Sentimental Charm Jewelry Gets a Cool-Girl Update With Pandora’s Talismans
Inspired by ancient coins, these new pieces are sleek, symbolic, and modern.
There is perhaps no piece of jewelry more recognized for commemorating a memory or milestone than a Pandora charm bracelet. A 25-year-old design that has played a key role in Pandora becoming one of the world’s largest jewelry brands (valued at $69.67 billion, according to a July 2025 Yahoo Finance report), the bracelet has helped millions celebrate sweet sixteens and 50th wedding anniversaries with stacks of sterling silver birthday cakes and puffy hearts on their wrists.
In recent years, as the fashion spirit has accelerated and become more discerning, and jewelry trends have shifted from minimal to maximal and back again, the Copenhagen-based brand has sought new ways to convey emotional stories through charms. As of August 28, that effort includes Pandora’s new Talisman collection, a 12-piece jewelry drop inspired by the ancient charms worn by early human civilizations.
“Charms were among the first pieces of jewelry worn by humans," Berta de Pablos-Barbier, Pandora’s chief marketing officer, tells me in between tours of the jewelry company’s facility in Chiang Mai, Thailand. “They were not meant to be just adornments but to bring luck, strength, or offer something meaningful spiritually to you, like a religious medallion.”
Inspired by the historic tradition of embedding symbolism into wearable objects and aligned with the brand's core value of blending sentimentality with style, Pandora Talisman lives up to its meaningful collection name. Think of the pieces as modern-day amulets—a romantic cupids pendant you’d wear on a first date as a good luck charm or a lion charm that helps you feel brave during a business pitch.
With Latin inscriptions—“amor vincit omnia” or “love conquers all” and “per aspera ad astra,” meaning “through hardships to the stars”—and an imperfectly perfect, pre-textured look, the coins resemble relics you’d find on an archaeological dig or under glass in a museum’s prehistoric wing.
That’s not to say the jewelry drop is without modern touches, ranging from $45 to $125. It features a 14k gold-plated pegasus charm with a man-made mother-of-pearl inlay that adds dimensionality, while other pieces include small, light-catching lab-grown diamond accents. A sun and moon split charm is crafted with half sterling silver and half 14k gold plating, creating a mixed-metal look that fits well with fall 2025 jewelry trends, which celebrate a non-prescriptive, personal style.
Admittedly, it’s somewhat ironic that a brand’s strategy to connect with the modern jewelry market involves revisiting styles worn roughly two million years ago. But as Pablos-Barbier explains, sometimes the best way to move forward is to look backward. “What better way to reinvent yourself as a brand and approach the next 25 years of Pandora’s charm-making than actually going back to the origins and re-enchant something that has always been there for us?”
Furthermore, Pandora’s Talisman collection, while a notable departure from its signature chunkier charm motifs on smooth chain bracelets, signifies the brand's evolution and ongoing success in doing what it has done so well for nearly three decades: creating wearable keepsakes with mass-market appeal. “It's not only about style; any brand can create a piece with style,” says Pablos-Barbier. “The most difficult aspect of jewelry design is creating a piece that has true meaning, storytelling, and soul. Pandora Talisman just so happens to do both.”
The Pandora Talisman collection launches on August 28 and is available for purchase on the jewelry brand's site.
