(IDEX Online) - Prices fell during February after what now appears to have been a false start to the recovery in December. Losses dominated among almost all sizes of goods, much as they did during January. Demand is slow and markets are quiet after the holiday season, Valentine's Day and the Chinese New Year. Rough supply remains slow (De Beers sold just $370m in January). Miners say there wi...Read More
(IDEX Online) - LVMH is the world's most valuable luxury company, based on market capitalization and revenue.That's according to Insider Monkey, the investing website that has just published its top 25, based on a snapshot of their figures from 15 February. The French conglomerate LVMH (Louis Vuitton Moet Hennessy), owns 75 maisons, including eight watch and jewelry brands (am...Read More
(IDEX Online) - Online searches for engagement rings have spiked ahead of Leap Day today - when women traditionally switch roles to pop the question.It's already a busy month for diamond sales because of Valentine's Day, but 29 February increases demand every four years, says eBay UK.The e-commerce giant says there's been a 220 per cent increase in searches for engagement ring...Read More
(IDEX Online) - Tiffany & Co tops the list of jewlery brands sold on the e-commerce marketplace 1stDibs.Cartier takes second place, followed by Van Cleef and Arpels, Bulgari and David Yurman in the company's first Jewelry Trend Report.The US-based company said Art Deco engagement rings were the most popular (49 per cent of orders) followed by Contemporary, Edwardian, Retro ad Artisan.Roun...Read More
(IDEX Online) - Two people have been arrested after packages of jewelry were allegedly intercepted from delivery companies in Sacramento, California, USA.One of the, named as Lakisha Pettus, is accused of posing as a jewelry company employee to trick deliverers into handing over three packages, valued at $86,000.The other, Kyle Gutierrez, is accused of taking delivery of three packages,...Read More
(IDEX Online) - Diamond Foundry, the Silicon Valley startup, says test production of lab growns at its new factory in Trujillo, Spain, will begin this autumn.It estimates output at more than 2m carats a year with 168 plasma reactors using its own patented CVD (chemical vapor deposition) method.The majority of the diamonds it produces will be for the automotive sector or 5G communication netw...Read More
(IDEX Online) - Lab grown prices have yet to bottom, and could fall by a further 80 per cent, says one industry expert.The gap with natural diamonds has been widening since labs growns first became mainstream in 2018.In some cases like-for-like lab growns are now just 10 per cent the price of a natural.But Cormac Kinney, CEO of the commodities trading firm Diamond Standard, believes there's s...Read More
(IDEX Online) - Lightbox has been testing out lower prices for its lab grown diamonds.It says its Standard quality stones have been discounted from $800 a carat to $600 and its Finest range of higher quality lab growns have been reduced from $1,500 a carat to $1,000.But the De Beers-owned company says it will retain the linear pricing policy - a fixed cost per carat - which it has promoted since i...Read More
(IDEX Online) - A smart earring developed at University of Washington, USA, monitors earlobe temperature.It senses skin temperature more accurately than a smartphone and could be developed to monitor signs of stress, eating, exercise and ovulation.The thermal earring prototype is about the size and weight of a small paperclip. It incorporates circuitry, a Bluetooth chip, a battery, two temperature...Read More
(IDEX Online) - Swiss Supreme Court Sounds off on Customized Watches in Rolex CaseSwitzerland's highest court has made a landmark ruling on the legality of a third party selling customized Rolex watches.It distinguishes between watch personalization for a client, which is acceptable, and the general marketing of modified Rolex watches, which is not.The Swiss Federal Supreme Court considered t...Read More
(IDEX Online) - Masked raiders fled a jewelry store in California, USA, after the owner fired shots.One hit the ground and another struck the window at Geneva Jewelry, Riverside, on Saturday (17 February).A female customer who was caught up in the smash and grab managed to run past the raiders to safety at the back of the store.The two suspects entered the store at around 11am and started using ha...Read More
(IDEX Online) - Mountain Province Diamonds has increased its production guide for this year, from 4.0m cts - 4.4m cts to 4.2m cts - 4.7m cts.The Toronto-based miner says it now expects an increase in recovered grade at the Gahcho Kue mine it operates as a joint venture with De Beers in Northwest Territories.It also expects improvements in plant throughput and overall process utilization (OPU...Read More
(IDEX Online) - Anglo American has written down the value of De Beers by $1.6bn - or 17 per cent - as reduced demand continues to drive down diamond prices.It now values the miner at $7.6bn. Anglo American took control of De Beers after buying the Oppenheimer family's 40 per cent stake in 2011 for $5.1bn. It holds as 85 per cent stake. The government of Botswana owns the remainder."Our update...Read More
(IDEX Online) - Elton John's yellow gold leopard print Rolex Daytona sold for $176,400 at Christie's New York, smashing its pre-sale estimate of $40,000 to $60,000.The watch, set with diamonds and orange sapphires, was the highlight of a collection that included 13 Cartiers, five Chopards, four Hublots, two Audemars Piguets and two Franck Mullers. The Rolex Daytona set a new world auctio...Read More
(IDEX Online) - The Kimberley Process (KP) is considering moves to reinstate parts of the Central African Republic's (CAR) diamond trade.A temporary ban on the import and export of rough diamonds was imposed by the KP in 2013, after yet another coup - the sixth since it gained independence from France in 1960.Eight of the country's 24 subprefectures have since been approved for diamond e...Read More
(IDEX Online) - De Beers suffered a drop in revenue of almost 36 per cent in 2023, down from $6.6bn to $4.3bn.It blamed a rise in polished diamond inventories, increases in inflation and interest rates, macro-economic challenges an the rising supply of lab growns.The UK-based miner expects industry conditions to remain challenging in the short term. But the long-term outlook is favorable, it says...Read More
(IDEX Online) - The World Federation of Diamond Bourses (WFDB) says it is still pursuing its fight against the so-called Belgian Plan, which would route all G7 diamonds through a single entry point in Antwerp.The newest phase of sanctions on Russia diamonds (over 1-ct, cut and polished anywhere) is due to be implemented on 1 March, although details of how it will operate have yet to be made public...Read More
(IDEX Online) - Lucara yesterday (21 February) announced the recovery of a 320-carat diamond from its Karowe mine, in Botswana, together with a 111-carat stone, and two +50-carat stones.The Vancouver-based miner has now recovered 330 +100-ct diamonds since the mine began commercial production in 2012.The 320-carat recovery is described as "a stunning, gem-quality, top light brown diamond". The oth...Read More
(IDEX Online) - GIA says it has expanded its new verification service - aimed at combating "cloned diamond" fraud - to all its labs.The Report Confirmation Service was launched last month in New York to identify lab growns being submitted for regrading as natural diamonds.GIA says the service is now available at all locations. It will accept walk-in and courier submissions, will turn around loose...Read More
(IDEX Online) - Anglo American is to cut 3,700 jobs in its platinum division after profits plunged. It blames "macroeconomic uncertainty", and a 35 per cent fall in price of platinum group metals (PGM), which are used in catalytic converters as well as jewelry (electric cars don't use catalytic converters).Anglo American Platinum (Amplats) profits for 2023 were down 71 per cent to ?586m...Read More