I hope you’ve enjoyed our weekly newsletter. The feedback I have received from you this year has been very positive. I’ve even added a few stories that some of you have sent in.
It’s only when I look back at some of the stories of the year that I think, “did that really happen this year?”. Then I think what a crazy and at the same time fantastic industry we work in. With a jewellery heists you could make into a movie and a man spending $48.8 million on his 7 year old little girl, the jaw keeps dropping.
Anyway, sit back and enjoy the review of the year 2015.
Thank you for your support. Wishing you a health, happiness and success in 2016!
Richard
January – this is normally the quiet month, the one where everybody is still languishing on the couch with the top button undone – but not for the jewellery industry. Tiffany started the year with a head turning, bigotry smashing bang, with their new message, Love comes in many forms. This news story not only a tone setting one for the jewellery industry, but for the fashion industry as a whole – equality. Many followed suit shortly after.
Tiffany Takes a stand for Marriage Equality
Brides and grooms have long seen Tiffany and its little blue boxes as symbols of everlasting love. Now, the high-end jeweller has a new message: Love comes in many forms. The 178-year-old company is featuring a same-sex couple in an ad campaign for the first time. In the photograph, a male couple sits on the steps of a brownstone, with the pair sharing an affectionate touch on the knee and a smile. The image is just one of seven scenes shot by fashion photographer Peter Lindbergh for a spring ad campaign with the tag line “Will You?” The message, said spokeswoman Linda Buckley, is to reflect “a modern approach to love and romance.”
February – the month of love, Lady Gaga got engaged with a heart shaped diamond. Pantone tells the colours for spring summer, and it was a unisex colour palette – quite a theme for this year. And there was some big stone news from the world of lab grown diamonds.
What a Sparkler
Never knowingly understated Lady Gaga has been proudly showing off her heart-shaped diamond engagement ring on Monday after accepting her boyfriend Taylor Kinney’s marriage proposal on Valentine’s Day. Lorraine Schwartz has now confirmed that she designed the ring, but declined to share its price or weight. She did say, however, that “the stone is big and quite beautiful, and actually more expensive than some of the estimates I have read” and that “it’s a challenge to get an excellent heart shape with perfections—the shoulders of the gem have to be totally symmetrical. Lady Gaga’s is all that.” Unsubstantiated rumour has it that the ring cost upwards of $500,000, we may never know. But I can’t wait to see what she will wear for a wedding dress…..
From Russia with Synthetics
Russian lab-grown diamond manufacturer New Diamond Technology says it has grown a 5.11 ct. K SI diamond, which it bills as the largest man-made polished near-colourless stone ever produced.
Speculation of this diamond is already rife – experts in the diamond growing field are expressing concerns on how reputable the stone’s production is and note the reported colour and clarity could be a hard sell commercially. Khikhinashvili declined to confirm how the prices of his product compare to natural diamonds, but did say that they are “more affordable.” And also pointed out that they have sold to customers in Europe, Asia, and the United States.
March, there were battles of ownership of the Princie Diamond and a summit for sustainability and responsible sourcing for the industry, and Breitling flew into the future
Breitling Flies into the Future
Smart watches are such a hot topic at the moment. Where I don’t believe the smart watch alone is the future, perhaps a fusion of high end watch craftsmanship with the latest technology might just be the answer. Breitling, as they say the watch for professionals, has reinvented the connected watch and created a chronograph wristwatch that can connect with a smartphone, they are calling it “the ultimate pilot’s instrument.”
Called the Caliber B55 Connected, the two-way communication between the chronograph and the smartphone “enables the two instruments to form a perfectly complementary pair in which each is used for what it does best,” Breitling said.
The brand said that since the main assets of a smartphone are its screen and ergonomic interface, B55 wearers can use their phone to perform certain adjustments on the watch, like time-setting, time zones, alarms, display and operating parameters such as night mode.
Users also can upload the results of various measurements–such as flight times–from the chronograph to the smartphone, allowing them to store the information, share it or read it more easily.
The B55 Connected is also the “ultimate pilot’s instrument,” according to Breitling, as it boasts a range of innovative functions including an electric tachometer, a countdown/count up system and an aviation-oriented “chrono flight” device that can record flight times while memorizing the takeoff time, landing time and date.
“The chronograph remains the absolute master and the connection with the smartphone is primarily designed to improve its user friendliness,” Breitling said.
April, from flawless 100-carat diamonds going under the hammer to Lucara Diamond mine unearthing a 342-carat rock at its mine in Botswana. Of course the really big story from this month – the one that has stayed in the news ever since is the Hatten Garden Jewellery Heist on Easter Bank Holiday Weekend. Here is our first report from the heist – the plot really did thicken over the year didn’t it?
