Andrew Grima is born in Rome on May 31st.  He is the first child of John Grima and Leopoldina Farnese.

Andrew moves to England with his family.  Seen here behind his father with brothers Frank, Charles and Godfrey and sister Mary.

Andrew volunteers for the British Army, serving on the North West Frontier and in Burma with the Warwickshires.  He ends the war as a Major in the Royal Electrical Mechanical Engineers (REME).

Andrew joins H J Company working for Franz Haller, adopted father of Helène, whom Andrew marries in 1947.  In 1952, he takes over H J Company on the death of his father-in-law.

Andrew and his craftsmen at H J Company cast models for various artists for the 'International Exhibition of Modern Jewellery 1890-1961' held at the Goldsmiths' Hall.  Alongside these, Andrew exhibits six of his own designs.

Andrew wins three De Beers Diamonds International Awards and is elected Freeman of the Worshipful Company of Goldsmiths. 

Andrew wins one De Beers Diamonds International Award,  the Queen's Award for Export and the Duke of Edinburgh Prize for Elegant Design. He is the only jeweller ever to win this accolade. The Duke gives the Queen a carved ruby and diamond brooch from the winning collection.

Andrew opens his first shop at 80 Jermyn Street in London's St. James's, designed by his architect brothers, George and Godfrey. The shopfront is a large screen designed by sculptor Bryan Kneale RA and formed from slabs of slate bolted to a framework of steel. The massive cast aluminium door is designed by another RA sculptor, Geoffrey Clarke. A perspex spiral staircase leads to the basement. The first of its kind, the staircase is engineered by Peter Rice (Ove Arup & Partners) who incidentally worked on the Sydney Opera House in 1963.

HRH Princess Margaret commissions Andrew to make a brooch from a piece of lichen she found at Balmoral.

© Norman Parkinson Archive

Omega commissions Andrew to design a collection of watches. About Time is arguably the most important and certainly one of the most dazzling and original watch collections ever made.  About Time is first shown at Expo '70 in Osaka, Japan.

Andrew receives the Royal Warrant from HM Queen Elizabeth II.

He launches the Opal and Pearl collection on 7th December. The conventional ideal for pearls at the time is a string of perfectly round and uniformly coloured spheres.  Similarly, opal jewellery is typically designed around a symmetrical cabochon in a conventional setting. Both intrinsically beautiful but both neglected as subject matter by the world's finest jewellery designers. As the Grima press release explains: 'Pearls and opals have for long been cast aside among the faded twinsets and hat pins of yesterday...this is a collection designed to stimulate new concepts of the mysterious opal and pearl.'

Andrew opens his shop in Rose Bay, Sydney in partnership with Prouds.

With a burgeoning customer base in America, Andrew opens his New York gallery in Georg Jensen on Madison Avenue.  

Andrew launches the Rock Revival collection on September 29th at his Jermyn Street shop.

The collection is based on the idea that nature's works of art are impossible to improve upon.  Andrew's task is simply to frame them in gold. The rocks in question come from all over the world and are chosen for colour, form and texture above any intrinsic value.

Andrew is commissioned by HM Queen Elizabeth II to design a brooch to give as a present to Madame Pompidou on a state visit to France.

Andrew took advantage of the South American leg of the worldwide tour of the Omega About Time collection to visit Brazil. Here he found a plentiful array of unusual and interesting stones and minerals including sticks of tourmaline and emerald, crystallised agate and quartz, moss agate, aquamarine and specularite. These exotic ingredients form the basis of the Sticks and Stones collection which makes its debut in London before moving to New York, Zurich and finally Tokyo.

Andrew opens his shop in Zurich.  Designed by his architect brothers George and Godfrey, the façade is made from the salvaged hull of an old clipper ship.

Andrew revisits the pearl for the last of his great themed collections. A Tale of Tahiti once again challenges the traditional 'twinset' role of pearls in jewellery.  Perfect match of size and colour is replaced by irregular shapes and the mixing of different colours.

© Willie Christie

Andrew meets Jojo Maughan-Brown, great-granddaughter of Sir Thomas Cullinan, founder of the Premier diamond mine in South Africa.

After the success ofAbout Time for Omega, Andrew is commissioned to design a collection of watches for Pulsar, inventors of the digital watch.

Andrew and Jojo are married on the 20th of December

Francesca Farnese Grima is born on the 22nd of March

The family moves to Switzerland and opens shops in Lugano and later in Gstaad.

The Goldsmiths' Hall hosts a retrospective of Andrew's work to celebrate his 70th brithday.

Francesca joins the family business.

© Gemma Levine

HM Queen Elizabeth II wears her Grima ruby and diamond brooch during her Christmas Message. Andrew dies in Gstaad the following day, aged 86.

Jojo and Francesca move the Grima business back to London.

A step-cut 2.97ct greyish-blue diamond ring by Andrew Grima at Bonhams attracts frantic bidding which sees the final price soar to over twice the pre-sale estimate, setting a new world record for a Fancy greyish-blue diamond.  It also achieves a second world record as the highest sum ever paid for a Grima jewel.