Interview: Incador co-founder Alice Chave – ‘We want to rewrite the story of luxury’

Alice and Karen Chave are on a mission: they want to rewrite the story of what luxury means in the modern world. They are the co-founders of Incador, a fine jewellery brand that creates pieces by using gold recycled from electronic waste. Both engineers by background, they created Incador after seeing the social and environmental cost of conventional gold mining and the scale of unused e-waste.

Alice and Karen’s entire ethos is to create fine jewellery in the most unique and sustainable way possible. Each piece of jewellery they create – all 100% sourced from discarded e-waste like old iPhones – can be traced right back to their origins, ensuring complete transparency. They also reinvest a portion of their gold purchases into health, educational and environmental initiatives for artisanal mining communities. 

The result is a bespoke fine jewellery brand that creates pieces tailor-made for the buyer, and blends fine jewellery and technology in a way rarely seen before – all without compromising on sustainability.

Here, we speak with Alice Chave about how she started Incador with her sister, the process of creating fine jewellery through e-waste, sustainability and the unique challenges of merging tech with fashion.

Related: All the watches featured in F1 The MovieYou and your sister Karen are the founders of Incador. What was the inspiration behind founding your own fine jewellery brand?
Alice and I have loved gold jewellery for as long as we can remember. It was a tradition of ours to buy a jewellery piece on every holiday, collecting memories and mementos that we would cherish forever. As we grew older, we came to understand how opaque the conventional gold supply chain can be. Too often, gold is treated as a canvas for design when, in reality, it is a 4.6 billion year old metal with a remarkable scientific story, indestructible yet infinitely malleable and the only naturally golden element on Earth. We founded Incador to honour gold’s story and to show that beauty and rigour can co-exist. Every collection is therefore a blend of distinctive design, novel technology and rigorously sourced material.

You create jewellery using gold recycled from electronic waste like old iPhones, among others, in a unique example of combining tech with fine jewellery. Can you please talk us through that process? How does that work?
The process begins by dismantling the devices into the separate components that contain precious metals, such as circuit boards and connectors. These parts go through a specialised process which involves crushing, treatment and separation techniques to extract the gold and other valuable metals. It’s complex, but the key is doing it in a way that is environmentally responsible. We work with certified partners who employ closed-loop circuits, avoiding cyanide, mercury and other toxic shortcuts. The result is pure, 99.99 percent fine gold. What makes our partners environmentally responsible is their use of advanced closed loop systems. Instead of open air burning or acid leaching, they use techniques varying from bioleaching, pre-scrubbing and non-toxic chemical separation – all run under tightly monitored conditions. These systems are designed to minimise waste, capture emissions and recycle any by-products.
What made you want to create jewellery through recycled electronic waste?
Electronic waste, or e-waste, is now the fastest growing waste stream globally. In 2024, the world generated over 60 million tonnes of it and only 22% was formally recycled. This means we are losing tonnes of precious materials every year while continuing to mine new resources at an enormous environmental cost. The extractive industry, specifically mining, is one of the most energy-intensive sectors globally. By turning discarded technology into beautiful heirlooms, we want to re-write the story of luxury. Luxury does not have to rely on virgin extraction. For heritage clients used to newly mined gold, we demonstrate that recycled metal is indistinguishable. For Gen Z clients who balance sustainability with style, our jewellery proves that circularity can feel exquisite and timeless.

How has your background in chemical and environmental engineering helped you with Incador?
It exposed us to the hidden costs of the precious-metals supply chain, from exploitative labour conditions, to miners inhaling mercury vapour and supply chains so fragmented that no one feels accountable. Our jewellery is only the visible tip of a larger narrative: a proof-of-concept that luxury and social responsibility can share the same hallmark. Our purpose is to turn that proof into a new baseline for the industry and our mission is to give every client the chance to join this movement, embodied in gold jewellery they can wear with pride.

Related: Orient Express: Sample Italy’s finest golf courses by trainWhat are the challenges, if any, of growing tech partnerships as a fine jewellery brand?
Scale is our biggest challenge. Most electronic waste processors handle thousands of tonnes a month, whilst our debut collection used barely a kilogram of recycled gold. Partnering with a refinery to pause its production flow for boutique-sized lots demands close, hands-on collaboration with its team and a willingness to pay a premium for traceability. On the upside, our agility as a start up lets us move quickly. We can adopt cutting-edge tools and refine our methods in weeks rather than years, giving both us and our partners a head start that incumbent companies cannot match.

In a world where everything is bespoke and hyper-personalised, how does Incador ensure their customers receive jewellery that is uniquely their own?
Each jewellery piece leaves our atelier with its very own passport, a discreet QR code that unlocks its full provenance. A single scan reveals its full origin; the batch of electronics that yielded the gold as well as where it was refined and crafted. Clients can also embed their own story into our jewellery by setting birthstones or adding other personal touches. The result is jewellery that is distinctive both in design and provenance, giving its owner clear proof of origin and a measure of exclusivity.

You reinvest a portion of your gold purchases into artisanal mining communities. Why is this so important to you?
Artisanal and small-scale mining (ASM) supports around 45 million people directly and a further 315 million indirectly across over 80 countries. Yet, an estimated 80% of these operations are informal or illegal, exposing miners to exploitative middlemen, mercury and unsafe infrastructure. We believe that the fine jewellery sector should work alongside these communities rather than overlook them, so we channel a premium of 500 US dollars for every kilogram of gold we purchase. These funds are passed onto a field charity that funds locally chosen projects in health, education and basic infrastructure in Chala, Peru.
It is clear that sustainability is paramount at Incador. What are some of the practices you employ to maximise ethical and sustainable sourcing?
In the summer of 2025 we were proud to install two sleek electronic collection banks across UCL campuses, the university of which we are alumni. Our Tech for Treasure campaign is designed to make electronic-waste recycling effortlessly accessible, encourage participation among the next generation and to give us clear data on engagement. Regarding our supply chain, we only source gold accredited by the London Bullion Market Association (LBMA), complete with full chain-of-custody documentation and we craft every piece in London, where we can vouch for fair labour and safe working conditions. Finally, our Circular Creation Initiative invites clients to trade in legacy pieces at spot value or have them re-imagined by our goldsmiths, ensuring that every gram can be melted and reused.

Where do you hope to see Incador in the next ten years?
By 2035 we aim to have Incador collection points in every major city, funnelling a million end-of-life electronics each year into the circular economy for use in our jewellery. We hope to open Incador boutique stores worldwide, where we can offer clients exclusive, immersive experiences. Above all, we want to give people a tangible reason to see sustainability not as a concession but as an upgrade in luxury.

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