Hatton Garden Jewel Heist
As many as 70 deposit boxes were opened during a raid in London’s jewellery quarter. Burglars may have been there for four days opening and sorting through boxes.
Burglars gained entry to Hatton Garden Safe Deposit over the Easter weekend. Scotland Yard was alerted on Tuesday. Hundreds of boxes of dealers’ jewellery and watches were broken into in the raid, in the exclusive part of London, home to the capital’s most prestigious jewellery firms.
According to a source, a rear wall was knocked through over the bank holiday weekend, causing alarms to sound. A security guard checked the building, the source added, but the front doors appeared intact, which may have allowed the thieves to continue unhindered for an extended period of time.
Police said the thieves used specialist cutting equipment to slice through heavy duty material in the raid. Officers said a “slow and painstaking process” of forensically examining the scene was under way.
Gem industry expert James Riley said most businesses storing items would be insured but individuals may not. “If you can’t afford your jewellery insurance you put it in a safety deposit box which is going to cost you between £300 to £400 a year and you know it is the most secure place you can put it as your insurance company would be very happy with you putting it there,” he said. The amount of money and the goods that are taken is never fully revealed… and there’s a good chance that not everybody would declare.
Ex-Flying Squad chief Roy Ramm has said he “would not be surprised” if the jewellery stolen during the raid was worth as much as £200m.
Flawless 100-carat diamond sells for over $22 million
A “perfect” 100-carat diamond in a classic emerald cut sold for just over $22 million at auction on Tuesday.
The internally flawless D colour stone is the only classic emerald-cut white diamond of the highest colour and clarity and over 100 carats to come to auction, according to Sotheby’s. The final price, was $22,090,000, including the buyer’s premium. The presale estimate had been between $19 million and $25 million.
Lucara Diamond unearths 342-carat rock at its mine in Botswana
Canada’s Lucara Diamond mine has added to the excitement of huge gems being found this month by announcing it has unearthed a 341.9 carat gem quality diamond from its Karowe mine in Botswana. The “exceptional colour and clarity” stone, said the Vancouver-based firm, was recovered while processing fragmental kimberlite from the central and south lobe interface of the mine, located in the central district of the southern African country.
May, a few magnificent diamonds were unearthed, and both from the same Alrosa mine. And the sunrise Ruby smashed records.
The Sunrise Ruby
A Burmese ruby weighing 25.59 carats has sold for a world record 28.25 million Swiss francs ($30.42 million) at an auction in Geneva.
The Sunrise Ruby, which has the rare grading of pigeon’s blood colour, was hotly contested over by two private collectors bidding by telephone, Sotheby’s auction house said, declining to name the eventual buyer.
From a private collection of Cartier jewels, it had been estimated at 11.7 million to 17.5 million Swiss francs.
Sotheby’s international jewellery division chairman David Bennett said it was a “new record price for
Mr Bennett later told reporters: “It becomes the most expensive coloured gemstone that is not a diamond. It completely mesmerised me, in a sense for me it is the stone of my [40 year] career, it’s just a magical stone.”
A historic pink diamond also auctioned fetched 14.8 million Swiss francs ($15.94 million).
Graded fancy vivid pink, it is believed to have been part of the famed jewellery collection of Princess Mathilde Bonaparte, niece of France’s Emperor Napoleon I, according to the auction house.
“The exquisite 8.72 carat stone only recently resurfaced, having been kept in a bank vault since the 1940s,” Sotheby’s said.
Diamond worth $430,000 found in Russia
A diamond weighing 76.07 carats was mined by Russia’s Alrosa, one of the world’s largest producers of diamonds. The big diamond, found in the Russian republic of Yakutia, has been dubbed “70 years since Victory in the Great Patriotic war – referring to the conflict between the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany – as a tribute to the anniversary of the defeat of Hitler, which will be celebrated in Moscow on May 9.
The diamond has been described as transparent with a yellowish tinge and has in the form of an octahedron. The crystal has small inclusions of olivine in the peripheral part and a discoid crack filled with graphite-sulfide composition on its surface. And Despite diamonds of this size being extremely rare, this is the fourth big stone found in the Yubileynaya diamond field in the last two years.
Alrosa Does it again
For the second time in a matter of weeks, Russia-owned diamond miner Alrosa has unveiled a second significant diamond. This latest diamond is said to be a 78.02 ct. diamond from its Mir underground mine, estimated to be worth more than $600,000 if put on auction.
