The Master Watchmaker’s Journey
1920
A dawn-lit workshop perched on the misty fringes of the Scottish Highlands. There, in the hush of early morning, a solitary figure—David (Chaim) Asher—adjusts the tiny gears of a pocket watch, his movements deliberate and sure. With a final twist of the screwdriver, time springs to life in his hand, as if it were an extension of his very pulse.
Carrying little more than his faith and unyielding devotion to precision, David sets sail for America. He arrives with the discipline of chronometry and a steadfast hope in his heart. His new workshop becomes more than a room cluttered with watch parts; it’s a sanctuary for fellow dreamers and newcomers—where skill is shared and second chances are born.
Silver and Fire
1930
Against the backdrop of the Great Depression, David’s daughter meets a young silversmith named Harold (Harry) Silberstein. In a hidden courtyard in Paris, where a determined teenager, abandoned at fourteen, learns to shape resilience as skillfully as he shapes metal. From molten silver to gleaming heirlooms, his artistry blossoms under the flicker of a solitary flame.
By 1935, fate beckons Harry to American shores. Where he meets David’s daughter. Seeking to fashion a name as sparkling as his craft, when he arrives in his new land he becomes Harry Gilbert—“Gil” for gold (the treasure he would soon command), and his smithing heritage. Together they forge a life—and a family tradition—where marriage is an alchemy of artistry and perseverance.
Studio on 57th Street
1950
From the alleys of Paris to the pulsing heartbeat of Manhattan in the late ’50s. Harry’s mind, now pivots to the art of fine jewelry. Inside a modest studio on 57th Street, near Carnegie Hall, metal meets imagination in a symphony of sparks and sketches. This is not just a workshop—it’s a sacred space where each ring, necklace, or brooch holds a secret: the discipline of a watchmaker wedded to the soul of an artist.
The family legacy is officially incorporated—no longer just a dream, but a promise etched in the heart of New York’s design world.
Charles, The Artistic Maverick
1960
Enter Charles—an artistic whirlwind. Educated at the Music & Art High School and Pratt Institute, his vision refuses to be confined.” Jewelry, to Charles, is living sculpture: a marriage of architecture and adornment. It should move like poetry, shimmer like an overture, and transcend the everyday.
In 1965, he marries Vivienne Castro—his equal in creative brilliance. A graduate of Industrial Arts High School (now the High School of Art & Design), Vivienne hones her eye for design at Parsons and NYU. Their union is a tapestry of innovation, weaving together technical mastery and unbridled imagination. By the late ’60s, the name “Charles and Vivienne” becomes synonymous with a bold new era in jewelry. Their bustling atelier moves to Lexington Avenue, securing a vibrant corner of Manhattan where creativity thrives. Department stores soon beckon, and their pieces find a place amidst the sparkling showcases of the city’s finest retail galleries.
The Culmination of a Dream—Vivienne Charles
Today
Now, imagine standing at the apex of this generational story, looking back over nearly a century of watchmakers, silversmiths, and sculptors. Elisa Gilbert takes center stage, naming her brand Vivienne Charles. It’s more than a name—it’s a living chronicle of artistry and innovation.
In each handcrafted piece, you’ll sense echoes of Scottish workshops and Parisian courtyards, the glow and rhythm of Carnegie Hall at their 57th Street studio, and the pulse of Lexington Avenue. Threads of time and tradition shape every gemstone, each gleaming facet a nod to resilience, devotion, and creative daring.
The result? Jewels that transcend fashion. That capture the spark of heritage and momentum. That whisper, “We have come so far; just imagine where we’ll go next.”
Elisa Gilbert
In a cedar-clad Balinese tea house with a treehouse repurposed as a lapidary workshop tucked away in Tuxedo Park, New York, is an atelier, alive with the steady tick of an antique grandfather clock and the glow of a well-used torch. There you’ll find Elisa Gilbert—Music and Art and Cornell University graduate, hard at work at her father’s old jeweler’s bench, transforming raw metal into wearable works of art.
Elisa’s lineage spans four generations of watchmakers, metalsmiths, and sculptors, giving rise to pieces that marry precise engineering with a hint of whimsy. In each earring, you might sense the echoes of a silver smith’s steady hammer. In every pendant, a sculptor’s eye for form—woven through all of it, a radiant thread of feminine grace that breathes life into tradition.
Transforming her history and work into a brand, Elisa created Vivienne Charles handcrafted fine jewelry—where heritage isn’t relegated to dusty nostalgia—it is the foundation for something daringly fresh.
Each creation starts with a tale—and ends as a signature piece built to spark conversations under the warm hum of a cocktail party, or in the hush of a candlelit dinner. Here, precious materials aren’t just shaped; they’re coaxed into sculptural expressions of personal history.
“Vivienne Charles” itself conjures structured legacy and artistic flair—a fusion of watchmaker’s exactitude, metalworker’s craft, architect’s silhouette, and the quietly confident whisper of feminine influence. The result? Jewelry that defies simple classification: high-end yet playfully unassuming, deeply reverent of the past but wholly set on rewriting the future.
Incorporate a piece in your life and feel the nod of generations gone by—a smiling wink toward the exciting life to come. Once you have a piece you too will have an heirloom that identifies with a bit of your core and will speak to the generations of your future yet to come.