David Webb could partner with luxury retailers anywhere. The storied jewelry house—whose glittering animals, sculptural gold cuffs, and designs exploding with brilliantly colored gemstones have defined American glamour for more than half a century—chose Naples.

This season, the jeweler opens permanent residences inside Marissa Collections’ Third Street South and Palm Beach boutiques. The South Florida shops join only four other David Webb locations worldwide. For Naples clients, that means unbridled access to exclusive designs, first looks at rare pieces, and capsule collections seldom seen beyond the brand’s own atelier.

America has very few true luxury heritage jewelers—smaller names such as Oscar Heyman, Seaman Schepps, and Verdura are firmly in the “if you know, you know” camp—and fewer still remain independent. Harry Winston and Tiffany & Co. may be international powerhouses, but both are now owned by foreign conglomerates.

David Webb stands apart. Dedicated artisans still handcraft every piece in the atelier on New York’s Upper East Side, using his original sketches and traditional techniques. Unlike many heritage houses reshaped by time, the brand remains true to its instantly recognizable and globally coveted identity.

“It’s present in everything we do, even if it’s a new collection that’s never been seen before,” says Levi Higgs, head of archives and brand heritage. “We delve through the archive, and we make sure the vocabulary of David Webb is present in everything.”

Jewelers employ 39 different chisel techniques to transform hard metal into the sumptuous, sinuous forms seen in pieces like the iconic repoussé cuffs. Fifty years after his passing, collections still exude Webb’s ebullient vision: panthers and zebras rise dimensionally from hammered surfaces, their bodies textured in relief, eyes set with cabochons. Bold chains wrap around the neck. Coral transforms into carved flowers.

“Webb is so daytime, fun, bold and colorful,” Higgs says. While most special jewelry resides in locked cases awaiting galas, David Webb’s substantial cuffs and carved hardstone rings were designed for wearing—around town, on yachts, at charity luncheons.

The house came into its own in the 1960s and ’70s, when the designer helped shift jewelry from formal to expressive. Webb introduced pieces with a riot of color, oversized shapes, enamel animals, geometric bravado, and those signature hammered gold cuffs inspired by ancient civilizations. His playful, bejeweled menagerie made the North Carolina–born creative into a force in modernist jewelry design.

Elizabeth Taylor and Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis wore his designs, as did behind-the-scenes arbiters of taste. Diana Vreeland inspired his abstract zebra teardrop earrings. Diane von Furstenberg wore David Webb on the cover of Town & Country in 1972. Helen Gurley Brown brought her repoussé cuff to the Cosmopolitan offices. These women weren’t dressing for approval. Neither is the David Webb client today.

“She has courage, she dresses herself, she knows exactly what she wants,” Higgs says of the brand’s devotees.

Jay Hartington, CEO of Marissa Collections, says the jeweler’s assortment of animals resonates here for obvious reasons. The frogs, panthers, and alligators recall what you’d encounter in Naples’ preserves. Meanwhile, the colorful aesthetic and substantial proportions hold their own in Florida’s intense light.

The new store-within-a-store at Marissa Collections starts a new chapter. Founder Marissa Hartington established the boutique’s fashion pedigree in 2008, when she debuted an in-house store for Oscar de la Renta. David Webb’s addition marks the jewelry program’s parallel ascent under her son, Jay, who has assembled designers like Irene Neuwirth and Silvia Furmanovich with the same curatorial eye: distinct over safe, artisan-driven over commercial.

David Webb’s audacious designs are a natural fit. “His designs endure because of their craftsmanship, symbolism, and clear point of view,” Jay says.

Conceived in collaboration with David Webb’s New York team, the mini-store transports the Madison Avenue atelier to the Gulf Coast through a palette of gold, black, and blue, and a gallery of archival imagery. The space will host intimate trunk shows and special viewings—moments that anchor Naples as a serious collector destination, where connoisseurs prize artistry and legacy above logos.

“Our clients are thoughtful collectors. Jewelry is part of the overall look, not an afterthought,” Jay says. “David Webb fits that philosophy—bold, distinctive, and timeless.”