Fine jewellery has long followed one of two scripts: he proposed, or she inherited. Neither leaves much room for self-expression. Heirest is built on a simpler idea: “but for price, more people would buy fine jewellery.” Its answer is part atelier, part software, and entirely digital-first.
The brand launched less than two months ago. Before it had a website, founder Liam Whittaker was selling through his personal Instagram, which has around 800 followers. “It’s my mum and a few friends,” he says. Even so, he did “half a million dollars in organic sales with no website, no advertising and no brand.”
The Configurator Is the Atelier
Open any product page and the design process begins. Choose your metal, your stone type, your cut, your size. The piece renders in 3D in real time, and the price updates at every step. Across metals, stones, cuts and settings, there are more than 250,000 possible combinations.
It’s an elegant piece of design: nothing hidden, and every decision visible. You turn the stone, switch from yellow gold to white, trade a pear cut for an emerald, and watch the number move with you. Fine jewellery shopping has often meant a velvet-lined counter and a price whispered at the end. Here the process is transparent from the first click.
Stylist Marina Didovich, who worked with Liam on a pair of diamond studs, says that going online to choose the shape, the size and the weight of the metal “just made the whole experience so much more special.”
That transparency was a deliberate build. With 250,000 items and gold prices shifting daily, Liam calls live pricing “a really difficult math problem to solve.” He is wary of the word disruption. “Every week there is probably a new jewellery brand that knocks on your guys’ emails and says, hey, we’re disrupting this category,” he says. “To me, that’s not true unless you’ve got something that’s structurally different.” Heirest’s real innovation is the engineering behind the experience, not a new way of selling the same old thing.
Luxury Without the Markup
With no physical stores, Heirest says it can price around 40% below competitors. “Because we don’t have a physical store, we can be 40% cheaper than our competition,” Liam explains. “We can then invest 30 times the amount of money into the unboxing experience to make it feel really special.”
The savings go into what customers actually hold: a signature fragrance and packaging whose base inverts into a keepsake jewellery box. It began as a response to concerns about waste. A friend warned Liam, just two days before production, that the packaging might be criticised online. “Instead of changing that, let me go and adapt it,” he says.
Marina, who joined Liam at the brand’s launch event, was won over. “One thing that really does irk me, also as a mother now, is waste when it comes to packaging,” she says. “So I do actually have so much respect for that decision.” Of the box itself, she adds: “It’s so considered, it’s so beautiful.”
Made to Order, Checked Eight Times
Behind the screen, every piece is made to order by artisans with decades of experience, and the digital thread continues through production. You receive an order confirmation with your full specifications, a photo of your hand-picked stone before it’s set, and a final image of the finished piece before it ships.
Each piece then passes eight independent quality checkpoints, from wax mould and casting through fitting, setting and polishing, before sign-off by the Head Jeweller and a final review by the founder himself. Delivery is complimentary worldwide, fully tracked, insured and signed for. Pieces dispatch within 2 to 4 weeks, with express delivery typically taking 3 to 4 days.
Every order includes a Statement of Authentication confirming the stone type, carat, colour, clarity, metal and hallmark. Diamonds of one carat or more come with an independent IGI certificate. All stones are lab-grown, and the brand is upfront about it.
The Everyday Diamond
Perhaps the most glamorous idea here is a quiet one: diamonds don’t have to wait for an occasion. Marina wears hers with denim and a shirt. “Diamonds can be worn for everyday dressing,” she says, “and it doesn’t have to be just for a special event or a special outfit.” A stack that grows with your milestones, such as a push present, a graduation or a 30th, becomes a personal archive worn on the hand. For Liam, watching customers buy those pieces is “the most magical thing.”
It’s also how the brand has grown. Heirest says about 62% of its customers are women buying for themselves, with the largest group aged 35 to 45, often marking big birthdays. “It was our customer that was doing the selling for us,” Liam says. Customers who are proud of their pieces became the marketing.
For those who want something beyond the 250,000 options, Heirest also offers a bespoke service, and it hosts in-person events like its Sydney trunk show. As Liam puts it, she is “still wanting something that feels more unique than that.” The screen is the starting point, not the limit.
