When dynamic jewellery designers Sarah & Sebastian laid eyes on the new Mercedes-Benz CLA Coupé, they found all the inspiration they needed to design and create a mood ring in its honour.

The powerful stance and elegant silhouette of the second generation of the CLA, a compact four-door coupé, left an indelible impression upon the pair.

“It’s a sporty, sexy car, but it’s not overstated,” muses Robert Sebastian Grynkofki, one half of Sarah & Sebastian. “It has that really subtle energy. It’s just a beautiful car.”

Sarah Gittoes found herself immediately drawn to the ‘diamond’ grille. “I studied gemology and I’m always looking at gemstones, so I loved being able to interpret that diamond-cut feature into the mood stone that we used in the ring,” she says.

“The specific process was first of all looking at the car and appreciating the design and the shape and the form of the car, and then translating that into a piece that Robert and I would both appreciate.”

Adds Robert: “We brought the stone in as tight as we can to really have that compact but sporty elegant look.

“Both of us really strive for perfection. It’s not about just being showy. It’s about having a detail that sometimes you see on a second look and you say, ‘that’s really well made, I appreciate how that’s finished, I appreciate the quality’.”

The mantra for the CLA Coupé is ‘play by your own rules’, an ethos Mercedes-Benz embraced when it designed the world’s first four-door coupé, the CLS, which provided the design direction for the smaller CLA that followed.

It speaks volumes to a duo who founded their partnership on encouraging refined self-expression through the principles of understated luxury and avant-garde innovation.

“I think it’s important to play by your own rules – it gives you a drive and freedom,” Sarah asserts.

Robert adds: “Playing by your own rules means to question things and not just take them as they are because that’s how they used to be. You don’t have to break every rule, but I think it’s important to question it.”

He says Mercedes-Benz is the perfect partner for such a collaboration as the CLA-inspired mood ring. “Mercedes stands for quality of design and understated elegance. We love the design philosophy that Mercedes stands for.

“This ring is absolutely unique; every little detail is considered and that’s why I think it’s such a good synergy between both brands. Both of us really strive for perfection and innovation.

“Without innovation you just stand still. Where’s the excitement in that?”