May 2006 Archives
The Internet 10 Years From Now. Diamond Engagement Ring Brought Right To Your Hand?
The following article appeared in the April 10, 2006 issue of Red Herring. Showing you the entire article because we deem it important and the harbinger of trends and innovations to come that will significantly impact our lives.The possibilities are limited only by our imagination. Think of a robotic arm coming out of your computer screen and offering you a choice of diamond engagement rings, wedding rings, and wedding bands to try on!
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Fast-forward 10 years, a decade out from the final deconstruction of the old order marked by headlines about France’s Alcatel sweeping up its last remnant, Lucent Technologies, AT&T’s old equipment division.
The year is 2016. You’ve just come out of surgery and are being pushed down the hospital corridor on a gurney toward the recovery room. The nurses know you are on the way because a radio frequency identification (RFID) tag on your plastic patient identification bracelet automatically generated an alert to the nursing station.
The doctor doing rounds checks the Internet to monitor your vital signs. As always, the implants in your body are beaming real-time information about your brain waves and blood pressure to a protected web site 24/7. Your daughter, who is on a different continent, is already whispering words of encouragement into your ear—thanks to an embedded speech processor equipped with 802.11 wireless technology, TCP/IP communications protocol, and specialized software that allows sound from the Internet to flow directly into your cochlea. Using your VOIP-enabled mobile telephone, you tell her not to worry.
“One expects there to be much more organic connection between people and technology,” says Google Chief Internet Evangelist Vint Cerf, who is widely known as one of the “fathers” of the Internet for his role in co-designing the TCP/IP protocol and the Internet’s architecture.
Crossing the Line
If Mr. Cerf and about two dozen other pundits Red Herring interviewed about the future of the Internet are right, in 10 years’ time the barriers between our bodies and the Internet will blur as will those between the real world and virtual reality.
Automakers, for instance, might conceivably post their parts catalogs in the virtual world of Second Life, a pixilated 3D online blend of MySpace, eBay, and renaissance fair crossed with a Star Trek convention. Second Life participants—who own the rights to whatever intellectual property they create online—will make money both by using the catalog to design their own cars in cyberspace and by selling their online designs back to the manufacturers, says Danish economist and tech entrepreneur Nikolaj Nyholm.
Today’s devices will disappear. Electronics will instead be embedded in our environment, woven into our clothing, and written directly to our retinas from eyeglasses and contact lenses, predicts inventor, entrepreneur, author, and futurist Ray Kurzweil. “Devices will no longer be spokes on the Internet—they will be the nodes themselves,” he says.
We will know exactly when our children will be dropped off because the school bus will be connected to the Internet, says Internet doyenne Esther Dyson. Our cars might one day arrange for repairs at dealerships before we realize there’s a problem.
Everything from the family fridge to the office coffee pot—as well as heating, cooling, and security systems—will be managed through the Internet, possibly using souped-up mobile phones doubling as universal remote controls, says Google’s Mr. Cerf. By 2016, he predicts the online population of 1 billion will treble, and a huge portion will be mobile. And by then, the Internet will become so pervasive that connecting to it will no longer be a conscious act.
Bandwidth access of 100 megabits per second or more will become the norm. “It is probably a safe bet that everyone will be able to have a full-motion, high-definition real-time link to anyone,” says Bram Cohen, creator of the popular peer-to-peer program BitTorrent. Once that happens, “the concept of who is online and who is offline will melt away,” says Bradley Horowitz, Yahoo’s director of media and desktop search.
In sum, the Internet “will just become like plumbing, which you won’t notice unless it backs up,” says Brewster Kahle, inventor of the Wide Area Information Server, the Internet’s first publishing system, and co-founder of the Internet Archive, the largest publicly accessible, privately funded digital archive in the world.
While the technical underpinnings of the Internet are likely to undergo drastic change, the nature of those changes will be wrought by policy decisions made by governments with a heightened interest in overseeing the Internet. When a network is this critical to just about everything, it’s reasonable to expect that governments will seek tighter control of what remains today a decentralized and somewhat anarchic system. The trick will be to preserve the creativity that spawns innovation—and profit—in this more vital and inevitably more regulated Internet.
No matter what, people will continue to make money from Internet innovation in a variety of ways.
Targeted advertising will continue to be an important revenue generator, as will intellectual property distribution, predicts Mr. Cerf. Tools for content production will evolve to allow for widespread and uniform tagging of content, significantly improving our ability to use sensor data, financial information, medical data, text, imagery, video, and audio. And the semantic web being promoted by World Wide Web inventor Tim Berners-Lee will help us better match computer understanding with human understanding of the world around us, though it will likely be far from perfect.
People will be able to talk to the Internet when searching for information or interacting with various devices—and it will respond, though not necessarily in English, which will cease to be the dominant language on the web, says John Patrick, a founding member of the World Wide Web consortium and former vice president of Internet technology at IBM.
As so-called sensor networks evolve, there will be vastly more machines than people online. As it is, there are almost 10 billion embedded micro-controllers shipped every year. “This is the next networking frontier—following inexorably down from desktops, laptops, and palmtops, including cell phones,” says Bob Metcalfe, the inventor of Ethernet and founder of 3Com. This is what will make up much of the machine-to-machine traffic, he says.
RFID tags will be in wider use. So will geo-location services, which can be used to locate friends, places, and events of interest. Better real-time language translations will be available, at least for text translations.
Mash-ups won’t be limited to web sites—we’ll see the introduction of “mashed” real-time web applications. The Internet will further revolutionize publishing, film, and television. “You will suddenly have a few hundred thousand producers out to kill each other, competing on the Internet,” predicts Charles Zhang, founder and CEO of Beijing-based portal Sohu.com. “You will have instant rankings of the most popular videos,” adds Mr. Zhang, who reckons China will lead the way in this new form.
Independent management consultant and author John Hagel III sees opportunities in network infrastructure management and customer relationship businesses that put together individualized bundles of products and services and act as trusted advisors.
Search will remain big. Big players will continue to dominate online, says Paul Saffo, director of the Palo Alto, California-based Institute of the Future. “The lesson is, if you want to become big you do so by empowering and enabling lots and lots of small players.” The same way that Google, Amazon, and eBay did, he adds.
So just how big will Internet business be? “My whole thesis is that information technologies are growing exponentially. Things that we can measure like price performance, capacity, and bandwidth are doubling every year so that’s actually a factor of a thousand in 10 years,” says Mr. Kurzweil. “So if the Internet is already very influential—if there is already a trillion dollars of e-commerce, already a very democratizing technology, then multiplying its size and scope by a factor of a thousand will be a very significant change.”
A Clean Slate
But this assumes that the current Internet, which was never designed to be a critical part of an economy’s infrastructure, will be able to sustain a tripling of the number of people connected and the addition of billions—perhaps even hundreds of billions—of devices.
Concerns about how to prepare for such a future took center stage at a March 8 meeting of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) in Paris. The meeting drew researchers, telecom executives, academics, government officials, and economists from the United States, Europe, and Asia.
“The Internet is at a turning point and the changes are big enough in nature to warrant the high-level attention of policy makers,” says conference organizer Andrew Wyckoff, head of the OECD’s information, computers, and communications policy division.
Indeed, willful service disruptions, viruses, and the web’s fragility and lack of robustness have all become issues of enormous importance as the Internet becomes central to the global economy and people’s lives. Even spam has graduated from irritant to serious threat.
Massachusetts Institute of Technology Senior Research Scientist Dave Clark, who has been actively influencing the development of the Internet since the 1970s, believes the Internet needs a total overhaul, not just more patches.
Mr. Cerf wonders about that himself. “Plainly the Internet continues to play an extraordinary role in the daily life of its billion users, so in a sense it cannot be considered hopelessly broken,” he says. “But it is arguable that it can be significantly improved.”
Growing Up
The Internet did not really become a mass-market communications tool until after 1983, when the U.S. government’s original ARPANET—short for Advanced Research Projects Agency Network—changed communications protocols and hooked up with a computer network linking academic computer science departments nationwide, helping usher in the web we know today. It was built on the telephone network and satellite and radio systems of the day, and adapted amazingly well to new technology. But “a new version of the Internet is certainly imaginable,” says Mr. Cerf.
