While looking for a ring for himself, Cyrille Deloubrière couldn't find anything that resonated with him. He then founded Gems Explorers Atelier, a men's jewelry house built around the stone. A gemologist certified by the EIG in Monaco, he reflects here on his journey, his method, and his ambitions.
1. What was your background before launching your brand?
I come from event communication. For twenty years, with IDEASTORM, I have been designing events for large industrial groups. It is a craft of staging, where every detail serves a narrative. At the same time, stones became a passion, then a discipline: I trained and became an expert gemologist, certified by the EIG in Monaco. Gems Explorers Atelier was born from the meeting of these two perspectives: the one that reads a stone, and the one that knows how to tell its story.
2. How did the idea of creating a men's jewelry brand come about?
From a lack. I was looking for a ring for myself, and I didn't want a family signet ring, a fashion accessory, or a resized piece of women's jewelry. I wanted an object that was structured, designed around a real stone. I couldn't find it. For men, jewelry is still too often limited to metal. I wanted to introduce color, light, and rarity into it.
3. How does the design of your pieces take place?
Everything starts with the stone: this is our founding principle, "Stone First." I choose every gem myself, whether they are colored diamonds, bicolor sapphires, or emerald-cut colorless diamonds. Exceptional stones go through independent certification. The architecture only comes afterwards. The piece is then entrusted to local manufacturing workshops in Nice and Aix-en-Provence. I am a creator, not a manufacturer; every step is performed by the most skilled hands. A ring like "Presence" is made to order in about six weeks.
4. What do you want to convey through your creations?
The idea that a stone can belong to a man. It shouldn't be an outward sign of wealth, but an element of identity—almost an intimate signature. Each stone I select is unique: it carries a name, a color family, a character. With us, color is the subject. I want the man who wears one of our rings to feel that it reflects who he is, and that he won't see it on anyone else's finger. And beyond the jewelry, I want to transmit that very perspective: learning to read a stone changes the way you wear it.
5. What distinguishes your brand in the world of jewelry?
First, the gemologist's perspective: I know why I choose each stone, and why I refuse others. Second, a fully embraced masculine bias in a sector still largely designed for women. Finally, an open vision of what men's jewelry can be: with ECHØ | His and His, we introduced a pair of wedding bands designed for two men. The house is small and independent, based between Nice and Monaco. Every piece is monitored there, from the stone to the finger.
6. What are your aesthetic and technical choices?
Clean lines, and void treated as a material. Our symbol, the Ø, says exactly that: the space around the stone matters just as much as the stone itself. Technically, we favor tension settings, where the gem seems to be suspended, held by the pressure of the metal rather than enclosed by prongs. It is demanding, but it is what allows light to pass through the stone. The house is organized around two collections: ECHØ, the architecture of connection, and ØRIGEN, the architecture of identity.
7. What are your ambitions for the coming years?
To make GEA a men's jewelry house recognized for its stones and its writing. We are also opening a territory of high jewelry, VØID: unique pieces, built around exceptional stones, free from any collection. Here, it is no longer the man who defines the piece, it is the stone. The stone decides, the architecture follows.
I am also preparing a more personal project, The Gemologist's India: a journey on the roads of the stone, from Jaipur to Surat. It is my way of putting my passion at the service of others, by sharing the path that leads to the stones.
“The stone decides, the architecture follows.”
