Preview the Huge Collection of Cartier Jewels on View in Tokyo Right Now

There are countless jewelry tales, gems loved and lost (and found!), royal vaults, famous wearers, but seeing these legendary jewels in real life is a rarity, especially if they are part of someone’s personal stash. Cartier’s exhibition, Cartier Crystallization of Time, offers the opportunity to spy a few larger-than-life gems up close at the Tokyo Art Center. Private collectors have loaned their recent acquisitions (1970s onward), which Cartier has paired with archives to show how jewelry is both defined by the time in which it was made and is timeless (a tiara, naturally, never goes out of style). The over 300-piece collection was curated by Japanese architect and photographer Hiroshi Sugimoto, who arranged the exhibition with carved rare wood and local volcanic rock to display the pieces in a new context. The exhibition will be up through December 16. Here are some of the jewelry legends worth visiting…