Those who argue that the current Internet does not need fixing “tend to be people who sell a lot of antivirus software,” says John Wroclawski, director of the computer network division at the University of Southern California’s Information Sciences Institute.
Mr. Wroclawski, working with a team of graduate students as well as some of the Internet’s pioneers, is trying to rethink the Internet from scratch. The idea is to keep an open mind to what works, including preserving the best of what we have today. To that end, they are participating in the Global Environment for Networking Innovations (GENI), a new National Science Foundation project to build an advanced test-bed network for piloting new protocols and applications on the Internet.
A second NSF initiative, the Future Internet Design (FIND), is one of many projects aimed at generating new approaches that can be tested over GENI’s advanced test-bed network.
“We don’t presently have a roadmap of where we are trying to go with the Internet,” says MIT’s Mr. Clark. Instead of worrying about backward compatibility and migration issues, the focus has shifted to “where we would like to be in 10 to 15 years,” he explains. “If the story is compelling enough, people will figure out how to get there.”
There are different schools of thought about GENI’s ultimate impact on the Internet’s technical underpinnings. Some, like Nick McKeown, a Stanford University professor involved in three different “clean slate” initiatives, believe that after testing new technologies over the GENI platform, a consensus will emerge on one approach and entrepreneurs will innovate around that—and commercialize their products with the help of venture capitalists.
Others think entrepreneurs will end up commercializing different approaches addressing different problems. In this scenario, specific applications will have their own dedicated networks that will coexist indefinitely running over GENI, which, as a platform, will become the new Internet.
However, “The biggest challenge to efforts such as GENI will be confronting the reality that there will be no technical solutions to the top problems of the Internet that do not also solve the underlying issues of economics, ownership, and trust,” says K.C. Claffy, founder and director of the Cooperative Association of Internet Data Analysis (CAIDA) at the University of California, San Diego’s Supercomputer Center.
In short, it will be difficult to choose a technology direction without becoming embroiled in policy decisions that impact business models.
The future direction of the Internet could end up being one in which the telecom carriers apply their own business model to the Net—one that CAIDA senior analyst for economics and policy Tom Vest calls “telcotopia”—which would basically mean a return to the public switched telephone network (PSTN), where no network service is possible outside of an explicit partnership with the regional or national PSTN owner. In another scenario, the Internet could become a government-run utility, whereby network control ceases to be a strategic business advantage. Finally, the “let a hundred flowers bloom” approach could be adopted, in which many different infrastructure control arrangements and business models compete and coexist.
The outcome of that debate is likely to determine the technology path of the Internet. The telcos, for example, are unhappy with just being the pipes because they can’t earn their traditional profit margins. “Society has decided IP is like water—this has strong implications for a [telecom] industry structuring itself to sell wine,” says CAIDA’s Ms. Claffy.
So, telcos are pushing to start putting functions in the core of the network because they believe they can make a lot more money with services than they can just providing access.
To date, the network’s core has been dumb—meaning its only job is to blindly carry data from one user to another. All the innovation—think Mr. Berners-Lee and the World Wide Web or Niklas Zennström and Skype—happened at the edges. But there are several proposals, all likely to be tested on GENI, that would move some of the innovation to the Internet’s core.
One idea is to replace today’s routers, the boxes that direct Internet traffic, with much simpler dynamic circuit switches, which would allow the introduction of new optical technology, says Mr. McKeown, director of a new Stanford Clean Slate program, which will use outside donations to seed small projects that could end up changing the Internet’s architecture in 10 to 15 years.
The upside of this approach could make service providers’ networks more efficient, lower their costs, and make the model more sustainable. The downside, as USC’s Mr. Wroclawski sees it, is that “any move to change the current overall Internet structure might be tremendously threatening to innovation in the future.”
When it comes to telcos, it is competition, not just innovation, that their detractors see at risk. Unlike in Europe and some parts of Asia, the U.S. has restricted competition in broadband access to the consumer—the portion of the network referred to as the last mile, or the local loop. The policy virtually guarantees insufficient capacity and artificially high prices, says Bill Woodcock, director of Packet Clearing House, a San Francisco-based nonprofit research institute that analyzes Internet traffic, routing economics, and global network development.
To make matters worse, some U.S. local exchange carriers in recent months began lobbying for a different model in which any traffic generated by any network endpoint—such as Google—has to compensate the carrier for the use of its broadband facilities. “This is an attempt to return to a 19th century model of telecommunication with complex inter-carrier termination and compensation mechanisms,” says Mr. Cerf.
If telecom carriers want to provide value-added services in addition to broadband access, they should be free to do so, he says. But, he and others argue, they should not be free to interfere with the provision of broadband services by others.
Telcos are dependent on companies like Yahoo and Google to provide content that telecom customers want. Some folks, Mr. Woodcock being one, see them using protection-racket tactics to corner business, offering to degrade the service quality of competitors for the right price—helping Google against Yahoo (or the other way around, as the case may be) or Skype, Vonage, and others, he says.
“In my opinion, legal protections are needed to preserve both consumer choice in the use of the Internet and to ensure continued innovation of new services without having to obtain permission or negotiate commercial arrangements with the access providers,” Mr. Cerf says.
In fact, some believe that Google now has more than enough cash and heft to provoke a power shift, even though it lacks the Washington, D.C., connections and savvy of telco lobbyists.
New technology solutions could also act in favor of companies like Google and Yahoo. Canadian researchers are already testing a system in which the user owns, rather than leases, the last mile of connectivity. The user then connects to a neighborhood co-location point, where he will be free to interconnect with a phone company—or use an alternative provider such as a Google or a Yahoo.
Engineers have already tested the system successfully. Trials with consumers could start as early as this summer, says Bill St. Arnaud, senior director of advanced networks at CANARIE, a Canadian industry and government consortium that is developing next-generation Internet technologies.
Mr. St. Arnaud argues that, just as governments do not define where you can buy your computer or how much memory it can have, users should be able to configure their own network, decide how much bandwidth they want, and choose from a menu of providers.
Mr. Arnaud believes that CANARIE’s approach can make money, and possibly end the practice of governments propping up phone companies at the expense of consumers. “While the business case for the carriers may be disappearing, a host of new business and investment opportunities is being created with far greater economic wealth creation,” Mr. Arnaud writes in his blog. “Our biggest concern is that governments will be distracted by the complaints of the old industry such as carriers and penalize the new economy industries of the Internet.
Nearly everyone interviewed by Red Herring for this article predicts that government involvement in Internet issues will continue for the next 10 years, as will the debate over such involvement. The Chinese government’s attempt to limit searches on Google is only the beginning.
Indeed, the U.S. government’s claim that it does not control the Internet Committee for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) proved hollow when the U.S. Department of Commerce recently told ICANN to delay the allocation of the .xxx and .cat domain names, asserts Packet Clearing House’s Mr. Woodcock.
The White House’s move gave “a lot of unexpected leverage at a particularly dangerous time” to a Chinese government attempt, through the United Nations’ International Telecommunications Union (ITU), to place control of critical internet resources like IP addresses in the hands of national governments, says Mr. Woodcock. If national governments directly oversee available Internet protocol addresses, they can control and therefore limit the entry of all new Internet service providers.
America’s perceived control of the Internet is likely to change, but not for the reasons people think, says Israeli tech entrepreneur and investor Yossi Vardi. He predicts that many U.S. corporations will continue to lobby Washington to tighten their grip on the food chain—including pieces like music, movies, software, and telecoms—and the natural result of that will see the center of Internet gravity shift to countries where the grass roots is more powerful and operates more freely.
Others, such as Ms. Dyson, founding chairperson of ICANN, hope that ICANN will retain the authority it has today but will continue to be seen as illegitimate, which is “a desirable state of affairs,” she says, “because it means it can do very little.”
The moment any Internet governing body is seen as legitimate and gains power, governments will use it only to further censorship and other nefarious aims, she argues. It would be better, she says, if ICANN stays in place, and everyone watches it like a hawk.
