The Best Royal Jewels of 2025: #1 (The Princess of Wales Brings Back the Indian Circlet)

How could it be anything else? My best royal jewelry moment of 2025 was Queen Victoria’s Indian Circlet emerging from the vaults on the Princess of Wales at the German state banquet.

King Charles III and Queen Camilla hosted a glittering state banquet for the President of Germany at Windsor Castle during his state visit in December, and the Princess of Wales upped the sparkle factor considerably with her tiara choice. She nodded to the royal family’s German heritage by wearing a tiara that Prince Albert designed for Queen Victoria: the Indian Circlet, inspired by design elements that Albert saw at the Great Exhibition of 1851.

The tiara was originally set with opals, which were later replaced with rubies by Queen Alexandra, and it was originally a full circlet. (The size was reduced after diamonds were lost to the Hanoverian claim.) Queen Victoria tagged it as an Heirloom to the Crown, and it later became a particular favorite of Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother.

Queen Elizabeth II let her mother continue to wear the tiara after her accession, and after the Queen Mum’s death, she wore it in public just once: for a banquet in Malta in November 2005.

A full twenty years later, Princess Catherine brought it out of the vaults to wear for the German state banquet, pairing it with delicate diamond chandelier earrings that belonged to the late Queen. Kate joins a brief roster of royal ladies who have worn the circlet. All of them, with the exception of Catherine, have been either a reigning queen or a queen consort, but she’s on track to join that group one day in the future as well.

There have been some critiques online about the way that the tiara was positioned in Kate’s hair for the state banquet. She and her stylists set the circlet on top of her usual hairstyle, without an updo to anchor it. A tiara of this size and style takes some practice to wear confidently.

I’ll direct you all to this photograph of the Queen Mother, taken in November 1937 during a state visit from the King of the Belgians. She too wore the tiara more precariously at first, until experience allowed her to find the ideal placement for the circlet. Here’s hoping the same will hold true for the present Princess of Wales.

Thanks for following along with my countdown of the best royal jewelry moments of 2025! Now, it’s your turn: drop your top ten list in the comments below!