold. Microbead blasting, satin finishing, polishing, and anglage work together to achieve this geometric effect – a contemporary and architectural object, and a tribute to the city where Marli first took root.

In their fully set versions – case and bracelet entirely pavéd with EF VS diamonds in white gold – the L23 and L30 enter high jewelry territory: objects whose diamond count reaches 400 stones and 2.728 carats in the L23, and 344 stones and 6.442 carats in the L30.

Where the L23 and L30 models draw their character from jewellery, the L35 draws its character from form. The case – 35 mm, available in rose gold or titanium – is sculpted from the solid: a faceted bezel of angled planes designed to capture and redirect light, creating a continuous play between the geometry of the case and the diamonds set within it. The result is a timepiece whose presence on the wrist is immediate and architectural – bold in structure, considered in every detail.

The case is built as a multi-part sandwich construction, integrating a high-technical resin between its layers. This engineering choice serves two purposes: it allows color to be embedded directly into the architecture of the case, and it reduces the overall weight on the wrist – so that a timepiece of this visual scale wears with unexpected lightness.

Color is central to the L35’s identity. The mother-of-pearl dial – bearing the same pyramid tapisserie pattern as the L23 and L30 models, here lacquered in color or rendered in black mother-of-pearl for the anthracite version – is matched to a rubber strap embossed throughout with the same pyramid motif, available in white and black. The design language of the dial continues uninterrupted across the strap, so that the L35 reads as a single coherent object from bezel to buckle. The pyramid-shaped crown, set with four diamonds, anchors the collection’s signature at the case side.

The sword-shaped hands – faceted and dynamic, and distinct from the dauphine hands of the L models – are chosen for legibility against the depth and color of the dial. They bring a sharpness of line that suits the L35’s character.

The L35 is powered by a Swiss automatic movement – the ETA 2892 A2, 28,800 vibrations per hour, 50-hour power reserve, 21 jewels – hand-finished at Marli’s Le Locle manufacture with circular graining and Côtes de Genève decoration.

Across all three references, the collection is defined by a single element: a three-dimensional pyramid tapisserie dial that translates Marli’s most iconic motif from the jeweler’s bench to the face of a timepiece.

Each dial is machined from solid natural mother-of-pearl – a soft organic material with a Mohs hardness of between 3 and 4 on the scale that runs from talc to diamond – and carved into a field of perfectly formed three-dimensional pyramids with crisp edges, precise geometry, and consistent depth across the entire surface. Achieving pyramids with sharp, repeating, light-catching angles in this material, at dial scale and to watchmaking tolerances, required the development of a complete suite of bespoke industrial tooling. Three years of research and development. The details of this process remain closely guarded.

As the light changes, so does the surface: the pyramids catch and release it differently at every angle, so that the face of the timepiece is never the same twice. Hand heights have been slightly raised throughout the collection to preserve the sense of depth, ensuring the three-dimensional effect remains visible beneath the hands at all times.

The pyramid motif extends beyond the dial to the crown – set with four diamonds, shaped as a miniature pyramid on every reference – and, on the L35, to the rubber strap itself, embossed in relief with the same pattern. For the L35’s colored versions, mother-of-pearl is deposited onto a brass plate previously lacquered in color; the anthracite shade employs black mother-of-pearl.

Since the nineteenth century, Le Locle has been one of the historic centers of the Swiss watch industry. The town’s very urban fabric was shaped by the demands of the craft: its streets are wide, designed to maximize sunlight; its buildings feature large windows to bring natural light to the watchmakers assembling minuscule components at their benches. This unique urban architecture has earned Le Locle a place on the UNESCO World Heritage List. It is here that Marli has its manufacture.

With the sole exception of the Swiss movements, every component of every Marli timepiece is produced at PreciTech SA in Le Locle. Bridges, plates, gear trains, clasps, pushers, lugs, case fittings, middle cases, inner and outer bezels, casebacks, crowns, screws, oscillating weights, metal bracelet elements, inserts. Every finishing operation: polishing, satin finishing, microbead blasting, straight-graining. A dedicated team handles the assembly and welding of metal bracelet components; another is devoted to gem-setting. After passing through every stage of production and decoration, each Marli timepiece is cased up, then inspected and certified at the manufacture before leaving Le Locle.

Marli’s manufacture – four buildings, 6,000 m², in the heart of Le Locle – occupies the former production facilities of Renaud Papi.

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