A specialist in custom-design jewelry, Gary Dawson sold his store of two decades and moved exclusively online. Read it here. Gary's story is also National Jeweler's story. It's now been just more than a year since we, too, moved exclusively...
Search
I wanted to circle back around to an item in Pandora’s rather lengthy 2011 Annual Report that caught my attention and certainly seems to be a piece of information that would interest retailers that carry the brand. Pandora disclosed plans...
Transitions of power are always a challenge. And the stakes are raised for entities with strong track records. Sterling, parent of Kay and Jared, has proven itself across recent market cycles to be among the very best-run chain jewelers in...
The Gemological Institute of America now is referencing lead glass-filled rubies as “manufactured product” on reports, the institution revealed in a new video designed to educate the trade and the public.
Whether they’re cuffed with diamonds or dressed up in gold, wrists are prime real estate for jewelry, especially at awards shows, where glamorous gowns usually leave arms bare. While some stars stick with thick, bold designs, others favor thinner, more...
Not that we're out of the woods just yet, but the past week, especially, has brought many signs of a strengthening market. Read Ken Gassman's article here outlining 2011's $68.3 billion in total U.S. jewelry sales, the largest gross ever...
I’ve been hearing a lot of buzz lately about Pinterest, starting at the recent JA New York Show when an industry colleague, and budding jewelry designer, was showing off her boards in the press room. The topic of Pinterest arose...
India's recent imposition of a 2 percent import duty on polished diamonds seems to be an unfortunate necessity. In this day and age, the normal response would be to see such a move as an imposition on international trade. After...
Ingrid Bergman once said that “Happiness lies in good health and a bad memory.” Yesterday, I met a young woman who has as much reason as anybody to wish for a bad memory. But she doesn’t, because she views sharing...
Here's a story we just published about Amazon being rated the best company for customer service. Without question. Eons ago, when I was working my way through college in the service industry, management taught us a golden rule: "Kill them...
I was intrigued to learn that the new CEO of industry stalwart David Yurman Inc., Glen T. Senk, comes to the company from Urban Outfitters Inc., where he is credited with helping to grow the company’s Anthropologie brand from a...
As any retailer would tell you, it is difficult anymore to predict the ebbs and flows of the economy. This was as evident as ever on Tuesday, when three of the industry’s largest chains reported sales for the all-important months...
Thanks to Italian designer Manuel Bozzi, rock music lovers can now wear likenesses of icons from the genre on their fingers. Bozzi has taken the expressions of Keith Richards, Elvis Presley and Jimi Hendrix and transformed them into a silvery...
This 10X blog entry was written by Marshal Cohen, chief industry analyst, The NPD Group, Inc. This year’s recipe for retail success came in the expert blending of the following four parts (not all parts are equal). Part 1 -...
One man has used a jeweler’s digital billboard over a California freeway to propose to his girlfriend. Paul, from Tustin, Calif., used jeweler Robbins Brothers’ “Share the Love” Facebook application to create a marriage proposal for his girlfriend, Krista, on...
During the course of my first year covering the watch industry, I was asked to cover an auction that included multiple lots of “erotic” watches, watches that contain a hidden-yet-naughty scene. After these watches appeared in several subsequent auctions, I...
One jewelry store is drawing traffic to its store with a mix of jewels and a few old-fashioned tales. For the holidays, Shreve & Co.’s window displays have been transformed into renderings of some of the most popular fairytales, including...
Much already has been written about the upcoming auction of Elizabeth Taylor’s jewelry, clothing and art at Christie’s, including on National Jeweler's website, where stories about the late actress and activist have lingered on the Most Popular and Most Emailed...
Greenwich Jewelers is giving back this holiday season--with the help of customers. New York City-based Greenwich Jeweler’s “3 Wishes” campaign will take the sales of three high-ticket pieces of jewelry and donate a substantial portion from the sale of each...
In compiling our Majors newsletter yesterday afternoon, I noticed a trend among the stories I was loading, a trend that I haven’t seen in some time. All the quarterly financials for the major chains covered by National Jeweler and included...
With special timing features--think deep-water capabilities--complicated movements, special histories or diamond studding, timepieces can be as unique as those who wear them. This edition of CJG checks out recent celebrity watch sightings. International soccer star David Beckham (below) paid a...
Last week at its plenary meeting in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the Kimberley Process (KP) ended its long-standing impasse on the issue of exporting rough diamonds from the Marange area of Zimbabwe, more due to the fact that...
In the four years I’ve worked here, much has been said about the generation labeled as “Generation Y” or the “Millennials” and its importance to the jewelry industry. As just one example, I penned this article in August 2010 on...
Jewel-drenched earrings are always a stand-out at coveted red carpet awards shows, but the love doesn’t stop there. This edition of CJG looks at the ear candy celebs favor for movie premieres, galas, awards events and other events. The drop...
Imagine Designs made its television debut this month on Kendra when NFL player Hank Baskett stopped into the store to pick out a gift for his reality TV star wife, Kendra Wilkinson. Brian Hakimian of Imagine Designs said while the...