(IDEX Online) - GIA has laid off around a fifth of the workforce at its HQ in Carlsbad, California, amid a significant drop in the number of diamonds submitted for grading.In total 151 workers will leave their positions at Gemological Institute of America (GIA) later this month. Most are laboratory workers, a few hold corporate positions. "We receive stones generally from either the companies...Read More
(IDEX Online) - Alrosa says work is now under way on a huge, new $1.26bn mine to replace Mir, which closed after the 2017 flooding disaster that claimed eight lives.The Russian miner's general director Pavel Marinychev told the website of the Yakutia region, where the mine is located, that production is expected to start in 2032.Mir opened in 1957 as the first diamond mine in what was then th...Read More
(IDEX Online) - Belgian tech firm iTraceiT has announced $270,000 of government funding for its digital diamond passport.The grant from Walloon, the largest of Belgium's six administrative areas, will allow the company to expand in the US and India and to build an R&D center.The startup says its combination of QR-code and blockchain technology, launched earlier this year, records all proc...Read More
(IDEX Online) - Made In Heaven, the hit TV show about a pair of Indian wedding planners, is promoting natural diamonds.Stars of the second series of the romantic drama are wearing jewelry from six brands in a partnership with the Natural Diamond Council (NDC)."We are always on the look-out for innovative methods of showcasing how integral the wonders of nature are to every key moment of our lives,...Read More
(IDEX Online) - Angola is stockpiling over a million carats as it waits for diamond prices to rise and sees its half-yearly sales fall by 37 per cent."In practice Angola has no buyers of this resource," said Jos?(C) Ganga J??nior, chairman of Endiama, the state diamond company, as reported by the Angolan news agency Angop."That's why we have to find ways to survive, using the creativity that...Read More
(IDEX Online) - Former Baywatch actress Pamela Anderson is the face of Pandora's new lab grown diamond collections.The one-time Playboy model, 56, is featuring in the Danish jeweler's Diamonds for All campaign after it ditched mined diamonds in August 2022 in favor of lab growns manufactured with renewable energy. It also pledged to use only recycled silver and gold in its jewelry.I...Read More
(IDEX Online) - The Indian government has reportedly asked the US to release $26m of payments made by Indian businesses attempting to buy rough diamonds from Russia.The transactions were blocked by the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), which imposed sanctions on Alrosa, the state-controlled diamond company after Russia invaded Ukraine last February.But Indian traders are adamant the payment...Read More
(IDEX Online) - Tis the season to be drinking Pumpkin Spice Latte, and if you have a spare $12,500, ( ?10,000) you can splash out on a diamond, sapphire and emerald version.British jeweler Angelic Diamonds has created a PSL ring as a tribute to the seasonal drink - coffee plus pumpkin pie spices (cinnamon, nutmeg and clove) - which was launched by Starbucks in 2003.The ring features a rose gold ba...Read More
(IDEX Online) - Signet, the world's largest diamond jewelry retailer, has reported an eight per cent drop in Q2 revenue, down from $1.75bn to $1.61bn.Same store sales were down 12 per cent, net profits were down 48 per cent to $75.1m and bridal sales dropped seven per cent to $735.5m amid inflation and rising interest rates, as the post-Covid "engagement trough" persisted. Bridal has his...Read More
(IDEX Online) - Rolex is to buy Bucherer, the long-established watch retailer with over 100 sales outlets worldwide.The move will shake up the luxury watch market, giving Rolex far greater control over its distribution network and better intelligence on its competitors.Shares in UK-based rival retailer Watches of Switzerland plunged 21 per cent on the day news of the deal broke (25 August).Buchere...Read More
(IDEX Online) - Matching gold wedding rings that belonged to Hollywood icons Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall are to be auctioned in Los Angeles.The couple exchanged the rings when they married in May 1945 after falling in love during filming of To Have and Have Not when she was 19 and he was 45. They remained together until Bogart's death in January 1957. Bacall died in 2014.The 14k go...Read More
(IDEX Online) - The gap between rounds and fancies widened during August. Rounds saw almost wall-to-wall price drops among some goods, such as 1.50-cts to 1.99-cts. Fancies, by contrast, saw a mix of increases, decreases and no-changes, as buyers sought cheaper goods.Caution persists across the pipeline. Inventories are high, demand is weak and prices are falling. India's exports in July suff...Read More
(IDEX Online) - This is Beyonce wearing the diamond dress that reportedly cost $1m.There was widespread speculation - is it or isn't actually made of diamonds? - when she first wore it last month in Toronto, on her Renaissance World Tour.It is. The mesh dress is an Elsa Peretti Diamonds by the Yard design, featuring fine, fluid chains and bezel-set diamonds.Peretti, who died in 2021, was a de...Read More
(IDEX Online) - India's commerce minister has reiterated the government's support for lab grown diamond production and insisted they are "equivalent to natural diamonds".Piyush Goyal was speaking in Jaipur last week, ahead of two days of G20 trade and investment meetings.He said lab growns would be treated exactly like mined diamonds in free trade agreement talks with other countries."I...Read More
(IDEX Online) - Titan Company has bought almost all remaining shares in the Indian e-tailer CaratLane in a move that values the company at just over $2bn.It is being hailed as the country's biggest D2C (direct-to-consumer) deal in e-commerce.It values the company at Rs 17,000 crore ($2.05bn) according to The Economic Times.CaratLane, which manufactures and sells jewelry was co-founded in 2008...Read More
(IDEX Online) - More than $1.3bn of luxury watches were reported as stolen or lost in 2022, according to The Watch Register, as thefts surge by 60 per cent.The London-based company holds a database of almost 80,000 missing timepieces. It says almost half (44 per cent) are Rolex. Daytona, GMT and Oyster Perpetual models are the most-stolen because demand exceeds supply and secondary mark...Read More
(IDEX Online) - De Beers today (30 August) announced rough sales of just $370m during cycle 7, the lowest figure since the Covid pandemic.Sales slumped to $355m in March 2020, the last cycle before lockdowns forced De Beers to suspend its Gaborone sights. When they resumed in September sales were $334m.Today's announcement suggests there's no end in sight to the caution that has long dom...Read More
(IDEX Online) - A passenger arriving in Mumbai on a flight from Dubai was caught trying to smuggle $180,000 of diamonds inside a packet of tea.The Air Intelligence Unit of the Customs Department said 34 diamonds, with a total weight of 1,559.68 carats, were concealed in eight pouches.The suspect, a 30-year-old Indian resident, was arrested at the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport,...Read More
(IDEX Online) - Speculation is mounting that the G7 nations will finally announce sanctions on Russian diamonds in September, 19 months after the invasion of Ukraine.They could be implemented, backed by a traceability solution, next January, after the all-important holiday season, according to a New York Times report.Brad Brooks-Rubin, senior adviser in the Office of Sanctions Coordination i...Read More
(IDEX Online) - Fishers are mounting a legal challenge to marine diamond operations off South Africa's west coast.They claim rights to mine in shallow sea and along an 85km coastal strip of land were granted and subsequently renewed without proper consultation.Their court action, due to begin today (29 August) at Western Cape High Court, is being opposed by Trans Hex Operations, which has mar...Read More