To paraphrase Winston Churchill on Democracy, a free Internet is the worst form of Internet, with the exception of all the others.
Asscher Cut Diamonds: Buy The Stone, Not The 'Numbers'
My Dad (Barry) just blogged here recently about the importance of buying the loose diamond itself and not merley a set of 'numbers' when it comes to purchasing your dream diamond engagement ring.
In today's (similar) project, we evaluated and photographed 2 loose Asscher Cut Diamonds on behalf of one of our customers.
Both diamonds are incredibly beautiful and brilliant for this type of fancy shape. Additionally, the prices on both diamonds represent an extraordinary value for these kind of quality diamonds. The difference in carat size is negligible and is virtually impossible to distinguish. Both diamonds face up exceptionally white and both are eye-clean.
Only one diamond however, is in our opinion clearly a better "value" (best bang for your buck) over the other.
This is simply because you get to save money for a difference that ONLY EXISTS ON PAPER (DIAMOND CERTIFICATE) BUT CANNOT BE SEEN WITH THE NAKED EYE.
I am referring here to the difference in color and clarity grades of the two diamonds which cannot be guaged with the unaided eye yet influences pricing based on the rarity factor and market forces.
From a qualitative and quantitative standpoint however, they are almost indestinguishable and equally brilliant to the eye.
Would some argue with us regarding our position on buying the "best value for your dollars"? Sure!
This is because buying a loose diamond is chock full of emotional and psychological variables that are always considered. It is a once in a lifetime purchase (we hope :)) for most, and some people need to go to sleep at night with the knowledge that they got their gal an incredibly rare D/VVS1 diamond engagement ring...
This is obvioulsy the approach and motivation of psychology and emotion over the rational and practical considerations in the diamond buying process.
This is a purely personal and subjective approach.
Our approach however is to always make sure that you get the best diamond that money can buy from the standpoint of cut precision and light performance. Once you secure this kind of ideally cut diamond, you don't need to pay the extra money for the "collection color/clarity grades" which DO NOT AFFECT A DIAMONDS BRILLIANCE AND DISPERSIVE QUALITIES ONE IOTA, AND ONLY TALKS TO THE RARITY OF THE STONE.
Want to decide for yourself?
O.K.
Here are the photographs of the 2 Assscher Cut Diamonds that we took today.
You decide which one is "better".
2.29 F VS2 Asscher Cut Diamond is $24,700
2.26 D VVS1 Asscher Cut Diamond is $35,500
Gold Continues Up!
$665.61
Bluenile 1Q Profits Down 9%
On-line diamond retailer Bluenile reported first quarter profits down 9 percent on Sales that increased 15% for the period ending April 2, 2006. The number of orders rose 12 percent and the average order was about $1,482.
The cost of sales rose 15 percent to $40.33 million. Expenses related to sales and administration rose 26 percent to $7.7 million, and capital expenses nearly tripled to $608,000.
Blue Nile reported first quarter results after the bell. Shares closed down 27-cents to $33.65.
During an investor's conference call, Blue Nile CEO Mark Vadon said Blue Nile's prices were "more aggressive" in the quarter and the company had lowered diamond prices to sell more. He also cited the increasing competition and costs for keywords in Pay Per Click advertising on the major internet Search Engines; Google, Yahoo, and MSN.
Website traffic rose during the quarter and the company plans an aggressive conversion rate strategy in 2006 to drive sales. Conversion rate improvements are related to attracting more buyers per click.
Death Of A Diamond Salesman.
$1000 Gold?
Martin Spring thinks so, here: $1000 Gold
Gold is up another $4 today to $673.
SuperbCert Diamond & Vatche Ring; A Match Made in Heaven!
Here is an absolutely breathtaking diamond engagement ring set by world famous designer Vatche, just completed in the Vatche factory for one of our customers. This particular customer requested that the platinum matching wedding band be fused to the diamond engagement ring.
The diamond is our gorgeous SuperbCert 1.07 carat Super-Ideal Cut Diamond!
Check out the photos (which do not do justice)!
Pictures of an AGS-0 Princess Cut Diamond!
Hey Folks!
We just brought in a beautiful loose princess cut diamond that is certified by the AGS diamond lab and scores an AGS-0 on their new cut grade scale. The diamond is indeed quite beautiful with excellent brilliance and dispersion.
Here are a few photos.
Diamond Sales Increasing.
Consumer drive for diamonds hasn't waned in the past decade, with the Diamond Information Center (DIC) reporting 2005 as the 10th consecutive year of retail diamond jewelry's growth in the U.S.
Diamond jewelry sales rose in 2005 to $33.7 billion, up 7 percent from $31.5 billion in 2005. In addition to the growth of overall U.S. sales, which comprise more than 50 percent of worldwide sales, transactions grew by 3 percent and average ticket prices were up by 4 percent.
Diamond E-Tailer Odimo.com In Trouble: Signs of Things to Come?
Odimo Incorporated (Nasdaq: ODMO), an online retailer that offers high quality diamonds, fine jewelry, brand name watches and luxury goods through three websites (diamond.com, ashford.com, and worldofwatches.com), today announced that it received a notice from The Nasdaq Stock Market ("Nasdaq") dated May 2, 2006
indicating that for the prior 30 consecutive trading days, the Company's common stock has not maintained a minimum market value of publicly held shares of $5,000,000 as required for continued inclusion by Marketplace
Rule 4450(a)(2) (the "Rule").
For purposes of the Rule, Nasdaq defines publicly held shares as total shares outstanding, less any shares held by officers, directors, or beneficial owners of 10% or more of the outstanding
shares. In accordance with Marketplace Rule 4450(e)(1), the Company was provided 90 calendar days, until July 31, 2006, to regain compliance by having its publicly held shares maintain a market value of $5,000,000 or
greater for a minimum of ten consecutive trading days.
Bluenile.com and Amazon.com reported 1Q results yesterday that were not good. Bluenile showed higher sales but profits were down 9% and Amazon.com also reported higher sales but with profits down by 35%.
For Bluenile, this is the second consecutive quarter of reported lower profits.
We may be seeing the beginnings of a shakeout among diamond and jewelry e-commerce company websites.
Canada Drops Jewelry Excise Tax!
The Canadian Government today abolished it's jewelry excise tax.
Canada's conservative majority in government dropped a number of excise taxes on May 2 to create "a more competitive business tax system," said Jim Flaherty, the country's finance minister.
Along with the tax changes, Canada's jewelry excise tax was eliminated. In June 2005, Parliament voted to abolish the jewelry excise tax over a period of 5 years.
"Jewelry is available at all price levels and is purchased by a wide range of Canadian households," the budget report read. "Repeal of the Excise Tax will recognize this and ensure that the Canadian jewelry industry is able to compete on a fair and equitable basis with other retail and manufacturing businesses in Canada. It will also serve to reduce the compliance burden on the jewelry industry, a particular benefit to small businesses.”
The Canadian Jewellers Association (CJA) briefed the industry on the news. Morris Robinson, chair for the group's government relations committee, said, “We are delighted that the conservative government has ended the inequity and confusion inherent in the Excise Tax in the content of minister Flaherty’s budget.
According to a statement by CJA, the "vote of confidence to our industry is the result of many group and individual efforts, specifically to the Prime Minister [Stephen Harper] for honoring his campaign promise to our sector."
Are you listening U.S. Congress? Get rid of these consumption taxes!!
Diamond Engagement Rings in The Muck!
Gold Continues Up On Political Tensions.
U.S. gold futures rose toward session highs by midmorning on Thursday, bolstered by ongoing investment buying due to bullishness on gold's long-term prospects after prices hit a 25-year peak Wednesday. Gold closed at $679 on Thursday.
Silver prices rebounded after falling as much as 8 percent in the previous session's bout of profit taking, while
Gold market players said they were keeping a close eye on energy markets, currencies and U.S. economic data for inspiration.
Even though precious metals values technically are sharply overbought, geopolitical tensions including worries over Iran's standoff with the West are still helping to underpin prices.
