For years in retail, the story has been about brick-and-mortar retailers losing business to pure-play online retailers, which can offer the same product for less due to lower overhead costs. Now, however, it seems that e-tailers are awakening to the...
Last night, the Diamond Manufacturers & Importers Association of America (DMIA) held a meeting in New York City covering what is undoubtedly one of the most talked-about topics among diamantaires today: synthetics. As I am sure many of you are...
In the watch industry, brands constantly are on a quest to connect with their history and tradition, leading to the introduction of countless timepieces that “reach back into the archives” to pay homage to a milestone anniversary of one particular...
It didn’t take very long after the World Diamond Council (WDC) and the Kimberley Process (KP) expressed their support for broadening the definition of “conflict” diamond for the first sign of resistance to surface. The day after the news emerged...
Last week was Madison Avenue Watch Week here in New York, a seven-day stretch dedicated to showcasing and recognizing the work of watchmakers and the high-end timepiece brands that line Madison Avenue. As part of the week’s festivities, I took...
A recent Associated Press article ignited debate over employers asking for potential employees’ social media passwords, the combination of letters and numbers that open the door to the presumably personal worlds of accounts on sites such as Facebook and Twitter....
Major changes are afoot at the world’s largest diamond miners: De Beers, BHP Billiton and Rio Tinto. After 80 years in the business, the Oppenheimer family likely will be out of the diamond trade by years’ end. Both BHP Billiton...
Over the years, we’ve seen any number of unusual uses for, and products comprised of, precious gemstones and metals. Most recently in this blog, our fashion editor, Hannah Connorton, told us about an Italian company that has created karat-gold tattoos....
Last Wednesday, I attended a panel discussion on “ethical” diamonds organized by the Women’s Jewelry Association and held here in New York. Inevitably, the discussion, moderated by jewelry industry writer and editor Peggy Jo Donahue, came around to the question...
For about 45 minutes on Tuesday morning, Kimberley Process Chairwoman Gillian Milovanovic did something unprecedented in the history of the 9-year-old process. She hosted a video web chat open to anybody who wanted to listen. According to her office, the...
Count me among the many who will be soaking up all the Titanic lore available over the next couple of weeks as the 100th anniversary of the luxury liner’s fateful maiden voyage approaches. Much about this tragedy-- one of the...
The dentist who made news when he paid more than $30,000 for music legend John Lennon’s rotten tooth last fall is now in the jewelry business, sort of. Dr. Michael Zuk, a New York-born dentist who has been practicing in...
The American Gem Trade Association (AGTA) has just updated its gemstone enhancement brochure, a 20-page booklet that provides comprehensive information on 16 different gemstones.
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...
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.
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
My colleague and I just had a discussion this week about the tendency of some news websites to use too many clichés in their headlines. Yet I just can’t get around applying the cliché “any publicity is good publicity” when...
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