(IDEX Online) - Billionaire Amazon boss Jeff Bezos has presented his fiancee Lauren Sanchez with a huge diamond engagement ring, estimated at up to 30 carats and valued at up to $5m, according to US media reports.Bezos, 59, proposed to his long-term girlfriend on his $500m superyacht the Koru during a Mediterranean vacation. Divorced Sanchez, 58, is a US media personality and former TV news anchor...Read More
(IDEX Online) - Tiffany & Co is offering plain white bags to customers, so they can conceal their purchases.The jeweler's newly re-opened flagship store on Fifth Avenue, New York, is responding to a steep increase in street crime.Other high-end retailers in the area, such as Hermes and Louis Vuitton, are doing likewise, according to the New York Post.Tiffany is famous for its trademark ro...Read More
(IDEX Online) - Lightbox, the lab grown company launched by De Beers in 2018, says its diamonds have been certified as carbon neutral by the Carbon Trust.It uses 100% renewable wind energy to produce stones at its recently-built $94m facility near Portland, Oregon, USA.And it offsetts any remaining greenhouse gas emissions it produces through carbon certified offset projects supporting the expansi...Read More
(IDEX Online) - Signet remains by far the biggest-grossing jeweler in North America, according to National Jeweler magazine's annual State of the Majors report on $100m supersellers published yesterday.Total sales of watches and jewelry at its 2,854 outlets and online were $7.29bn during 2022 - more than double the revenue of second-placed Walmart ($3.38bn).Richemont, the Swiss luxury conglom...Read More
(IDEX Online) - Petra Diamonds has sold half its stake in the Williamson mine, in Tanzania, for $15m.The UK-based miner said the sale to Taifa Mining, the country's largest mining contractor, would place the mine on "a stronger basis for the future".Williamson has been closed since the breach of a tailings dam last October, which released a five-mile river of gray sludge, damaging homes, farm...Read More
(IDEX Online) - Markets remain depressed, with further widespread losses among rounds, as the prospect of possible G7 sanctions on Russian diamonds looms, combined with a lull before the Vegas storm and disappointment that China's post-lockdown bounce-back hasn't happened. Fancies fared better, as has been the case in recent months.De Beers reported a 20 per cent drop in rough sales at c...Read More
(IDEX Online) - Sir Gabriel "Gabi" Tolkowsky, the legendary master diamond cutter and innovator, has died at the aged of 84.He will be remembered for a catalog of remarkable achievements during a career spanning seven decades.He created the Tolkowsky round brilliant diamond cut that has set the global standard for quality diamond cutting.And he headed the team that the 273.85-carat Centenary Diamo...Read More
(IDEX Online) - De Beers has taken another step towards its own bricks and mortar sales of its lab grown diamonds with the opening of a short-term Lightbox "concept store" in New York.The online retailer announced last October that it was planning to open permanent, physical stores from 2024, in addition to its e-commerce offering.Lightbox's store occupies a 250sq ft space and is one of 20 re...Read More
(IDEX Online) - India is now importing mote diamonds from Russia than before the invasion of Ukraine and the introduction of US sanctions, according to the GJEPC (Gems and Jewellery Export Promotion Council). It bought $818m in 2022-23, compared to $855.83 in 2021-22, an increase of just under eight per cent.India relies heavily on Russian imports, especially of smaller stones. Banking restri...Read More
(IDEX Online) - A 4.83-carat fancy vivid blue diamond ring sold for $8.8m at Christie's Hong Kong as the Magnificent Jewels sale brought in a total of almost $60m.The brilliant-cut IF Type IIb gem (pictured) was surrounded by fancy-cut diamonds, in a gold setting. It sold between the low and high estimates of $7m to $10.2m.The blue diamond led the sale, followed by two items which both sold f...Read More
(IDEX Online ) - A gambler who raised over $13m in a Ponzi scheme telling investors their money would be used in the sale of gold, jewelry and diamonds, has been jailed.But John Quadrino, age 57, of Oceanside, New York, never invested their money. Instead he used to pay off gambling debts.He was sentenced at at the federal courthouse in Central Islip, New York (pictured) to 41 months in prison and...Read More
(IDEX Online) - Hybrid diamond jewelry - a mix of natural and lab grown stones - is the new reality.That's according to the latest edition of the Tacy Diamond Pipeline, published by IDEX Online, which has provided an independent and unbiased view of the industry since 1988.Hybrid jewelry offers the best of both worlds, say authors Pranay Narvekar and Chaim Even-Zohar, bringing greater transpa...Read More
(IDEX Online) - Police are hunting three raiders who burst through the wall of a jewelry store, attacked the owner, and fled with gold necklaces and bracelets and loose jewelry.They broke in overnight to a vacant premises next to Ramallah Jewelry in Oak Lawn, Illinois, USA, and removed one layer of a dry wall dividing the two properties.When Elias Mseeh opened up for the day, they kicked through t...Read More
(IDEX Online) - Direct flights between Surat and Dubai would further boost trade between the manufacturing and trading hubs, says Ahmed Bin Sulayem, chairman of the Dubai Diamond Exchange (DDE).He's calling on the government-owned budget airline Flydubai to introduce a service and enhance existing ties."I am pushing Flydubai, and I'll push harder even to have a direct flight to Surat bec...Read More
(IDEX Online) - The big three auction houses - Phillips, Sotheby's, and Christie's - sold watches for a combined total of $108m in a single weekend, dispelling concerns of a slowdown in the pre-owned market.Phillips sold all lots offered at its Geneva Watch Auction XVII, in association with Bacs & Russo, bringing in over $52m, with two watches selling for over $3m each.Christie'...Read More
(IDEX Online) - The World Diamond Council (WDC) has held "open and robust discussions" towards updating its definition of conflict diamonds.Feriel Zerouki, who has taken over from Edward Asscher as WDC president, said she was positive about progress made at the four-day 2023 Intersessional Meeting of the Kimberley Process, in Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe."We believe that an expansion on the definition...Read More
(IDEX Online) - De Beers today issued a flat denial over a "damaging" and "unsubstantiated" newspaper allegation that it had violated sanctions on Russian diamonds."Let us be clear - this allegation is not true," it said, in response to claims in the The Sunday Standard of Botswana.The paper ran a front-page story today (28 May) headlined "De Beers' sanction busting scandal snarls up Botswana...Read More
(IDEX Online) - A diamond and platinum bandeau tiara, signed Boucheron Paris and owned for over a century by a British aristocratic family, is to be sold at Christie's London with a high estimate of $185,000.It's the most valuable of three tiaras offered at Christie's Jewels Online: The London Edit, which runs from 2 to 15.The double bandeau, featuring old- and rose-cut diamonds, co...Read More
(IDEX Online) - A Patek Philippe owned by the last emperor of China sold for $6.2m at Phillips Hong Kong, smashing its pre-sale high estimate of $3m.It belonged to Aisin-Gioro Puyi, last emperor of the Qing Dynasty, who was forced to abdicate when he was just six during the Xinhai Revolution, and whose life and times are dramatized in Bernardo Bertolucci's The Last Emperor.The platinum Refc96...Read More
(IDEX Online) - The withdrawal of the 2,000 rupee bank note is expected to fuel a consumer spending frenzy in India on diamonds, gold and other luxuries.The Reserve Bank of India announced on 19 May that its highest-value note - worth around $24 - will no longer be legal tender after 30 September.The notes can be deposited or exchanged, but economists say many people will be wary that the tax auth...Read More