The stone, measuring 28.5 ? 28.4 ? 24.2 mm, has a regular shape with minor technogenic damages on two tops and small inclusions, experts from the company’s Diamond Sorting Centre said in an e-mailed statement.
June, more celebrity romanitic bliss – this time it was the turn of Iggy Azalea to say yes to a magnificent yellow diamond ring.
Yellow is the new white
Los Angeles Lakers’ player Nick Young proposes with a 8.15-carat fancy yellow diamond
Further proof that yellow diamonds are the new classic happened this week when the Los Angeles Lakers’ player Nick Young popped the question to Australian rapper Iggy Azalea on Monday, with a giant 10.43-carat diamond ring reported to be worth $500,000.
The ring has an 8.15-carat fancy intense yellow cushion cut centre stone along with 2.28-carat white diamonds, Daily Mail reported. After the proposal, Azalea posted a picture of the ring along with photos of the newly-engaged couple flaunting the precious piece of jewellery. She referred to the proposal as the “happiest day” and added “Love you @swaggyp1” as the photo’s caption.
Celebrity Jeweller Jason Arasheben — CEO of Jason of Beverly Hills — who made the ring, said that the Lakers star was quite particular to what he wanted, and spent a considerable amount visiting the jeweller.
July, Apples were left on the shelf and Apple Watch Sales Plunge 90%
Sales of the new Apple Watch have plunged by 90% since the opening week, according to a new market-research report.
Apple has been selling fewer than 20,000 watches a day in the U.S. since the initial surge in April, and on some days fewer than 10,000, according to data from Palo Alto, Calif.-based Slice Intelligence. That is a sharp decline from the week of the April 10 launch, when Apple sold about 1.5 million watches, or an average of about 200,000 a day, Slice estimates. Furthermore, two-thirds of the watches sold so far have been the lower-profit “Sport” version, whose price starts at $349, according to Slice, rather than the costlier and more advanced models that start at $549.
In an ambitious bid for the luxury market, Apple unveiled a gold “Edition” model priced at $10,000 or more. So far, fewer than 2,000 of those have been sold in the U.S., Slice contends.
August, the month we were given the privacy invading ring cam!
Ring Cam Captures the Big Moment
A group of Michigan entrepreneurs has invented a product that captures the marriage proposal instant forever: The “Ring Cam,” a jewellery box with a small camera installed, so that the reaction to the proposal can be saved, memorialized, and even posted on Facebook, ahhh. The product started as a design project at Hope College. One of the participants came up with the idea after a friend got engaged.
“He had hired a secret photographer to take pictures of the proposal,” says cofounder Scott Brandonisio. “They didn’t come out that well. He couldn’t really see any facial expressions. He felt like, ‘If I just got a little bit closer…’ ” From there came a napkin sketch of a ring box with a camera in it, and eventually the idea turned into reality. The current iteration has a camera on top of the box, meant to be the perfect angle for a groom down on one knee. This invention really is for the social media generation, where nothing is either private or sacred. Ok, so I might be being a little unfair, perhaps most of the people who actually buy this gadget will keep this very precious moment to themselves, nah!
September, the month that saw Indian Diamond Workers Revolt and Wallace Chan of Chow Tai Fook, revealed his masterpiece. A stunning necklace featuring 11,551 diamonds that can be worn 27 different ways.
What would you do if you had one of the world’s largest rough diamonds to play with?
For jewellery artist Wallace Chan of Chow Tai Fook, the choice was easy. Simply take the 507.55 carat Type IIa rough diamond and spend three years cutting and chipping away at the diamond to create this stunning necklace featuring 11,551 diamonds. To create such a piece of jewellery from one single rough stone has been unheard of before. It also brings together thousands of white diamonds and hundreds of pink diamonds, totalling 383.4 carat, as well as more than one hundred pieces of green jadeite and mutton fat white jade. The necklace’s centre piece is an integration of jade and diamonds–including the centrepiece of the necklace: the 104-carat, D colour, internally flawless, brilliant round Forevermark diamond. Chan also included within the lavish necklace a bat for good luck and butterflies for eternal love. The necklace can be worn in 27 different ways – something that Chan says he didn’t initially plan but that he just got carried away with his creation.
To see the steps from the rough diamond state to this stunning necklace click here : cnn.it/1VDEGfF pic.twitter.com/qyqZQwPfn5
October, pearls got techy
High tech Pearls
Seems that everything can be high tech these days – even the pearl has now had the gizmo treatment. Pearls have been the mainstay for fashionistas for a while, and Galatea Jewellery has just taken the humble pearl, and placed it firmly into the “smart world.”
