The supermarket adverts are being released and that famous, jingling red and white fizzy truck won’t be far behind. At this time of year, retailers large and small have a singular focus: your Christmas pennies. And in the world of fine jewellery that means scaling back the one-of-a-kind high jewels for something slightly more affordable. Sometimes these seasonal "diffusion" collections can be a bit of a damp squib – purse-friendly but lacking in the character, design and creativity of a designer’s more extravagant collections. Merrily, theAstraeus collection from Star Diamond doesn’t fit into that category.

I’ve written before about the refreshingly unstuffy attitude with which the Mayfair-based private jeweller treats its extraordinary coloured diamonds. 

And this new collection epitomises Star Diamond’s approach: the yellow and pastel-coloured diamonds are smaller, yes, but treated with no less flair than the gobstopper-sized stones kept under lockdown in its Dover Street atelier. Eschewing the predictably simple studs or solitaire pendants that make up many brands’ more commercial offerings, Astraeus sets juicy clusters of pink, yellow, green, blue and purple diamonds in the centre of elegant fans of pavé-set white stones which gradually fade, ombre-style, into colour again at the tip.

There are curvy, hourglass pendants, a selection of stacking and two-finger rings, some show-stopping cuffs and three sizes of mismatched earrings whose petals sweep up the ear in that oh-so-flattering and very modern way. The latter will be topping my Christmas list, along with the yellow gold two-finger ring whose diamond trails gently arch into a trio of round and pear-shaped stones resting comfortably between the knuckles; a firework of colour and curves. 

It’s a strikingly contemporary collection with a hint of a rock n’ roll edge, which makes sense when you meet the head designer. Raliegh Goss, 25, is a trained goldsmith who, together with her partner who is an expert in CAD, uses modern 3D-printing techniques to create these intricate and ergonomically pleasing shapes.

I was given a sneak preview of the Astraeus collection a few months ago when Goss showed me the 3D-printed wax moulds of the jewels, but the simple shapes are given a whole new dimension when bedecked with sparkling stones. “I didn’t want to take the star theme too literally,” Goss tells me as she demonstrates how the V-shaped rings can be endlessly stacked, combined and interlocked. “I was more inspired by the idea of a shooting star leaving a trail across the sky.”

So covetable, absolutely, but as for the “affordable” part… Prices start from £3,900 for a single ring or the simplest pair of lobe-sweeping earrings and rise rapidly from there, so it’s hardly stocking-filler fodder. But considering that these are coloured diamonds, some of the rarest stones around, it represents remarkable value for money – not to mention making a style statement that’ll earn serious brownie points if found underneath next month’s tree.