Gold up Again! No end In sight?
Gold is up again today to $684 and Platinum is up another $12 to $1185.00!
Fortunoff Goes Outside family To Name new CEO.
Long Island, N.Y.-based retailer Fortunoff has appointed a former Federated executive to be its new CEO, the company announced Thursday.
Helming the chain will be Arnold Orlick, who most recently served as chairman and CEO of Rich's/Lazarus/Goldsmith's, which was the Atlanta-based division of Federated Department Stores, prior to the changeover to the Macy's nameplate that occurred after the Federated-May Co. merger. Orlick was also a former director of stores for Bloomingdale's and held senior positions at Robinson's Department Stores and Abraham & Strauss.
Fortunoff operates six jewelry and home furnishing stores in New Jersey and New York and Fortunoff Backyard/Furniture stores throughout the metropolitan New York area.
Private equity investors Trimaran Capital Partners and Kier Group acquired Fortunoff in July 2005, in partnership with the Fortunoff and Mayrock families. The Fortunoff family has continued to run the business since the acquisition.
Antwerp and Diamond Cutting; A Developing Oxymoron?
With increasing competition from low-cost Asian countries like India and China, Antwerp is discovering that diamonds cutting business may not be forever.
After centuries of being the undisputed world leader in producing and marketing diamonds, the Belgian port city is facing a series of new challenges, including globalisation, which are threatening to take the shine off its traditional role. The Antwerp tradition of cutting and trading the most precious of gems began some 560 years ago. Now the industry, like other business, is shifting the bulk of manufacturing to low-wage countries like India and China.
In the 1970s, more than 25,000 diamond workers were still active around the medieval heart of Antwerp and in the nearby villages of the countryside. Today, there are less than 1,000 specialized polishers. Mr Philip Claes, director of corporate affairs at the High Diamond Council, the industry's governing body pointed out that labour costs in Asian Countries for polishing are about one-fifth lower than Antwerp, it was impossible to compete with that.
Today there is no denying that Indians are Antwerp's main diamond merchants. They handle two-thirds of the city's diamond trade, which last year recorded a total turnover of $39 billion, making up seven per cent of Belgian exports and employing 30,000 people.
Will Flemish become China's second language?
Diamond Branding: The View from Tiffany's.
Diamonds may be forever, but repeat purchases are always welcome -- even at a world-renowned and exclusive luxury goods outfit such as Tiffany's, the Fifth Avenue, New York-based jeweler.
The company's Irish-American president James Quinn says that once-off purchases of expensive jewelry are complemented by satisfied customers adding to their collections and accessorizing.
The rare, exquisitely cut and polished stones have been part of Quinn's life for the best part of 20 years since he joined Tiffany & Co in 1986. Nice work if you can get it.
"We work with things of beauty," the 55-year old said with a smile. "Part of our mission is to create objects of beauty and enduring value and they are purchased at the most important occasions in people's lives. It's a fun place to work."
The president of the world-famous jewelers was in Ireland recently wearing his other hat -- that of chairman of the North American board, UCD Smurfit School of Business. As part of a conference on building successful companies hosted by the school and Enterprise Ireland, Quinn addressed Irish business leaders on the importance of brand-building.
"A brand in its purest form is simply the delivery of a guaranteed set of standards and qualities and, over time, you become famous for that and instinctively people understand what the brand communicates," says Quinn.
"It's never too early for a company to start thinking about what they want to stand for because some day they hope to be famous for it and you need to have a set of standards for at least four different stakeholders: your customers, so that they understand the product, what they should expect and over time what they will trust; your employees, so that they understand how they'll be treated, what is expected of them and how they will be rewarded and recognized; your shareholders, and the communities that you work in."
More Shakeups At Zales.
Zale Corporation's chief financial officer, Mark Lenz, was placed on administrative leave effective May 5. The move came after outside auditors for Zale reported that Lenz failed to disclose (in a timely manner) vendor payments scheduled for the final two weeks of Zale's fiscal year, which ended July 31, 2005.
The omission of vendor payments resulted in Zale reporting a higher net cash flow from operating activities, but the company states that cash payables were "properly reflected on the balance sheet."
Early in April 2006, Zale reported that it was cooperating with the Securities and Exchange Commission investigation regarding accounting practices, executive pay, and other matters.
Acting Zale CEO, Betsy Burton, said, "The company's board of directors concluded that based on this information a change in chief financial officers was appropriate."
George Mihalko was appointed to oversee chief financial officer duties, and will also take a seat on the board of directors and report directly to Burton. Before joining Zale, Mihalko had served as chief financial officer of The Sports Authority retail chain, and held executive positions at Pier 1 Imports, Burlington Northern Inc., and Firestone Tire & Rubber Company.
One Of A Kind Jeweler In Kansas.
A dying breed. You can truly say this guy is a "Last Of The Mohicans".
What's Happening To Platinum?
Platinum rose to a record on the spot market for a second straight day amid buying by investors such as hedge funds.
Fund managers are pouring money into commodities such as copper, gold and oil in search of better returns than from stocks and bonds. Hedge funds and other large speculators increased their net-long position in New York platinum futures in the week ended May 2 to the highest in almost three months, according to US Commodity Futures Trading Commission data.
"Funds are still bullish on metals" and are betting that platinum prices may rise further, William Leung, precious metals trader at Standard Bank Asia in Hong Kong, said.
Platinum for immediate delivery rose as much as $4, or 0.3 percent, to a record $1199.50, having gained 37 percent in the past year. The metal traded at $1199 at 12.55pm Singapore time.
Platinum for delivery in July rose as much as $7.10, or 0.6 percent, to $1 209 an ounce, on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange. It traded at that level in after-hours trade at 12.57pm Singapore time.
Speculative long positions, or bets prices will rise, outnumbered short positions by 4 517 contracts on the New York Mercantile Exchange, the Washington-based commission said in its Commitments of Traders report. That's the highest since the week ended February 10.
Platinum, used in jewelry and devices to reduce toxic emissions from autos, may trade between $980 and $1 250 an ounce this year, London-based precious metals research group GFMS said last month.
Plans by Anglo Platinum, the world's biggest platinum producer, to develop a mine in South Africa may be stalled by a community's petition to stop the development.
A South African court held a hearing yesterday on the petition to stop Anglo Platinum from developing a mine in Limpopo province, a lawyer said. Simon Tebele, head of corporate communications at Anglo Platinum, declined to give details of the company's defence when contacted before the hearing. - Bloomberg, with reporting by Antony Sguazzin in Johannesburg.
Platinum right now is at $1227.
Gold and Platinum at Record Highs This Morning.
Gold futures struck a fresh 26-year high above $690 an ounce early Tuesday, propelled higher by a falling dollar and renewed concerns about Iran's nuclear standoff with the West. Gold was last up $11.10 at $691 an ounce on the New York Mercantile Exchange, having risen to as high as $692.50, its highest level since 1980. Platinum set a record at $1,236 an ounce and was last up $30.60 at $1,232.50
$700 Gold Is HERE!
Gold rose to $700 an ounce in New York for the first time since October 1980 as tensions increased over Iran's nuclear-research program.
The U.S. government said a letter from Iran's president hasn't reduced its determination to halt the Islamic republic's nuclear research. Geopolitical turmoil can spur investors to buy precious metals as a store of value. Gold touched a record $850 in January 1980 after a 1979 Iranian revolution slashed oil exports and spurred 12 percent inflation in the U.S.
``No one is buying Iran's overtures,'' said Frank McGhee, head metals trader at Integrated Brokerage Services LLC in Chicago. ``This is purely a geopolitical move for gold. We've been here before. The difference is that this time, there are nukes involved.''
Gold futures for June delivery gained $20.10, or 3 percent, to $700 an ounce at 11:24 a.m on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange. A close at that price would be the highest since October 1980. Prices are up 63 percent in the past year.
New York Diamond Dealers Club To Receive Special Award from U.S. Gov't.
