Diamonds are a girl's best friend, goes the song, and judging by the 'oohs' and 'aahs' coming from a specially set up tent at Fort Canning earlier this week, some people have just made a whole lot of new best friends.

The sighing and marvelling was over a sparkling jewellery exhibition with more than 60 pieces on display, including some designed by French fashion icon Coco Chanel herself, and featuring two diamond necklaces, together worth $4.85 million.

One, the Haute Couture necklace worth $3.8 million, is made of 18K white gold, set with an oval-cut diamond of 8 carats, 63 baguette-cut diamonds and - wait for this - a grand total of 2,154 brilliant-cut diamonds. 'Brilliant-cut' refers to its round shape.

The other is the legendary Comete necklace, designed by the late Mademoiselle Chanel and worth $1.05 million. It is made of platinum and set with a 4-carat diamond and 645 smaller diamonds. Chanel designed it without a clasp, with diamond tails shooting across the neck, accentuating the nape.

The nice neck ice is part of the Chanel Bijoux De Diamants Fine Jewellery Exhibition which begins today at the recently opened Chanel Watch and Fine Jewellery boutique in Takashimaya. It runs until the middle of next month.

Invited guests were treated to a private viewing earlier in the week at Fort Canning.

This is the first time that the exhibition has been held in South-east Asia.

Ms Vanessa Lim, Chanel's general manager for its communications division, says it celebrates the opening of the store in April this year - the brand's first watch and fine jewellery boutique in Singapore. There are 45 such boutiques around the world.

On show is haute-couture jewellery from the brand's current collection, as well as eight re-edition pieces designed by Chanel for her first fine jewellery collection successfully held in the middle of the Great Depression in 1932.

Chanel was invited by Paris' International Guild of Diamond Merchants, which wanted to drum up publicity for the industry during the tough times, to design the collection. She became the first couturier - and woman - to design a fine-jewellery collection.

Only one item from her first collection exists today - the Comete 1932 star-shaped brooch, made of platinum with 37 brilliantcut diamonds with a 3.14-carat brilliant-cut diamond in the centre.

It was believed to have been given to Chanel as a gift. The other remaining original pieces no longer exist as they were dismantled after they were showcased in 1932.

The original Comete brooch is not for sale, nor is it in the exhibition, but fans can buy a re-edition which costs $478,100.

Other re-edition pieces at the exhibition that were designed by Chanel include the Fontaine necklace in platinum, set with 405 diamonds, worth $1.179 million.

Of diamonds, Chanel once famously said that they 'represent the greatest value in the smallest volume'.

Ms Lim says: 'This is a rare chance to see designs from the 1932 collection.'

And as the invited guests found earlier this week, it certainly puts the 'ooh' in ooh-la-la.

View it

The exhibition's star bling is the sole existing original item from Coco Chanel's first collection - the Comete 1932 star-shaped brooch (below) made of platinum with 37 brilliant-cut diamonds and 3.14-carat brilliant-cut diamond in the centre.

Where: Chanel Watch and Fine Jewellery, 01-04 Takashimaya

When: Till Oct 12

Admission: Free

This article was first published in The Straits Times.