The Alchemist of Emotion: Inside Susan Cohen’s Magnificent Mechanical Mind
To truly understand the intricate, whirring world of Susan Cohen’s mind, you need only look at one of her most emblematic creations. It’s a piece that encapsulates her entire philosophy in a single, elegant object: a singular, perfectly weighted cube known as “Rollin’ the Dice.” At first glance, it is a marvel of miniature artistry. Tiny, brilliant-cut diamonds glitter along its edges, catching the light like captured stars. On one face, a delicate daisy is rendered in vibrant enamel, a splash of organic beauty against the cube’s geometric precision. But this is no mere ornament. This is a conversation starter with fate itself.
Engraved on its remaining faces are answers to life’s most pressing, whispered questions, all rendered in the romantic script of French. There is the decisive Oui. The firm Non. The intriguing ambiguity of a question mark. And then, there is the fourth, most telling answer, the one that perfectly captures the spirit of its creator: C’est fou!
As Cohen, the visionary founder of the jewelry brand Circa 1700, explains, this phrase is a beautiful chameleon of meaning. It can be a joyful exclamation of “It’s incredible!” or a bewildered whisper of “That’s crazy!” It’s the answer for when life presents an opportunity so wild, a dream so audacious, that logic fails. Cohen advises her clients not to simply roll the die, but to spin it like a top, watching it dance with destiny before it settles. It is an oracle for aspirations, a whimsical tool to help determine a path forward when the heart and head are in conflict. This single piece is a microcosm of everything Circa 1700 represents: a fusion of exquisite craftsmanship, interactive mechanics, and deeply personal storytelling.
Cohen’s infatuation with the kinetic and the concealed is a golden thread running through her entire collection. Consider the Secret Talisman Orb, a customizable pendant that is less a piece of jewelry and more a miniature, wearable world. This globular marvel is engineered with breathtaking precision. One half of the sphere rotates on a gyroscopic axis, a silent, smooth swivel that reveals a hidden inner sanctum. This secret space can be customized to hold what is most precious to the wearer: a constellation of their birthstone, a hand-painted enamel portrait of a loved one, or a tiny, engraved line of poetry. It transforms the act of wearing a necklace into an intimate ritual, a private universe resting close to the heart, its secrets known only to the one who holds the key to its movement.
This devotion to mechanics is not an afterthought; it is the very soul of her brand. Her collections are filled with interactive marvels that invite touch and play. There are clasps that are not merely functional but are themselves intricate puzzles, clicking into place with a deeply satisfying precision. She designs rings where messages are not engraved plainly but are painstakingly translated into the subtle dots and dashes of Morse code, a secret language shared between the giver and the receiver. Pendants are crafted with hidden chambers and flipping mechanisms, their innermost messages only legible when the wearer physically interacts with the piece, turning it over to catch the light in just the right way.
For Cohen, this intricate dance of form and function is rooted in a profound philosophy. “The human form is a canvas,” she muses, her voice filled with the quiet passion of an artist discussing their medium. “Every single day, when we select our clothing, our accessories, our jewelry, we are painting that canvas. We are telling the world a story about who we are in that moment.”
Each piece, in her view, is a deliberate act of self-expression. “Every necklace, every ring, is a brushstroke adding to the complex imagery of our personal masterpiece,” Cohen elaborates. “There is no right or wrong way to adorn yourself. The only rule is to find what speaks to you, what resonates with your own narrative.” Her personal style reflects this eclectic belief. “I love to mix it up—different metals, different design eras, high and low. I’m drawn to jewelry that is steeped in symbolism or intensely personal, but I always strive for it to be fun and filled with surprises. That’s where my fascination with mechanical jewelry truly comes into play. It rewards closer inspection by revealing more of itself.”
This fascination didn’t spring from a vacuum. The seeds of Circa 1700 were planted long ago, nurtured by a unique and intellectually vibrant upbringing. Based in Los Angeles, Cohen’s brand is a direct descendant of her family history. Her parents, both brilliant minds, met at the hallowed halls of Cambridge University before emigrating to Canada to build a new life. Her mother, a woman of Slovenian heritage with a deep appreciation for the beauty of the past, made it her mission to give her children the world. She didn’t just show them pictures in books; she took them there. Young Susan was led by the hand through the dusty antique shops of European capitals, the bustling, vibrant flea markets of distant lands, and the quiet, reverent aisles of world-class museums. From her mother, she inherited an eye for enduring beauty and an understanding that every object, from a tarnished locket to a chipped porcelain teacup, held a story.
