(IDEX Online) - Police are hunting three robbers, believed to be armed, who used sledgehammers to smash display cases at a jewelry store in Charlotte, North Carolina, USA.They entered Fink's Jewelers, in Birkdale Village, at lunchtime last Tuesday (11 July) wearing hooded sweatshirts and full-face mask and ordered staff to one part of the store while they stole jewelry. Nobody was hurt in the...Read More
(IDEX Online) - More than 230 delegates attended an inaugural lab grown symposium in Dubai to address issues facing the industry.It was, said Ahmed Bin Sulayem, (pictured) chairman of the Dubai Diamond Exchange (DDE), the first event of its kind in the world."With over $1.5bn of lab-grown diamonds traded through Dubai last year - a year-on-year increase of 126 per cent - we are witnessing first-ha...Read More
(IDEX Online) - Titan Company says revenue from its 559 jewelry stores - including Tanishq and CaratLane - was up by 21 per cent year-on-year in the three months to 30 June.Watches and wearables saw a 13 per cent increase in sales, in over 1,000 outlets."Buyer growth was higher than average ticket size growth for this period," the company said in a quarterly update.Titan, based in Bengaluru, India...Read More
(IDEX Online) - Australian jeweler Michael Hill is expanding its range of lab growns, and expects them to account for 10 per cent of its revenue, up from six per cent currently.The company is now selling lab grown earrings, necklaces, and tennis bracelets at its 281 outlets across Australia, New Zealand and Canada. "We haven't made a big noise about lab-created diamonds until now b...Read More
(IDEX Online) - De Beers has reportedly cut the price of larger rough by as much as 20 per cent at this week's sight (cycle 6) in Gaborone, Botswana, amid increasing caution from buyers. The move follows price reductions last month and a drop in total sales of almost a third during cycle 5, down to $450m.Prices of stones over 2-cts have been reduced by 10 to 20 per cent, according to a T...Read More
(IDEX Online) - The retail price of polished diamonds in China has remained stable over the last six months, despite a collapse in the rough market.That's according to an informal survey of salespeople at major jewelry stores in Shanghai, by Yicai Global, an English language state-owned news service.Staff at Chow Tai Fook Jewellery, Leysen Jewellery, Kimberlite Diamond and other retailers sai...Read More
(IDEX Online) - Tiffany & Co has bought an extremely rare emerald weighing over 10 carats and described as the finest ever sourced from the famed Muzo mines of Colombia.It is virtually inclusion-free, has no fissures and has a perfectly saturated green color.The New York-based jeweler did not disclose the price or provide a precise specification."We are thrilled to announce our recent acquisit...Read More
(IDEX Online) - The first piece of jewlery from a collection marking the closure of the iconic Argyle mine, in Australia, has been revealed.The rose gold and platinum Argyle Lotus ring is set with 3.34 carats of Argyle pinks, 3.82 carats of white diamonds with a "hidden" 0.12 carat fancy Argyle blue on the underside.The Lotus ring is the first piece of jewelry in the Argyle Heritage Collection, pa...Read More
(IDEX Online) - Signet ranks 56th in a new list of top US retailers compiled by the NRF (National Retail Federation) with worldwide sales of $8.32bn in 2022.It jumps from 66th place last year, following its acquisition during 2022 of the online retailer Blue Nile for $360m and Diamonds Direct, the chain of 22 specialty jewelry stores, for $490m.In 2021 Signet also bought the jewelry-rental s...Read More
(IDEX Online) - A platinum ring set with a 9.70-ct fancy intense yellow diamond is among the highlights of Bonhams California Jewels auction.The emerald cut VS2 diamond (pictured) is flanked by tapered-baguette diamonds at either shoulder and has an estimate of $60,000 to $90,000.It will be offered for sale at a live auction next Tuesday (18 July) in Los Angeles.Other notable lots include a platin...Read More
(IDEX Online) - The world famous FC Barcelona soccer team is to turn the grass from its Nou Camp stadium into ultra-high priced lab grown diamonds.The pitch will be ripped up during a major renovation which will increase its capacity to 105,000.The grass will be used to produce 1,957 lab growns - a nod to the year the stadium was built.Among them will be a limited edition of 57 one-carat stones, w...Read More
(IDEX Online) - Newfield Resources has secured $50m in provisional finance to bring its Tongo Diamond Mine, in Sierra Leone, to commercial production.The Australian miner says the deposit has an initial eight-year life with peak annual diamond production of 260,000 carats forecast in Year 5.Newfield said yesterday (10 July) that its subsidiary Sierra Diamonds Limited (SDL) had signed a condi...Read More
(IDEX Online) - The world's most expensive iPhone - incorporating a Graff diamond snowflake pendant - is on the market, for $450,000.Russian company Caviar International has made three iPhone 14 Pro Max cases of platinum and 18K white gold inlaid with a total of 570 round and marquise-cut diamonds.The Diamond Snowflake is a collaboration with British jeweler Graff and is also fits the new iPh...Read More
(IDEX Online) - Chow Tai Fook (CTF) today reported an increase of almost 30 per cent in its first quarter retail sales value (RSV), following the end of China's zero-tolerance Covid lockdowns.The recovery was much more pronounced in Hong Kong, Macau and other markets, which account for just over 13 per cent of the company's trade, than it was across the mainland.The RSV increase in mainl...Read More
(IDEX Online) - Israel's trade in rough diamonds has halved during the first half of this year, according to new government figures.Net imports were down 45 per cent compared with H1 2022 to $555m and net exports fell 54 per cent to $444m.Trade in polished goods has also been hit by the global slowdown, but not as badly.Net imports were $1.38bn in the first half of 2023, down 22 per cent year...Read More
(IDEX Online) - An honest diamond broker returned eight paper packets of polished stones he found on a road in Surat.Mukesh Rabadiya was heading home from Mini Bazaar, Varaccha, Surat, when he spotted the packets, inside a plastic box, containing 20 carats, valued at $8,500.He put the diamonds in his locker at a private safe deposit vault, according to Times of India, and a fellow broker managed t...Read More
(IDEX Online) - The new Surat Diamond Bourse (SDB) is facing criticism for offering incentives to new members if they close their offices at the Bharat Diamond Bourse (BDB), in Mumbai.The new trading hub, built at a cost of $355m, is finally due to open this November after almost four years of delays.But is has provoked anger by urging SDB traders who also operate from BDB to close their office th...Read More
(IDEX Online) - Lucapa has recovered a 180.87-carat Type IIa white diamond at its Lulo alluvial mine, in Angola.It's the second +100 carat diamond of the year so far. In February it found a 150-carat Type IIa D-color white diamond.And it's the 37th +100 carat since since the Australian miner began commercial production at Lulo in 2015.Last November the 170.2-carat Lulo Rose, believed to...Read More
(IDEX Online) - A bright orange sapphire has been recovered from a ruby mine in Greenland, in what's been described a one-in-a-million discovery.Sapphire is most commonly found as a blue gemstone, although trace elements can result in a wide variety of colors.The Aappaluttoq ruby deposit, operated by Greenland Ruby, has previously unearthed pink to orangy pink sapphires, but to find a bright...Read More
(IDEX Online) - A one-off Tiffany "Bird on A Rock" pendant watch is to feature in the Only Watch charity auction to raise funds for Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy.The watch case features a faceted aquamarine crystal of over 34 carats, and a dial set with 461 snow-set diamonds of over 1 total carat. It has an estimate of $390,000 to $556,000 (CHF 350,000 - 500,000).The bird is fashioned from plat...Read More