The New York Diamond Dealers Club (DDC) will be presented a special export performance award during its 75th anniversary dinner on May 16. Deputy secretary of the United States Commerce Department, David Sampson, is expected to make the presentation to the DDC during the evening celebration.
The gala dinner, which will be held at the Rainbow Room in Rockefeller Center at 6:30 p.m., will follow a day-long celebration for DDC members. To kick-start the celebration at a morning reception (9:30 a.m. at the Rainbow Room,) Distinguished Service Awards will be presented to diamond and jewelry industry notables, and a group of DDC members will be honored for their longtime club service. The DDC will host a luncheon at the club midday.
The DDC, founded in March 1931, was the first diamond exchange in the United States. Membership at present is about 2,000 and includes manufacturers, dealers, brokers, and rough diamond merchants.
Stunning Ideal Princess Cut Diamond in Custom Ring!
Check out this absolutely magnificent SuperbCert Princess Cut Diamond ring we just finished in a custom made diamond engagement ring for one of our customers!
The SuperbCert Diamond is our .73 G VVS2 Princess Cut Diamond! The custom mounting is made by hand in 950 platinum with approximately .60 F/G (color) VS (clarity) excellent cut quality diamonds set around the band! The band was made especially thin (2.25 mm width) per the request of our customer and was reinforced on the top where the center diamond attaches to the shank.
You will find more of these gorgeous SuperbCert Princess Cut Diamonds at our ExcelDiamonds website.
Enjoy the eye-candy!
Brother, Can You Spare 10 Million?
House of Taylor Jewelry, which suffered losses for its fiscal year 2005, has secured $10 million in financing from investors to buy inventory and to use for marketing and working capital.
House of Taylor Jewelry saw sales of $5.61 million and a net loss of $3.5 million for the year ended Dec. 31, 2005. It attributes the loss to numerous factors, including a restructuring, a focus on designing and sourcing new products; developing sales and marketing strategies; reducing inventory of discontinued product; and increased research, development and marketing, according to a May 1 2006, press release from the company.
In May 2005, the company underwent a restructuring after acquiring the licenses to market jewelry under several new brand names including Elizabeth and House of Taylor Jewelry (both designed by Hollywood legend Elizabeth Taylor) and Kathy Ireland for House of Taylor Jewelry (designed by retail mogul and former model Kathy Ireland).
The company launched the new merchandise during the Las Vegas market week in June. In connection with the restructuring, the company saw one-time expenses of $656,000 and non-cash amortization of about $590,000. This year, it will be back in Vegas with new merchandise.
Is there such a thing as a "Born Again Sucker?" Sure looks like it!
Buy Ideal Diamonds On The Internet At The Lowest Prices!
Scores of Diamond websites have sprung up on the Internet like ragweed trying to take advantage of the growing internet to sell diamonds and jewelry. Typically these websites are run by people who have litte or no knowledge or expertise of diamonds but are simply looking to make a fast and easy buck. They list diamonds provided to them by manufacturers in what is called a "Virtual Diamond" (VD) database and provide a minimal amount of data/information.
If you purchase, the diamond is drop-shipped to you directly by the manufacturer.
More discussion here: Wholesale Loose Diamonds
Our advice to you is this: If you do see a diamond on-line ask the salesperson to provide you with additional information such as a copy of the lab gradng report and high resolution photographs. Know what it is you're buying before you put your Credit Card down on the table.
Palladium Engagement Rings: Excellent and Affordable Alternative to Platinum?
Scott Kay, the renowned jewelry designer and owner of Scott Kay, Inc. definitely thinks so and is not shy about making his opinion on this topic known. With the price of platinum going through the roof (it closed at $1240 today, up $40 !) Kay believes that Palladium provides an affordable as well as an affordable alternative. Indeed, Kay points out that Palladium has qualities and attributes that Platinum does not have.
The prices of Gold and Platinum have surged over the past five months and expert analysts are convinced that for a variety of reasons, they will continue to do so for the forseeable future. Retailers have already increased prices and will no doubt continue to do so if these metals continue their upward price climb.
Thus, Palladium provides an excellent alternative not only to Platinum but to white gold as well. White gold is not white per se but is really yellow gold that has been made white via rhodium plating. The rhodium plating is not permanent and therefore the "whiteness" will fade over time necessitating more rhodium plating. Palladium is pure white, even whiter than Platinum and sturdier, thanks to the special alloys used in it's processing.
Folks, Scott Kay may be on to something. It certainly deserves your serious consideration. More information is HERE:
Palladium Jewelry: Consider It!
Is China Pushing Gold's Price Explosion?
Gold has surged to $700 an ounce for the first time in 26 years after Chinese economists suggested the country should quadruple its bullion reserves to protect against a falling dollar.
Speculators have been alert to any sign that Beijing may be planning to switch a portion of its massive $875 billion reserves into gold, a move that would electrify the market.
They seized on comments yesterday by Liu Shanen, an official at the Beijing Gold Economy Development Research Centre, who said China should raise the portion of gold in its reserves from 1.3pc today to between 3pc and 5pc. Such a move would entail the purchase of 1,900 tonnes of gold, equivalent to gobbling up nine months of global mine production.
Washington's cold response to Iran's move to defuse nuclear tension also helped fuel yesterday's rally. "No one is buying Iran's overtures," said Frank McGhee, a metals trader at Integrated Brokerage Services. "This is a purely geo-political move for gold. We've been here before. The difference is that this time, there are nukes involved."
June gold futures jumped $20.10 an ounce in New York, briefly touching the $700 line before falling back slightly.
Diamond Jewelry Blowout Sale!!
In Celebration of Mother's Day!
Check it out here
Fly Me To The Moon: Gold & Platinum Prices on Steroids!
Gold for immediate delivery reached a 26-year high as investors bought the metal as a hedge against inflation after the U.S. Federal Reserve signaled concern about rising prices. Platinum rose to a record.
The Federal Reserve yesterday raised interest rates and said higher energy prices and raw material consumption ``have the potential to add to inflation pressures.'' Bullion for immediate delivery has jumped 37 percent this year on inflation and rising tension over Iran's nuclear program.
``Comments by the Fed which hinted at possible further rate rises signaled to the market that inflation concerns are still present,'' Tsuyoshi Furukawa, a commodity strategist at Taiheiyo Bussan Co. in Tokyo, said by phone today. ``Investors decided they'd have to buy gold as an inflation hedge.''
Gold for immediate delivery rose as much as $5.60, or 0.8 percent, to $713.50 an ounce, the highest since it traded at $717 on January 24, 1980. It traded at $711.83 at 4:20 p.m. Tokyo time.
Platinum rose to a record for a fourth day. There's speculation Johnson Matthey Plc., the world's largest distributor of platinum-group metals, ``will produce a bullish report on the market next week,'' according to an e-mail report from N.M. Rothschild & Sons (Australia) Ltd. today.
Platinum for immediate delivery rose as much as $21, or 1.7 percent, to $1,277.50 an ounce, having gained 44 percent in the past year. It traded at $1,271.50 an ounce at 4:21 p.m. in Tokyo.
Iran Tension
The U.S. government and other United Nations council members want Iran to stop its nuclear research, sparking concern supplies of oil from the world's fourth-largest oil producer may be disrupted. That led to record oil prices last month.
``Inflationary fears, geopolitical tensions regarding Iran, the pure weight of funds going into commodities'' are driving gold, said Darren Heathcote, head of trading at N.M. Rothschild & Sons (Australia) Ltd., in Sydney.
Fund investments in commodities may exceed $120 billion by 2008, up from $80 billion last year, according to Barclays Plc.
Goldman Sachs JBWere Pty raised its gold price estimates yesterday to $675 an ounce for 2006, from $575 an ounce, and expects gold to trade between $630 and $850 an ounce for the rest of the year.
Inflation erodes the value of assets such as bonds, and makes precious metals more attractive as hedges.
Supply Concern
Gold for June delivery on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange rose as much as $9.20, or 1.3 percent, to $714.90 an ounce in after-hours electronic trading, the highest since September 24, 1980, when the contract reached $716.00. The contract traded at $713.60 at 4:23 p.m. Tokyo time.
