HEIREST: The digital-first fine jewellery brand disrupting the industry

New Zealand business owner Liam Whittaker describes himself as “the least likely jewellery founder of all time”—but then again, a fine jewellery brand that operates entirely online isn’t exactly the status quo.

Armed with a degree in business and law and an impressive résumé (he became the chief operating officer of ZURU’s consumer goods division just four years out of university), Whittaker launched HEIREST—a digital-first, made-to-order fine jewellery brand—with no prior experience in fine jewellery. Instead, the idea was sparked when he spotted a tennis bracelet giveaway during a routine scroll of Instagram.

HEIREST founder and CEO, Liam Whittaker, spoke to Remix about his disrupting, digital-first approach to fine jewellery.

“I thought that was a really interesting piece of consumer behaviour. Clearly these people all want this thing, but they're not prepared to pay legacy prices for it,” the buoyant founder explains to me during our phone call, a chat that stretches effortlessly past the 30-minute mark.

“So I reached out to one of them, and I was like, ‘Hey, out of interest, how much does one of these things cost?’ They said it was around $10,000 for lab diamonds. The engineering brain in me said, ‘There's no way it should cost that much for compressed carbon and gold.’ I found out the difference between what it costs to make and the end price—just huge margins. I got really fascinated by that.”

During his research, Whittaker discovered that fine jewellery labels will invest significantly in their boutiques and showrooms—rent, staff, insurance, replacement costs, security—at the expense of their digital offering. With such high overheads, including the rising cost of raw materials, tariffs and inflation, these labels then often pass the cost on to their consumers.

It was then Whittaker had the lightbulb moment: instead of funnelling money into bricks-and-mortar, why not create a premium online offering for a fraction of the price—and in turn, offer better prices for customers?

With a unique business proposition under his belt, Whittaker got to work, with the first iteration—via Instagram—launching in May 2025. Fast-forward to August 2026, and HEIREST was born—a digital-first brand hailed as a true disruptor to the global fine jewellery industry.

But it’s not only the online component that sets HEIREST apart. Its other unique selling point is that customers are handed creative control, with every component—from the metal to the gemstone to the cut to the carat—being completely customisable. The site offers a core collection of classic designs as a starting point: an interactive online configurator then allows the customer to build their dream piece, with each selection 3D-rendered in real time and the price updated at every step. Overall, there are more than 250,000 possibilities, Whittaker says.

Once completed, HEIREST’s team of artisan jewellers craft the bespoke piece by hand, with updates along the way to keep the customer informed. They receive a photo of the handpicked stone before it is set, and a final preview before the piece leaves the workshop. Each creation goes through an eight-step independent quality review and is personally approved by Whittaker before it is sent. The finished jewellery—dispatched within two to four weeks of purchase—is then delivered to the door with fully tracked, fully insured shipping and a lifetime manufacturing guarantee.

The price transparency also makes a welcome departure from traditional retail models. Depending on the product, an HEIREST piece is typically 10 to 40% cheaper than its competitors, without sacrificing quality. They only work with precious metals—no plating—while all lab diamonds of one carat or higher are independently certified by the International Gemological Institute (IGI). Coloured stones are also lab-grown, but are physically, chemically and optically identical to their mined counterparts. Customers can also choose a natural diamond if they prefer.

“I feel like for the price you pay for traditional jewellery, you can get a really bad customer experience. You go to these boutiques, there are no prices on anything. When you go to our site, you have complete pricing transparency for every single decision that you make,” Whittaker explains.

“I want people to be able to design the piece of their dreams from the comfort of their couch, and come to us when the time is right. I think leading with transparency has been key for us, and something that I always want to ensure we do.”

Then, there is the unboxing—a “super intentional” component of the HEIREST experience designed to replicate the white glove service of a luxury purchase in-store. As Whittakers puts it: “I can't open a bottle of champagne for you at a boutique, so how do I deliver an unboxing experience at home that truly makes you feel special?”

So what does an HEIREST unboxing look like, you may ask? Think several layers of personalisation: a branded wax seal and handwritten note accompany a burgundy leather keepsake box, which contains an embossed, scannable warranty card that holds all of your documentation digitally. Then, there’s the jewellery box itself—lacquered, velvet-lined wood—which holds the physical copies. A velvet travel pouch contains a ring-sizing kit, a wrist-sizing tape and a cleaning cloth, while a ceramic tile releases a bespoke fragrance, specially devised to be synonymous with brand.

While Whittaker doesn’t have any plans to expand into a permanent retail presence, he is a fan of pop-ups. The brand recently hosted its first pop-up in Britomart for New Zealand Fashion Week (which led to their biggest week ever in sales), and on September 30, a trunk show in Sydney will allow customers to explore HEIREST in person.

“If you want a tennis bracelet from somewhere else, that might be $8000 to $10,000. We might be $4000 to $5000, so a great discount, but still fundamentally a lot of money. So, we need to show up in real life.”

From 10 am until 4 pm, people can try on the pieces, interact with the configurator, meet the team and design their very own creation. This will be followed by an event with media, influencers and brand partners, co-hosted by Whittaker and New Zealand stylist and fashion insider, Marina Didovich. 

He says fans of HEIREST can expect more of these in-person events in the future—but no, not a store.

“I hate the idea of doing a boutique, but I love the idea of doing a copious number of pop-ups throughout a calendar year. I think you can expect to see us ramp that up massively over the next 12 to 24 months. I expect us to pop up around the ASB Classic, around the Golf Open down in Queenstown, at all the different Fashion Weeks.

“I think we can offer a diverse, tactile shopping experience while still being digitally first.”

To wrap up our conversation on a more personal note, I ask Whittaker what piece he thinks everyone should have in their collection. The answer? The Claw and Bezel Tennis Bracelet.

“I would never be cool enough to wear it,” he laughs. “Many people aspire to one day own a tennis bracelet, and with lab-grown technology, I think it’s becoming more attainable."

“We want to put the customer at the heart of every single thing that we do, whether that's the unboxing, the transparent pricing, the real-time rendering,” he muses as we conclude our call.

“Every week there's a new brand, it's a very saturated category. But I think to say you're a true disruptor means you've got to have structural advantages over everybody else.”

HEIREST.COM