Dautzen began as the brainchild of Martin Dautzenberg, a Dutch artisan and gemologist with over three decades of experience in fine jewellery. Martin’s story begins in 1984, when he began his Goldsmith degree in the Schoonhoven Art and Craft School in the Netherlands.
Before receiving his Goldsmith Diploma in 1989, Martin completed a one-year apprenticeship in the German town of Idar Oberstein, illustrious for its rich history in gemstones and jewellery.
An innovator from the beginning, Martin saw the flaws in the design of locks and
hinges in conventional jewellery. He began developing a mechanism that would
revolutionise how we wear jewellery, but was also elegant, seamless and practical.
However, it would be years before this dream could be perfected and come into
fruition.
Fate led Martin’s career path to Thailand in 1992. Where he joined acclaimed jeweller Sri Von Bueren in his renowned family business, Lotus Arts de Vivre and It was there, as he fell in love
with a culture so far removed from his own, that the idea was born of jewellery that
transcends all cultures and eras. This union of East and West was mirrored in his
personal life when Martin married Thai flight attendant Natmatika (Ning)
Lalidasutanan in 2000, after a love story that spanned five years and two continents.
“A man who worked with the metals of the earth fell in love with a woman of the air, and together they managed to keep the fire of their love alive despite an ocean’s worth of water between them.”
In a whimsical twist, Dautzen’s Natural Elements collection encapsulates their journey: a man who worked with the metals of the earth fell in love with a woman of the air, and together they managed to keep the fire of their love alive despite an ocean’s worth of water between them.