Some investors buy gold as inflation increases to preserve purchasing power. The precious metal surged to $873 an ounce in 1980, when consumer prices jumped more than 12 percent.
Gold production from the world's largest deposit, a mine run by Barrick Gold Corp., will be 50 percent lower than forecast this year because of damage to the main shaft, a partner in the project said yesterday.
``That may have some people worrying about supply going forward,'' said David Thurtell, a commodity strategist at Commonwealth Bank of Australia Ltd., said in Sydney. ``There's a lot reasons to buy gold now, and not much in the other way.''
Contrarian View On Gold & Silver Prices: "The Bubble Will Burst".
The bubble-like levels of gold and silver prices cannot be sustained, according to the head of the world's largest precious metals trader, as bullion surged through the $700 a troy ounce mark for the first time in 25 years.
But Helmut Eschwey, chief executive of Heraeus, a family-owned German trading and technology group, said prices in platinum and some rarer precious metals, all at or near record highs, were justified by demand and low stock levels.
"The rally has been enormous [but] it can't go on forever," he told the Financial Times. "Silver will be the first to fall. Gold will not last at this level. It is different with platinum because there is industrial need."
His comments carry weight because Heraeus, based just outside Frankfurt, has been in the precious metals business for more than 150 years and makes annual revenues of about 7 billion from trading.
It is also unusual in that it has positions in all parts of the metal cycle, fromrefining and recycling to making products for industries such as automotive, semiconductors and telecommunications.
The group also has divisions making sensors for the steel industry, dental products, optical fibres and specialist lighting.
Gold prices have risen from $600 an ounce inthe past month and bymore than 250 per cent in the past five years, whilesilver and platinum have recorded strong gains.
Speculators such as hedge funds have been blamed for a large part of the risesand Mr Eschwey said he thought, by jumping on a bandwagon, that they had had an effect.
He said it was "impossible to predict" when the bubble would burst for silver and gold but that it would take place. The situation is clouded because industrial buyers are trying to put back their purchases of precious metals but cannot do so forever and are starting to buy at the record levels.
The easiest way to prick the bubble would be for central banks to release some of their huge holdings in gold, Mr Eschwey said.
"There is a big stock in gold; there is none in platinum," he added, justifying his belief that platinum prices will stay strong. "I believe in the long run there will be a shortage of platinum."
The metal is predominantly used in the production of catalysts for cars and other devices as well asjewellery.
As a privately-owned company with 188 family shareholders, Heraeus, which trades from Hanau in Germany, New York and Hong Kong, is careful to monitor risks when it trades and closes each of its positions every night.
"Our business model is defined in a way that we have no price risk and a high stability in earnings," Mr Eschwey said.
Gay Couples Go Traditional with Engagement Rings and Bands.
The more things change, the more they stay the same. Tradition is a very powerful force.
The story is here: Gay Couples Go Traditional.
Will You Consider an "I-1" Clarity Graded Diamond?
Many consumers will shy away from considering an I-1 clarity grade diamond either because of what they have seen, heard, or read. In most cases, I -1 denotes inclusions that are visible to the naked eye. Valid when it involves a mediocre cut diamond as light return to your eye is minimal due to facet mis-alignment.
On the other hand, in a finely cut diamond, light refraction through the Table and Crown facets to your eyes is significantly increased and serves to "mask" your ability to see these inclusions in the face-up position from the normal viewing distance of 8-14 inches and will be "eye-clean" and look like a VS clarity.
As a consequence an I-1 / I-2 clarity grade in a finely cut diamond can represent excellent value and allow a consumer to go up in carat weight as well as Color.
An example of an eye-clean I-1 is attached below.
Diamond And Pink Sapphire Earings.
.91 carat weight Diamonds and 1.40 carat weight Pink Sapphires in Platinum. Chris saw a smaller version at Tiffany's and asked us to replicate this design with bigger stones. Chris is getting married this Saturday.
Congratulations, Chris!!
Well, Don't You Know; Internet Diamond Retailer Diamond.com Goes Belly Up.
Diamond.com, one of the first and very heavily financed Internet Diamond and Jewelry websites today announced that they are officially out of business.
Diamond.com's parent company, Odimo Incorporated (Nasdaq: ODMO - News), an online retailer, today announced that Ice.com ("Ice"), an online retailer of diamonds and jewelry, has purchased from Odimo certain specified assets comprising Odimo's diamond and jewelry business, including all of Odimo's rights to the domain name www.diamond.com, and related trademarks, copyrights, product images and other intangibles in exchange for $7.5 million. Additionally, Ice purchased the Company's remaining diamond and jewelry inventory and corporate packaging for an additional $2.0 million.
Diamond.com's diamond database consisted of "Virtual Diamonds" (VD) which were not owned or housed by Diamond.com but were instead directly drop-shipped to the customer by the wholesaler-manufacturer. Little if any information regarding the diamond's Cut Quality, Light Performance, or Photos were provided. Consumers literally bought 'blind'. We've blogged on this topic several times, for example HERE: "Virtual Diamonds"
With the increasing growth of the Internet and the rapid dissemination of information, consumers are becoming more knowledgeable, savvy, and demanding of detailed information on the diamonds they are considering for purchase. The diamond websites that know their diamonds, have them in-house, and have the technology to showcase and display their attributes are garnering the confidence of consumers and making the sales.
It's interesting to note that Virtual Diamond Internet drop-ship retailer Bluenile(NASDAQ: NILE), currently the biggest diamond e-commerce website has reported lower profits over the past two quarters. First Quarter 2006 profits were down 9% even though they lowered their diamond prices.
Looks like the shakeout has begun. Good morning, Mr. Darwin.
Tulip Craze Hits Gold and Platinum: Madness Continues.
Gold is up another $16 dollars to $730.00 and Platinum is up another $47 to $1342 in today's early trading.
Fasten your seatbelts.
Beethoven Diamond On Your Finger!
LifeGem, an American company that allows people to immortalize their loved ones, whether family or pets, in memorial diamonds, is to create three diamonds using the carbon from Ludwig van Beethoven's hair.
The diamonds, which are being made to showcase the company’s newest technology, will go on display at museums and opera houses worldwide and then be auctioned off. Proceeds from the auction will go towards creating LifeGem diamonds for underprivileged and military families.
Each Beethoven LifeGem will be a certified, high quality diamond between .5 and 1 carat in size. The Beethoven LifeGem process will be completed around the end of this year.
The Beethoven locks of hair are provided exclusively by John Reznikoff who holds the Guinness World Record for the largest and most valuable collection of celebrity hair. Reznikoff’s collection also includes such figures as Napoleon, Albert Einstein, Abraham Lincoln and John F. Kennedy.
We blogged about this company last year, HERE: Diamonds From Ashes
Just answer me this Batman: If I get me to wear one of these Beethoven diamonds, will I be the next guaranteed winner of American Idol?
Gold And Platinum Profit Taking.
Investors took profits on their Gold and Platinum positions today.
Gold is at $ 683.35, down $31 and Platinum is at $1284, down $34.
Diamonds Can Detect Eavesdropping!
UPI reports today on the latest cutting edge scientific research which displays the versatility of diamonds.
Researchers at the University of Melbourne, Australia, have found a glamorous solution to the problem of communications systems being hacked by eavesdroppers -- diamonds. The School of Physics at the university has just secured $7 million in international venture funding from international communication firms to develop the diamond-based anti-eavesdropping devices. With the new technologies, IT managers should be able to detect network prying and prevent the theft of highly sensitive information.
The project is headed by Shane Huntingdon, a scientist in the university's physics department. Huntingdon is also the chief executive officer of Quantum Communications Victoria, which has a program at the school where the quantum-based technology is being developed. The driver for the technology has been the global economic problem of eavesdropping, which causes huge financial losses for security agencies -- the FBI has estimated that breaches of critical information sent via the Internet costs millions of dollars worldwide each year. "The challenge has been to completely remove all avenues of interception by eavesdroppers," Huntingdon said.
