Miss Universe unveils $5 million crown to be used in Atlanta pageant

Miss Universe will be crowned with a new $5 million, 167-karat stunner designed by jeweler Mouawad.

The new Power of Unity Crown was unveiled for the first time Thursday in a ceremony led by Miss Universe president and CEO Paula Shugart and Mouawad CEO Pascal Mouawad. The crown design features intricate 18-karat gold vines and ivy leaves inlaid with more than 1,770 diamonds. The centerpiece is a 62.83-karat golden canary diamond. It’s flanked by two smaller diamonds cut from the same stone mined from Botswana, Pascal Mouawad said.

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Shugart and Pascal Mouawad had discussed collaborating on a Miss Universe crown for years, but were finally able to this year, Shugart said.

“The Mouawad family has designed magnificent pieces for royalty around the world,” Shugart said. “Now, you have designed a crown for our queens.”

The ivy leaf and vine motif is meant to represent the seven continents and the interconnectedness of the world’s communities, Pascal Mouawad said.

“It had to be a crown not only fit for a queen, but carrying a powerful message of women united throughout the world to do good,” Pascal Mouawad said.

This is the fifth crown to be used by Miss Universe in the past 15 years. The reigning Miss Universe Catriona Gray was crowned with the Mikimoto Crown, created by the famed Japanese pearl company. The crown, with a motif of a rising phoenix, debuted in 2002 for the pageant’s 50th anniversary and was retired in 2007 before returning to use in 2017.

A delicate golden crown designed by CAO Fine Jewelers was used in 2008, followed by the massive Nexus Crown designed by Diamond Nexus Labs from 2009 to 2013. The DIC crown, designed by Diamonds International Corporation, was the most recently designed crown before Thursday’s reveal. It was modeled after the New York City skyline, using hundreds of diamonds and sapphires in an intensely geometrical arrangement.

Catriona Gray in the Mikimoto Crown