Chi Huynh, in his latest invention in conjunction with Galatea Jewellery – patent pending – is called the Momento Pearl. So where does the “tech” come in? Huynh has inserted a tiny chip within a cultured pearl. When you use it in combination with the Galatea Jewellery App, you can upload voice and text messages, images and web links. Simply tap the pearl against an Android phone to hear the voice message and see what you’ve uploaded.
But Huynh, didn’t stop there, he has also patented a cultured pearl with a coloured stone bead inside. The coloured bead is revealed when the pearl’s exterior is carved. Hand-carving pearls have always been a hallmark of Huynh’s Galatea jewellery designs. More than 75 percent of the company’s jewellery use carved pearls rather than the more traditional smooth-surfaced pearls. Normally, pearls are valued for their colour, lustre (the “shine” on its exterior), uniform and blemish-free surface. Huynh revolutionized traditional beliefs about cultured pearls, calling his carved pearls, “Pearls without Boundaries.”
November, more gemstones smashed records under the hammer while a businessman treated his 7 year old daughter. And a watch that went to the moon went under the hammer.
Magnificent Jewells Auction results, and a record spending spree.
Fancy coloured diamonds are still breaking records as the latest Magnificent auction results prove. A Hong Kong property tycoon, went on a spending spree this week that would make even billionaires blush, and all for his very lucky 7 year old daughter.
Property tycoon Joseph Lau spent a record $48.4m buying a 12.03-carat diamond dubbed “Blue Moon” for his seven-year-old daughter in an auction in Geneva. Which he immediately renamed “ Blue Moon of Josephine” after his daughter.
The Blue Moon was bought 24 hours after he spent $28.5m buying a rare 16.08-carat pink diamond – the largest of its kind to ever go under the hammer – from rival auction house Christie’s, which again he immediately renames, this time to “Sweet Josephine”.
A Hong Kong-based spokeswoman for Lau confirmed the two purchases. “The first was the pink one, ‘Sweet Josephine’, and the second one was the ‘Blue Moon of Josephine’,” she said.
David Bennett, the head of Sotheby’s international jewellery division, said the “Blue Moon” sale broke several records and made the gemstone the most expensive diamond, regardless of colour, and the most expensive jewel ever sold at auction.
Fly Me to the Moon
The Omega Speedmaster, the watch that accompanied Captain Ron Evans, one of only 24 people to have flown to the Moon, aboard Apollo 17 — a unique opportunity for collectors to own a flown Speedmaster from the Apollo missions.
Once back on terra firma, Ron Evans took a portable hand engraving tool and inscribed the Speedmaster watch, and the black metal attachment used in the experiment. On the reverse of the watch, he etched ‘FLOWN IN C.S.M. TO THE MOON’ and ‘APOLLO 17’ and his signature. On the edge of the watch he engraved ‘HEAT FLOW EXPR’ and ‘6-19 DEC 1972’. In addition, he etched directly on the metal piece that it was ‘glued to OMEGA watch’ for the experiment.
December – long live the king of Gems! In a year that saw many records broken by the sale of stunning large coloured gemstones – this month in particular proved the market for gemstones was very solid
The Year of the Ruby
Christie’s December Hong Kong Auction results prove the market is solid.
The auction hammer finally rested on the Christie’s Hong Kong week long auctions 2nd December, the results were spectacular, and records were obliterated. Christies also noted that there were 25% of new buyers in the audience from around the world, who along with everybody else contributed to drive the record prices sky high. Luxury pieces continued to exceed estimates with HK$117 million / $15 million for Important Watches and HK$747,894,000 / $96,904,062 for Magnificent Jewels, concluding a record year for jewellery sales at Christie’s in Asia.
The top lot, the stunning Crimson Flame ruby, sold for HK$142 million / $18 million, attracting fierce competition from bidders in over 15 countries and heralding ‘the year of the ruby at Christie’s Hong Kong’ according to Vickie Sek, Director of Christie’s Asia Jewellery department. ‘Following the record breaking sale of a ruby necklace in June,’ said Sek, ‘the Crimson Flame has established a world auction record per carat of $1.2 million. Totalling $97 million, this sale brings the Hong Kong jewellery auctions total up to $215 million, the highest annual result ever achieved for the category in Asia.’
As jewellery and watch auction results are clear indicators of the style and market trends, the only conclusion can be is that 2015 has been the year of the ruby. From the Sunrise Ruby selling in spring for a world record 28.25 million Swiss francs, to Gemfields hugely successful ruby auctions. With the latest auction results from Christie’s Hog Kong, only goes to prove our point, the ruby is firmly back in vogue.