While her mother cultivated her artistic soul, her father sculpted her analytical mind. A prodigious intellect, he attended college at the tender age of 15 and went on to graduate from Cambridge with a Ph.D. in a field as complex as its name: nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy. “He wasn’t just smart; he was a literal genius,” Cohen says with a mix of awe and affection. “From a very young age, he instilled in me a profound curiosity about how things work. We wouldn’t just look at a clock; we’d discuss the gears. He taught me to see the world as a series of interconnected mechanisms.”
This scientific curiosity wasn’t confined to textbooks and laboratories. “He definitely taught me to think outside the box,” she adds. “He encouraged me to wonder how a mechanical principle could be applied in a completely different context. Now, the minute I stumble upon an old piece of machinery or a clever little mechanism, my mind immediately wants to deconstruct it and reimagine how it can be used to tell a story in gold and silver. It’s that legacy from him.”
However, the path to becoming a master jeweler was anything but direct. It was a winding road through industries that, on the surface, seem worlds apart from the delicate art of jewelry design. Her first major career chapter was in the burgeoning tech industry of the 1990s. From 1996 to 1998, she worked at Expert Software in Miami, first as a product manager. In this role, she developed products for the games and entertainment division, collaborating with giants like Microsoft and McDonald’s. This wasn’t just a job; it was a crucible where she learned about user interaction, engagement, and the art of creating a delightful experience—skills that would later define her kinetic jewelry. She was then promoted to online manager, where she spearheaded the company’s e-commerce initiatives, gaining a sharp business acumen.
A move to California saw her join Full Moon Interactive as a business development manager, and from 1999 to 2001, she served as the Vice President of Business Development at Path. This period honed her ability to build something from the ground up, to see a vision and strategically bring it to life.
But another powerful passion was calling to her: storytelling. “After my time in tech, I decided to go back to school for film,” Cohen recalls. “It’s an industry I am still active in, having sold scripts to major players like Comedy Central and MRC, and worked on projects with Lionsgate, Ben Stiller’s company Red Hour, and Legendary.” This background in screenwriting is perhaps the most crucial key to understanding her work. Her jewelry pieces are not static objects; they are wearable scripts. They have an establishing shot (the initial design), rising action (the discovery of the mechanism), a climax (the reveal of the secret), and a resolution (the emotional connection with the wearer).
The spark that would finally ignite Circa 1700 came while she was a student at the prestigious American Film Institute (AFI). A classmate, admiring a piece of antique jewelry Cohen was wearing, struck up a conversation. “We were typical film students—full of creative ambition but completely broke,” she laughs. “We were drooling over all this incredible jewelry we couldn’t possibly afford. So, half-jokingly, we decided we should just start making our own.”
What began as a humble adventure in wire wrapping and stringing beads in a student apartment quickly awakened something profound in her. “I realized that this was it. This was the medium where I could fuse my love of antique aesthetics, my passion for storytelling, and my obsession with mechanics. I wanted to create a line that felt both timeless and full of life.”
She founded Circa 1700 in 2013, and her design process remains intensely personal. It always begins with a simple question: What does she want to wear? She becomes the first test subject, the original audience. “I have to feel an emotional connection to the pieces I design,” she insists. “They need to symbolize something intrinsic to who we are and what we want to say about ourselves. A piece of jewelry should be multifaceted in the story it tells or the journey it describes. And if there’s a little mystery to it as well, all the better.”
This is the magnificent, mechanical mind of Susan Cohen. A mind where a father’s scientific genius, a mother’s love for history, a tech innovator’s understanding of interaction, and a filmmaker’s gift for narrative all converge. The result is Circa 1700—not just a brand, but a world of wearable wonders, where every piece is a puzzle, a story, and a secret waiting to be told.
