(IDEX Online) - Botswana's diamond industry is joining forces with the Natural Diamond Council (NDC) to promote awareness of its manufacturing activity.The country is the world's second biggest diamond producer, after Russia. The Botswana Diamond Manufacturers Association (BDMA) helps manufacturers develop their businesses.The partnership announced yesterday (10 May) aims to raise awaren...Read More
(IDEX Online) - Sarine has completed its merger with the GCAL grading lab, the company said today.The Israel-based diamond tech company owns 70 per cent of shares in the new entity, GCAL (Gem Certification & Assurance Lab) USA LLC. Sarine said the merger, first announced in January would create a "robust synergy".Financial details of the deal have not been disclosed.The new joint com...Read More
(IDEX Online) - Christie's says it will donate a "significant portion" of the commission from its sale of Heidi Horten's jewelry towards Holocaust research and education.It says the proceeds from the auction itself - estimated at $150m - will go to a foundation that furthers the philanthropic causes including medical research, children's welfare, and access to the arts, in line with...Read More
(IDEX Online) - A well-known jeweler in Sydney, Australia, has been charged with orchestrating a raid on his own store as part of an insurance fraud worth AUD$2.8m (US$1.9m).Michel Germani, 65, CEO and founder of Germani Jewellery, and a 47-year-old female staff member were allegedly threatened with a knife by two robbers who forced them to open the safe, and bound their hands and feet with...Read More
(IDEX Online) - The index that tracks all fancy color diamond prices rose by 1.3 per cent in the first quarter of 2023, with the biggest increases among yellows.The New York-based Fancy Color Research Foundation (FCRF) said white diamond prices fell by 2.8 per cent during the same period.Yellow diamonds, across all sizes and intensities, showed the biggest rise, at 2.1 per cent. Pinks were up 1.1...Read More
(IDEX Online) - Sales of watches and jewelry, together with clocks and valuable gifts, surged in Hong Kong during March, according to the latest government figures. Borders were re-opened early in February, the facemask requirement was dropped on 1 March, and Hong Kong launched ad campaigns to lure back tourists and businesses after dropping its zero-tolerance COVID-19 rules. Total revenue for the...Read More
(IDEX Online) - Zvi Yehuda, the diamond pioneer who invented the Sherlock Holmes machine and who was behind a string of industry innovations, has died at the age of 86.He was just 16 when he realized he could recycle diamond dust from bruting and sell it back to diamond cutters for grinding. He sold the idea to Israel's Industry Ministry and soon became the country's leading supplie...Read More
(IDEX Online) - GIA has graded its biggest ever lab grown polished diamond, a 34.59-carat emerald-cut stone (G color, VS2 clarity).The diamond, produced by Ethereal Green Diamond, in India, is more than twice the size of the previous record holder, a 16.41-carat princess-cut diamond from Shanghai Zhengshi Technology, in China, in January 2022.The 34.59-carat stone, measuring 24.94mm ??- 13.95mm ??...Read More
(IDEX Online) - A diamond and pearl necklace and earrings owned by the late Princess Diana is to be auctioned next month.The Swan Lake Suite - named after a London ballet performance she attended while wearing them in June 1997 - is expected to sell for up to $15m.The suite was commissioned by the Egyptian film producer Dodi Fayed, the princess's new boyfriend, as a gift. She wore the necklac...Read More
(IDEX Online) - A man has been arrested in Surat, accused of defrauding a diamond trader by swapping polished stones worth almost $40,000 with packets of chewing tobacco.Raheel Manjani, a diamond broker, allegedly obtained the diamonds to sell to another trader, promising to make full payment for the sealed parcels within a few days, according to the Times of India.He didn't pay, says a compl...Read More
(IDEX Online) - Six "unauthorized diggers" died in a diamond mine collapse in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).Few details have emerged about the accident last Friday in Diboko, in the central Kasai province, where mining accidents involving illegal workers are not uncommon.Those who died had "entered an area where mining is forbidden", the province's vice-governor Gaston Nkole said, ac...Read More
(IDEX Online) - Malabar Gold and Diamonds has opened what it claims is the world's largest jewelry showroom, at 110,000sq ft.The "artistry store" in Cochin, Kerala, is on the site where the group was founded in 1993. It now boasts over 300 stores and 17,500 staff.Its claim to be the largest store in the world may, however, be disputed.Tiffany & Co's flagship Fifth Avenue 10-floor sto...Read More
(IDEX Online) - Christie's is facing a call from the World Federation of Diamond Bourses (WFDB) to donate over half of the proceeds from its auction of Heidi Horten's estate to Holocaust charities.Horten's first husband, Helmut Horten, built his department store empire from Jews who were forced to sell their businesses for ridiculous prices in Nazi Germany in the 1930s. They would b...Read More
(IDEX Online) - US watch and jewelry sales slumped during March, with the biggest monthly fall since the pandemic struck in 2020.They were down 9.2 per cent according to figures release by the US Department of Commerce. In February the fall was 6.8 per cent (revised down from the 3.0 per cent figure).Sales have been declining for the last six months, with the exception of January (revised up to 0....Read More
(IDEX Online) - Polished diamond prices, which had been showing some small signs of recovery since November 2022, suffered a setback in April, slipping by 2.1 per cent. Monthly declines had been progressively smaller - from 2.4 per cent to 0.4 per cent in March.But April saw a drop of 2.1 per cent, as uncertainty persists globally, the US feels jittery over bank collapses and China's post-Cov...Read More
(IDEX Online) - A 118.35-carat royal blue sapphire is to be sold later this by month by Phillips Hong Kong with a high estimate of $4.5m.It was set into a necklace by Bulgari in 2004 as party of its High Jewelry Collection and appears at auction for the first time.The Sri Lankan unheated, cushion-shaped sapphire scored what Phillips describes as an "impossible" 98 points in the Gubelin Gemstone Ra...Read More
(IDEX Online) - One of the last diamonds recovered from the iconic Argyle mine - a 1.36-carat fancy deep pink stone - features in a ring designed for Rio Tinto, with a $1.33m price tag.The center stone is one of just 12 radiant-cut diamonds over 1.0-ct with a super-high 1P color grading, in the last 30 years of production at the mine, in East Kimberley, Western Australia, which closed in November...Read More
(IDEX Online) - Dua Lipa dazzled at the Met Gala wearing an updated version of Tiffany's Lucida Star Necklace, minus the iconic yellow Tiffany Diamond.It's been replaced by 100-carat D-color 82-facet cushion-cut stone, known as the Legendary Diamond.The original 128.54-carat center stone, as worn by Audrey Hepburn and Lady Gaga, is said to be worth $30m.But it became the source of someth...Read More
(IDEX Online) - Signet, the US's biggest jewelry chain with 2,800 outlets, says an "engagement gap" is to blame for falling ring sales.The Covid pandemic was a passion killer. Relationships that may otherwise have led to 2023 weddings faltered, or never happened in the first place, as lockdowns forced people to stay at home.The average time from the first date to marriage is just over three y...Read More
(IDEX Online) - US jeweler Zales has launched a "fine jewelry rental" scheme for lab grown diamonds.Customers pay 10 per cent of the retail price to borrow items for weddings or special occasions.The Zales x Rocksbox program is being piloted in-store at 28 branches of Zales, and could be rolled out to other banners in the Signet family. It is a collaboration with Rocksbox, the jewelry rental...Read More