RAPAPORT... Informa Markets, the organizer of the September Hong Kong show, has launched a digital platform enabling the jewelry industry to trade and network outside the context of physical exhibitions.The company behind the annual Jewellery & Gem World Hong Kong fair created the service together with jewelry-technology provider Atelier Technology. The platform will help users make connection...Read More
(IDEX Online) - AGS will again provide grading reports on lab-grown diamonds, in response to increased demand.The US-based American Gem Society (AGS) ditched the service in 2012 because there was too little interest.The move brings them in line with Gemological Science International (GSI) and other labs which already offer a service for lab-grown diamonds.It says its reports will feature unique co...Read More
(IDEX Online) - An Indian businessman paid $4,000 for a face mask made of gold, even though he admits it probably offers little protection from coronavirus.Shankar Kurhade, 49, of Pimpri-Chinchwad, Pune, says he has been mobbed by passers-by keen to take selfies with him.The mask, held on with white elastic, is made of about 50 grams of gold and has tiny holes for him to breathe through."I am not...Read More
(IDEX Online) - The Women's Jewellery Network, launched in the UK three years ago in a bid to smash the industry's "glass ceiling", has closed with immediate effect.It was founded by Victoria McKay, former chief operating officer of the London Diamond Bourse. It built up a following of thousands and an ambassador network covering many more countries, including Israel, Belgium, Fran...Read More
RAPAPORT... Is it appropriate for jewelers to market during the pandemic?Yes, now is when jewelers need business the most. I think it's the perfect time to increase marketing and market share. There are many jewelers that aren't going to make it. Should they advertise in the same way, or should they change their approach?They should focus on making it more personal. In my experience, as long...Read More
RAPAPORT... Informa Markets, the organizer of the September Hong Kong show, has launched a digital platform enabling the jewelry industry to trade and network outside the context of physical exhibitions.The company behind the annual Jewellery & Gem World Hong Kong fair created the service together with jewelry-technology provider Atelier Technology. The platform will help users make connection...Read More
(IDEX Online) - India's diamond polishing capital is slowly re-opening after a third lockdown, despite more than 1,700 workers testing positive for COVID-19.City authorities in Surat (pictured) have relaxed some earlier restrictions. From 1 August they have been allowing diamond markets to open six hours a day instead of four, and allowing two workers per polishing mill rather than one, provi...Read More
(IDEX Online) - Dubai is halving business set-up fees to attract new diamond companies and offering 12-months' free membership its diamond exchange. It launched the campaign by lighting up its message on the world's tallest building, the 830-meter high Burj Khalifa (pictured). The emirate has built up a $25bn-a-year diamond trade in the last 30 years, capitalizing on low taxation and co...Read More
(IDEX Online) - Christie's has sold a pendant necklace with a 116-carat diamond for $6,290,500 in its first "live" auction in New York since coronavirus.The pear-shaped brilliant-cut diamond (pictured) is 115.83 carats, F color, VVS1 clarity and the platinum necklace includes more than 50 other diamonds, of up to 5.50 carats. The price was shy of its $7m high estimate.The auction house said i...Read More
RAPAPORT PRESS RELEASE, August 4, 2020, Las Vegas... Polished diamond prices firmed in July due to supply shortages for select categories. Sentiment remained weak and trading levels low amid new Covid-19 restrictions.The RapNet Diamond Index (RAPI?,,?) for 1-carat polished diamonds rose 1.9% during the month, buoyed by improving investment demand and scarcity of D, IF diamonds. The index has falle...Read More
RAPAPORT... The American Gem Society (AGS) will resume grading synthetic diamonds after an eight-year pause.The group will offer digital reports for lab-grown stones as part of its Only My Diamond (OMD) platform, an online service to help the user understand the different grading elements, it said Monday. The reports will feature unique color and clarity terminology, laser inscriptions that clearl...Read More
RAPAPORT... Chow Sang Sang is expecting profit to plummet for the first half of the year amid store closures and a sharp decline in tourism to Hong Kong.Profit will fall between 65% and 70% year on year to an estimated HKD 200 million ($25.8 million) in the six months ending June 30, compared with HKD 615 million ($78.4 million) a year ago, the company warned last week. The jeweler was forced to s...Read More
RAPAPORT... New Jersey-based jewelry manufacturer Frederick Goldman has appointed Judah Zeigler vice president for business-to-business (B2B) e-commerce.He will be responsible for developing and leading all of Frederick Goldman's efforts in the field, in particular overseeing initiatives to help retailers identify and make best use of digital growth opportunities, the company said Thursday. H...Read More
RAPAPORT... Mumbai-based diamond manufacturer Asian Star believes jewelry demand will remain sluggish through the end of the quarter as the coronavirus weighs on consumer spending."Economic disruption caused by Covid-19 has changed consumer behavior, as people have become conservative in spending," the company said last week. "Consumer sentiment is expected to improve over a period of time.... The...Read More
RAPAPORT... De Beers is no stranger to changing strategy. Throughout its 130-plus-year history, the company has often adjusted its approach, sometimes with just a few tweaks, and on other occasions with radical consequences for the diamond market. Its next incarnation implements a bit of both as the company aims to emerge from the Covid-19 crisis a sleeker, more flexible and more tech-savvy o...Read More
(IDEX Online) - Australian miners Lucapa hopes to resume operations at its Mothae mine, in Lesotho, which has been closed since March because of the COVID-19 pandemic. "The Mothae diamond mine is an important contributor to the Basotho nation and Lucapa's strong marketing proposal, we believe, will see the full value of the Mothae kimberlite mine unlocked," said CEO Stephen Wetherall in a sta...Read More
RAPAPORT... Mumbai-based diamond manufacturer Asian Star believes jewelry demand will remain sluggish through the end of the quarter as the coronavirus weighs on consumer spending."Economic disruption caused by Covid-19 has changed consumer behavior, as people have become conservative in spending," the company said last week. "Consumer sentiment is expected to improve over a period of time.... The...Read More
(IDEX Online) - A rabbi's wife discovered on TV that a pearl and diamond ring she inherited was Van Cleef & Arpels, was worth $60,000 - twice as much as she thought.She told the Antiques Roadshow in the USA how her husband had been asked to officiate at the funeral of a man who wasn't a member of his congregation. "When she (the man's widow) passed, she left these two items...Read More
(IDEX Online) - Arctic Star is going it alone with plans to explore an area of Canada's Northwest Territories for diamonds.The Vancouver-based miner says it will invest $1.6m in a year-long drilling at the 25,000-hectare Diagras site, near the Arctic Circle, staring next spring, when work is most economic.Arctic Star is the 40 per cent partner in a joint venture with Margaret Lake Diamonds, w...Read More
RAPAPORT... Dubai has embarked on an eye-catching campaign to attract the global diamond industry to the emirate - and has lit up the world's tallest building to mark the launch.The story of a diamond's creation recently appeared on the side of the 830-meter Burj Khalifa skyscraper, promoting the city as a future hub for the trade, the Dubai Multi Commodities Centre (DMCC) said Friday. The di...Read More