The system won't be able to prevent criminals breaking into communications networks in an attempt to steal valuable information. What it can do is let everyone involved know that an outsider is listening in on the optic fiber that the messages are being sent down, which is a vital improvement on the current system.
Huntingdon has described how currently eavesdroppers can hack into existing communications systems and extract information from optical systems without users being aware of it. With the new quantum technologies users can cut the line as soon as they realize that they're being spied on. The message can then be re-sent through an uncompromised channel.
The key to the technology is quantum cryptography -- sending messages via optic fibers, one photon at a time. The synthetic diamonds are grown to have a targeted defect that allows them to produce this single photon of light. As quantum states cannot be copied, users of the system will know immediately if anyone steals the information. As Huntingdon says, "If you're sending one photon at a time and one goes missing, you definitely know it." Although other similar commercial systems exist in the United States and Europe, they use filtered lasers to approximate single photos instead.
The target market for the system is groups who deal in extremely sensitive data and for whom any loss of information is unacceptable. These include financial institutions, security agencies and governments, and the first-generation products from the technologies are likely to be targeted towards them for the transmission of secure datasets, such as a bank's daily offsite backup. Later generations would have more widespread uses with the commodity networking market. For now, the expected date of release of the first prototype is in three years.
If the technology takes off, there may also be an unexpected side effect hitting the gems market. QCV grows the diamonds it uses on the grounds so that they're cleaner than mined gems, but increased need for artificially grown diamonds for industrial purposes could lower the market value of jewels as gem-quality diamond producers take advantage of the new demands.
Although the technology was pitched as being a way of addressing Australia's critical need to keep up with the rest of the world in Internet security, the rest of the world is keeping tabs on the project. The initial investment came from state and federal funding when QCV was awarded $2.6 million as part of a grant from Victoria's Department of Innovation, Industry and Regional Development to develop the technology. The consortium of quantum communication and commercialization companies that the group has just signed with includes Qucor Pty. from Sydney, but also MaqiQ Technologies in Japan and the California-based Silicon Graphics Inc.
More than simply being another step on the road to increased online security, Huntingdon believes that his project could also kick-start the quantum-communications industry worldwide, taking quantum technology from theory to reality. "It's not a stronger form of encoding" he enthuses, "it's a new paradigm."
Diamonds Have Magical Powers!?
So says Will and Grace' star Debra Messing.
The actress is convinced the jewels have special powers because her hands tremble whenever she touches them.
She told America's InStyle magazine: "When I put diamonds in my hands they start to shake."
Messing first 'learned' that diamonds are magical from a friend.
She added: "One of my girlfriends says there is actually magic in them, and the wearer gets influenced by them. I believe her." The actress loves vintage jewellery stores. Her wedding ring is a 1916 diamond eternity band.
WOW!
Diamonds are Everywhere!
Diamonds are now everywhere!
There isn't a commodity on this earth that cannot be used or manipulated to market this "woman's best friend".
Ever hear of "diamond earphones"?
Check out the scoop here!
China and Dubai Fastest Growing Diamond Markets.
The Middle East along with China are the world's fastest growing markets for diamond jewlery, said Guy Leymarie, chief executive of De Beers LV, the retail business unit of South Africa's 118-year-old diamond powerhouse.
"But China does not have so much of the high-end," he said at the first De Beers store in the region that opened recently in the Mall of the Emirates.
"Dubai is interesting because you have a lot of business in the very high-end as people have a lot of money here. And now there is a great deal of business in the $10,000 to $20,000 range that is good for us as well."
In the early years after its founding in 1888, De Beers produced over 90 per cent of the world's diamonds. It is still the world's largest supplier of rough diamonds and coined the four Cs that are now popularly used to determine quality clarity, cut, carat and colour.
Its first jewellery retail outlet in the Middle East, a business it entered in 2002, opened in partnership with Salam International Investments, will help it develop customer relationships that are so important for selling jewlery, Leymarie said.
Rivals Cartier and Tiffany have already been here for some time.
De Beers has plans to open stores in several cities across the GCC, including two this year and another three next year. It currently has 12 stores in London, Paris, New York, Los Angeles, Tokyo, Kyoto and Osaka.
The De Beers range of jewelery includes the classic single-stone and three-stone pieces that make up about 30 per cent of its business. There is then the high-end range, priced at over $50,000 and designer jewellery, which makes up another 30-40 per cent of the business.
The average price of a stone at De Beers is $10,000 but its cheapest rough diamond retails for as little as $350.
Guy Leymarie estimates global diamond sales at $65-$70 billion a year, with demand growing nine to 10 per cent annually. Demand in the Middle East is growing faster and makes up 10 per cent of worldwide sales.
About 85 per cent of global diamond jewelery sales are unbranded and sold by small players while 25 to 30 brands compete for the other 15 per cent of the market.
Artistic Diamonds?
This man is out of his skull! You Call This Art?
Juice Bar Owner Becomes Diamond Expert! Easy as American Pie
Everybody's a Maven:
Buy Juice, Get A Diamond!
Fathers To Get Jewelry On Their Day.
Twelve percent of consumers plan to purchase jewelry or watches as Father's Day gifts this year, reports a study from the Jewelry Consumer Opinion Council (JCOC).
Since 2003, the percentage of consumers considering fine jewelry for Father's Day gifts has steadily increased, according to JCOC.
Of those interested in buying jewelry as a Father's Day gift, 60 percent say they would purchase a watch, 16 percent would consider a fashion ring and 6 percent would buy a necklace.
More than 25 percent of those buying fine jewelry for Father's Day say they would purchase plain metal jewelry, but 41 percent would consider buying jewelry with diamonds.
Of the fathers surveyed, 14 percent say they would like fine jewelry gifts for Father's Day, with watches and rings remaining favorites. More than half of fathers (52 percent) say they would like diamond jewelry.
Fifty-four percent of the gift-givers surveyed say they would purchase some sort of Father's Day gift this year, and 40 percent have not yet decided what to buy.
E-Commerce Legislation for Internet Jewlers.
The National Retail Federation (NRF) is urging passage of a bill introduced to the U.S. House of Representatives that would ensure online retailers retain full access to customers on the Internet.
The bill would require "net neutrality," which would proscribe a tiered system of access whereby search engine results would be determined by retailers' willingness to pay a premium to have their Web sites appear on a user search.
"Online and multichannel retailers have spent the past decade revolutionizing the way Americans shop, by giving each and every consumer greater access to a wide variety of goods and services at highly competitive prices," NRF Senior Vice President for Government Relations Steve Pfister said in a letter to House Judiciary Committee Chairman James Sensenbrenner, R-Wisc., and Ranking Member John Conyers, D-Mich.
"Because of the importance of this medium to the retail industry, NRF hopes that the Internet will remain an open highway of commerce," Pfister continued. "Recent interest in a system of tiered Internet usage, as expressed by major telecommunications companies, threatens to eliminate network neutrality, forcing the Internet into a system more like cable TV, where retailers and other content providers would have to pay for the best access to consumers."
Last week, Sensenbrenner introduced H.R. 5417, the Internet Freedom and Nondiscrimination Act of 2006, which would amend the Clayton Act federal antitrust law to require that network providers interconnect with one another to operate their networks in a nondiscriminatory manner.
E-Commerce Sales Exploding!
According to a recent study of 174 retailers conducted by Shop.org/Forrester Research, total online transactions are expected to rise 20 percent over last year, to $211.4 billion. Excluding travel, online sales in 2006 are projected to reach $138 billion.
Total online retail sales are on track to zoom past the $200 billion mark this year, more than double the $100 billion volume reached just three years ago.
Total online retail sales last year rose 25 percent to $176.4 billion. Excluding travel, online sales rose 28 percent to $113.6 billion, representing 4.7 percent of total retail sales in 2005.
Apparel, accessories, and footwear should claim $13.8 billion of the total online spending this year, not far behind computer gear, which is expected to be the leading category at $16.8 billion. Sales of cosmetics and fragrances are expected to increase 30 percent, the strongest growth category.
The most successful online retailers are utilizing their Web sites to create multichannel environments.
