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Asked whether the diamond jewelry they purchased during the course of 2021 was branded or unbranded, the American questioned said that about that two-thirds of all diamond jewelry acquisitions were branded. That was twice the proportion seen in 2015 and represents almost 80 percent of women’s diamond jewelry sales by value.
In a laconic announcement to the Australian Securities Exchange, Lucapa Diamond Company and and its partners reported that seven “exceptional” diamonds were sold for $20.4 million at an international diamond tender. One of them was the Lulo Rose.
On November 24, 2022, Americans will gather at home for the traditional Thanksgiving Day meal, and several hours later will kick off what each year is the most five weeks in the calendar year, the holiday season. Typically, jewelry stores expect to make somewhat north of 20 percent of their annual sales during December.
Research commissioned by De Beers Group in 2022 and reported upon in its recently released Diamond Insight Report confirms that sustainability remains a key consideration for consumers, and is having a tangible impacts on their purchasing decisions.
According to media reports, the meeting very nearly ended in a stalemate, with discussion on the final day stretching into the early hours of the following morning, because of the insistence of a group of mainly Western countries to include a paragraph in the final communique that referenced the war in Ukraine.
De Beers has released its most comprehensive picture yet of the diamond jewelry market in 2021, in its recently released Diamond Insight Report. According to the company, global demand for natural diamond jewelry in 2021 rose by an estimated 27 percent from 2020, and by 10 percent from 2019, which preceded the COVID pandemic.
The report found that 36 percent of women overall and 39 percent of Gen Z now specifically seek information on a jewelry brand’s ethical credentials when buying diamond jewelry. Some 40 percent of women overall said that knowing about the positive impact of diamonds on local mining communities would make them more likely to buy diamonds, while this proportion went up to 50 percent for Gen Z consumers.
The durability of a high-end luxury product, enhancing its aura of perceived sustainability, is increasingly a driving factor for affluent consumers, notes a report published jointly by Bain & Company’s Milan-based consultancy and the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF). It is an element that could play into the hands of the jewelry trade, in that, unlike fashion clothing, jewelry is inherently durable.
Sotheby’s has just announced that its sale in New York on December 7 will feature the Golden Canary, a pear-shaped stone weighing 303.1-carat, with a fancy-deep-brownish-yellow hue. It is the largest flawless or internally flawless diamond ever graded by the Gemological Institute of America (GIA).
For much of the first two decade of the current century, Zimbabwe was considered an international pariah. Led by an authoritarian and increasingly brutal president, who had headed its government since end of minority white rule in 1987, the nation had seen its economy spiral to a point that it could no longer feed its own population.
On October 24, 2022, the head of the Office of Sanctions Coordination at the U.S. State Department’s, Ambassador James O’Brien, met with a group of leading American diamond retailers, manufacturers, and laboratories. The meeting focused on the diamond industry’s implementation of Russia-focused sanctions and broader due diligence standards.
Auction house Sotheby’s recording a stunning result at its stand-alone single lot sale in Hong Kong on October 5, 2022, when the 11.15-carat Williamson Pink Star sold for $57.7 million, more than twice as much as its pre-sale estimate.
One month after Labor Day, traditionally regarded the end of the summer hiatus, and the U.S. retail is already counting down to the holiday season, which will kick off with the Thanksgiving Day weekend at the end of November. While certain signs are ominous, like the still rampant rate of inflation and war clouds in Ukraine, the mood in the market is still relatively even.
As they have for many years already, gemstone and jewelry buyers headed for Asia this September for a show orchestrated by Informa Markets. But their destination was not Hong Kong this time, but rather Singapore, which hosted Jewellery & Gem World for the first time, but was still billed as the biggest B2B jewellery sourcing destination of the year in her region
If all goes as planned, October and November should have a decidedly pink tinge, at least as far as the world’s two leading auction houses are concerned. On October 5 in Hong Kong, and then one month later in Geneva, two large fancy pink stones will go on the block, and together could net the companies in excess of $50 million.
Russia’s highly controversial and suspect referendum in four regions in east and southeast of Ukraine, and its stated intent to immediately annex some 15 percent of Ukrainian territory, have once again raised the issue of European Union sanctions on imports of rough diamonds from the Russian Federation.
When diamonds were discovered in Kimberley, South Africa, Jewish immigrants were among the thousands who arrived to seek their fortune. Among them was Londoner Barney Barnato, who together with Alfred Beit, a German Jewish financier and Cecil John Rhodes, created the De Beers conglomerate.
As the world has become transfixed by the pomp and pageant of the funeral of Queen Elizabeth II, three items of royal jewelry have caught the public’s attention, held above her casket as the late regent lay in state, and then again during the funeral service and procession, all the way to her final resting place in St. George’s Chapel at Windsor Castle.
The global luxury goods industry is accelerating its adoption of new technologies, looking to improve operational excellence, reduce their product’s carbon footprint and make customer relations more transparent, according to a new analysis released today by Bain & Company for the Comité Colbert, the French luxury trade association.
The accession of Charles III as king, has revived a centuries old debate about some of the country’s Crown Jewels, and in particular the Kohinoor Diamond, which was brought to London from India during the reign of Queen Victoria.
One of only two internally flawless fancy vivid pink diamonds of over 10 carats ever to come to auction, The Williamson Pink Star, is expected to make waves when offered at Sotheby’s in Hong Kong on October 5, and has being forecast that it will sell for more than $21 million.
There has long been speculation among scientists about vast quantities of diamonds, or possibly even planets comprised almost entirely of diamonds, located outside of our solar system. A new study published in the academic journal, Science Advances, confirms it most probably is in fact closer to home, on Uranus or Neptune.
The special relationship between tennis and diamond jewelry predates Serena Williams. Popular history says it started at the 1987 U.S. Open, when one the most celebrated women’s player at the time, Chris Evert, was remembered to have asked for a time out from officials during a game. But maybe it was before then.
The almost 20 percent youth unemployment rate that was announced by the Chinese National Bureau of Statistics earlier this month was the highest rate ever reported since the agency began publishing the index in January 2018. It will almost certainly impact the growth prospects of the country’s luxury sector.
All eyes are generally focused on the U.S. economy, and especially those of those of the diamond industry, which makes more than half its sales each year, at least in terms of value, as the song says, from sea to shining sea. For many, this current year provides a confusing picture, in part because the economic data are a deceptive, and in part because its depends on who is interpreting them.