RAPAPORT... Israel has an opportunity to forge a new specialism in diamond synthesis as its polishing sector diminishes, according to a leading hi-tech executive and founder of a lab-grown venture.The country's once-thriving diamond-manufacturing industry has mostly shifted to India, with only a trading sector remaining, noted Benny Landa, a pioneer of digital printing and chairman of Israel-based...Read More
RAPAPORT... Last year will go down as a difficult one for the diamond industry. While manufacturers took the biggest hit with thin profit margins, tight liquidity and excess supply, miners also suffered as rough demand slumped. Plenty of global events also affected the trade, from stock-market volatility to street protests in Hong Kong.The Rapaport Weekly Market Comment is a much-read summary of s...Read More
(IDEX Online News) - The old year ended with more of a fizzle than a bang, at least where polished diamond prices were concerned. December 2019 prices started at 120.90 and ended at almost the same point - 120.93 - with a slight dip mid-month. OutlookDemand for polished goods remained low in December, this was especially true for the larger, higher-priced items even though their p...Read More
RAPAPORT... For Andrea Hansen, a Blue Nile ad that ran during the 2015 holiday season perfectly captures the problem with jewelry retail. In it, a young man is looking at engagement rings through the window of a mom-and-pop store when a cringe-worthy salesman in a cheap suit bursts forth asking if he needs help. The gent promptly flees, and the point is made. (See video at end of article.)"Th...Read More
(IDEX Online) - Auction site eBay has released its annual "Most Interesting and Expensive Purchases" of the year list. While watches and jewelry couldn't compete with the biggest buy on the site - the 20th annual power lunch with Warren Buffett to benefit GLIDE, which sold for: $4.6 million, they put in a good show. The top-selling jewelry items included a gold ring featuring a 5.01 yell...Read More
RAPAPORT... Whether it's big, bold, bright or ball-shaped, this year's jewelry will be all about making a statement. Staying true to the millennial fashion ethos, responsibly sourced materials and new, unique styles will play a big role in tomorrow's jewelry trends.We take a look at the top picks for 2020 according to Vogue, Forbes, Harper's Bazaar and Cosmopolitan.Going naturalRaw materials...Read More
RAPAPORT... Paris's Haute ??cole de Joaillerie (HEJ) is the oldest jewelry school in the world. Founded by the French jewelry industry in the 19th century, it recently celebrated its 150th anniversary. Several major jewelry houses, including Boucheron and Mellerio dits Meller, have been involved with the HEJ from the start. At 58 Rue du Louvre, the school works together with the French Jewelr...Read More
(IDEX Online) - Following on from November, the price of round diamonds continued to be fairly stable throughout December. That's not to say there were no changes. Goods below 0.70 carats saw positive changes, as did those sized 4-5 carats. However, in the important 0.90-1.00 carats,prices trended downwards as they did for diamonds sized 2.00-2.99 carats.Smaller fancies, below 0.70 carats saw...Read More
RAPAPORT... Sales of timepieces at Sotheby's broke a record for the auction house, netting the highest annual total in the company's history, at $108.7 million.The total increased 22% year on year, and 153% over the past decade, with nearly half of lots fetching prices above their high estimate Sotheby's said last week. George Daniels' Space Traveller I achieved the highest price of the year,...Read More
RAPAPORT... Alrosa has published its schedule of contract sales and auctions for next year.The Russian miner has maintained its format of monthly sales under the Alrosa Alliance, its long-term supply program. It will also hold 34 auctions of rough diamonds over 10.8 carats, with 11 taking place in Moscow and three in the Russian city of Vladivostok. Other sales will occur in Antwerp, Dubai, Hong K...Read More
RAPAPORT... It was another big year for big diamonds, with several stones that set records, raked in big bucks or otherwise made headlines. These were the stones that caught our attention in 2019.Biggest money makers1. Big blueIn November, Petra Diamonds sold a 20.08-carat, type IIb, gem-quality blue diamond recovered at its Cullinan mine in South Africa for $14.9 million, or $742,032 pe...Read More
RAPAPORT... There's a running joke here at Rapaport News that if we just put "GIA," "De Beers" and "synthetics" into a headline in a random order and added a few filler words, it would automatically get the diamond industry clicking by the thousands.Such is the importance of those topics in the eyes of the trade. This year was not too different, with grading laboratories, lab-grown stones and the...Read More
RAPAPORT... Sales of timepieces at Sotheby's broke a record for the auction house, netting the highest annual total in the company's history, at $108.7 million.The total increased 22% year on year, and 153% over the past decade, with nearly half of lots fetching prices above their high estimate Sotheby's said last week. George Daniels' Space Traveller I achieved the highest price of the year,...Read More
RAPAPORT... Alrosa has published its schedule of contract sales and auctions for next year.The Russian miner has maintained its format of monthly sales under the Alrosa Alliance, its long-term supply program. It will also hold 34 auctions of rough diamonds over 10.8 carats, with 11 taking place in Moscow and three in the Russian city of Vladivostok. Other sales will occur in Antwerp, Dubai, Hong K...Read More
RAPAPORT... It was another big year for big diamonds, with several stones that raked in big bucks, set records, or otherwise made headlines. These were the stones that caught our attention in 2019.Biggest money makers1. Big blueIn November, Petra Diamonds sold a 20.08-carat, type IIb, gem-quality blue diamond recovered at its Cullinan mine in South Africa for $14.9 million, or $742,032 p...Read More
RAPAPORT... Suzanne Martinez, co-owner of Lang Antiques in San Francisco, explains how to distinguish the real from the repro.How difficult is it to date diamond rings? As with all types of forensic work, one clue is not conclusive. It is not unusual to find original Art Deco rings set with earlier diamond cuts that were remounted as styles changed. With careful examination, a circa date - plus or...Read More
RAPAPORT... When it comes to the jewelry industry's future, consumer trust is essential. Recent research shows that a vast majority of customers are more disposed to purchase a product from a company that advocates for an issue they care about. In contrast, they would refuse to buy from a company with a moral code that went against their beliefs, even if no alternative were available. To attr...Read More
(IDEX Online) - Alrosa has announced that it plans to hold 34 auctions for or special size rough diamonds (weighing over 10.8 carats) during 2020. According to Russian law, these specials must be auctioned. Eleven of the planned Russian auctions will take place in Moscow with three further sales being held in Vladivostok.Other tenders will take place in the centers in which Alrosa has trading...Read More
RAPAPORT... Alrosa has unearthed a rough stone weighing 190.77 carats from its Botuobinskaya pipe in the Siberian republic of Yakutia.The company has estimated the white, high-quality diamond is approximately 2 billion years old. It plans to send it to the company's United Selling Organization for a more detailed evaluation, the miner said last week."The discovery of such a large and high-qua...Read More
RAPAPORT... After 16 years of working as a manufacturer - 10 of which he spent as manager of Laurence Graff's South African business Safdico - Ilan Kaplan decided to "turn on its head all the traditional thinking in the diamond industry." Together with fellow rough-diamond specialist Ravi Gukin and polished-diamond expert Daniel Feigin, Kaplan founded iSparkle in August 2018 - a lean, mean ma...Read More