Nearly 80 percent of retailers maintain pricing across channels, and 46 percent allow customers to buy and redeem gift cards online and in stores. Thirty-three percent allow customers to accrue loyalty program points across channels, and 26 percent offer in-store product information online.
Chopard Watches: Quality Counts.
Reported by "The Nation":
At Chopard's watch and jewelry factory in Fleurier, Switzerland, a craftsman carefully places a tiny diamond onto a ring. He has a tray of diamonds before him and relies upon a microscope to assist in manual assembly work.
It is meticulous craftsmanship, requiring the highest technical skills and sharpest eyes. Beside him sit dozens of artisans, all involved in the delicate handiwork. If their eyes get tired, they have the luxury of relaxing them by gazing at the majestic Alps before them.
Indeed the Alps are the perk for some 600 workers at the watch and jewelry factory of Chopard. Unlike most other watchmakers and jewelers, Chopard seeks to be self-sufficient in components and parts so it can control the cost and quality of what goes into the final assembly of products. Its factory produces about 95 percent of all its parts for watches and jewelry.
Chopard is one of the few remaining family-owned businesses in the Swiss timepiece industry.
Company president Karl Scheufele said that the strength of his company was surely flexibility and ability to react quickly.
"This is especially helpful when there are dark clouds on the economic horizon, as now in Europe. Our products and company policies can adapt to the constantly changing socio-economic and political situation in any region immediately. As a result, we don't suffer as much as the big groups, and we don't have to suddenly panic and fire top management as some big groups do," he said.
"Our weakness is our capital, limited to the means of our company and family. We are not listed on any exchange, and we cannot depend on outside capital. This is why we have to grow step-by-step in production and distribution. For example, we only open five or six boutiques a year and not 50 at one shot. This is why we cannot grow as fast as we wish."
Like all Swiss watchmakers, Chopard, one of the makers of the most luxurious watches, with a company history dating back to 1860, has suffered from counterfeits. And the problem here is not about wristwatches costing $150, but fakes that can deceive a customer into shelling out $2,000.
"Most of them are made in China and Turkey, and the buyers don't know that until the watch malfunctions and they come to us. We have to tell them that we can't fix it as it's not our product. It causes great confusion," said Christine, one of the five members of the family that owns Chopard.
Reflecting her notion is the fact that at 95 boutiques, including one in Bangkok, Chopard timepieces command several thousand dollars, even if they're not a limited edition.
Ironically Asia, where most of the fakes are made, is becoming a high-potential market for the company. By country, the United States is Chopard's biggest customer, followed by France. Regionally, Europe is the top spot.
Amid stiff competition and the threat of counterfeits, Chopard has thrived by protecting its image, developing innovative designs and diversifying into jewelry.
"Happy Diamonds" is now the collection that is focusing attention upon the company. The watches have dazzled buyers with a double-layered crystal dial in which small diamonds are cleverly inserted and sealed.
Though introduced only 30 years ago, the jewelry business at Chopard now makes up half of the company's total sales, and all of its products come from its two plants in Geneva and Fleurier and one in Germany.
As long as affluent customers value uniqueness, Chopard will continue to prosper. It is one of the few family businesses in the Swiss watch industry, and it intends to stay that way.
DeBeers Sues Diamond Merchant Over It's Name.
DeBeers is suing and going to Court.
A federal court hearing is schedule in Manhattan on May 30, 2006, for use of the trademark name De Beers (and DeBeers) online. According to De Beers, diamond merchant Marvin Rosenblatt purchased some three-dozen variations of "debeers" as part of Internet domain names under his incorporated firm DeBeers Diamond Syndicate Inc.
De Beers sued Rosenblatt for violating the Lanham Act on June 1, 2004, for "unfair competition and trademark dilution violations under New York law," according to the court papers. De Beers claims it is the rightful owner of the brand name along with "luxury goods" partner LMVH Moet Hennessy Louis Vuitton. The partners are the sole owners of De Beers' trade identity in the retail diamond and luxury goods arena of the United States, De Beers states in court documents.
Rosenblatt incorporated DeBeers Diamond Syndicate in the state of Delaware September 10, 1981. In December 2001 he registered nearly three dozen domain names, and filed (as a trademark) in January 2002 the words: DeBeers Diamond Syndicate.
While the original court documents filed by De Beers show that it is in the business of selling both diamonds and luxury goods, the De Beers LV trademark application in the United States is not quite as clear and lists "luxury goods."
De Beers LV owns and operates two retail diamond stores in the United States, one at Fifth Avenue and 55th Street in Manhattan, and a second store at 401 North Rodeo Drive, in Beverly Hills, California.
Jacob The Jeweler Named Year's Trendsetter.
Celebrity jeweler Jacob Arabo, the founder and CEO of Jacob & Co., has been named the jewelry trendsetter for 2006 by Modern Bride magazine.
According to a media release from Jacob & Co., Arabo (aka "Jacob the Jeweler") has been recognized by the publication as having "shaped, influenced, re-imagined and in general, elevated the world of weddings to a whole new level."
In particular, it said he's known for transforming bridal with his use of bright colors and modern-shaped diamond solitaires. Jacob & Co. was the sole fine diamond jewelry designer to be recognized among a group of 25 design trendsetters such as Kate Spade, Monique Lhuillier and Stuart Weitzman.
Arabo said his designs are inspired by the lifestyles of his famous clients, who include David Beckham, Justin Timberlake, Bono, Jessica Alba, Madonna, Sir Elton John, Naomi Campbell, Sean Combs and Derek Jeter.
Gold Bites Man!
Nothing stays up forever, not even with Viagra.
The Gold balloon which saw it's price up and over $700 just two weeks ago burst with a loud pop today as Gold sustained heavy losses as a wave of investor selling dragged down gold prices by four percent and silver by five percent.
Gold's failure to break key levels prompted players to take profits despite earlier weakness in the dollar, which generally makes the metal cheaper for holders of other currencies. The dollar later ticked higher.
"Investors are extremely jittery. Overall, the market is going to do some consolidation work here before we make the next attempts on the high side," a dealer in London said.
"Prices are going to bottom out around $635-$640 an ounce," he added.
Gold traded in a broad range, extending the volatile moves that saw prices hit a 26-year high of $730 on May 12, which compared with the record peak of $850 in early 1980.
Gold was quoted at $647.50/649.00 by 1429 GMT after falling as low as $645, against $672.10/672.90 late in the U.S. market on Tuesday.
The metal tried to break Tuesday's high of $673.60, touching $670.50 before it retreated.
Interesting to note that the Oracle of Omaha, Warren Buffett, one of the worlds shrewdest investors divested his Silver holdings a short time ago before the bubble burst today. In the immortal words of Kenny Rodgers, "ya got to know when to hold 'em and when to fold 'em".
Tribute to Bill Goldberg: Mr. Diamond!
Father's Day (June 18, 2006.) will be a very special day for those of us in the Diamond Industry here in New York.
New York City will honor the legendary Bill Goldberg by renaming East 48th Street, between Fifth and Madison avenues, as William Goldberg Way. The street renaming ceremony will take place at noon on June 18.
"He was the face of our industry for so long, a father to so many more than just us," said Goldberg's daughter Eve, who is also the vice president of sales and marketing of the William Goldberg Diamond Corporation.
"My father was the most incredible teacher," she said, "I know my father would be very proud."
Undoubtedly William Goldberg would also be proud of how his family continues to carry on his vision. "My father taught us the importance of integrity, honesty and how essential it was to love what we do," said Goldberg's son Saul, who is the president of the firm. "His passion and charisma was infectious. This memorial to my father is such a tribute to his life."
Senator Charles Schumer (D-NY) is expected to join the Goldberg family for the dedication ceremony. The sign will sit just below the building of William Goldberg's corporate offices where Goldberg worked to build his company into a prestigious diamond house.
William Goldberg served as the president of the New York Diamond Dealers Club from 1978-1984, and he is given much credit for supporting women in the diamond industry, opening up the Dealers Club to the media, and making 47th Street a safer and cleaner business area. He was also known for his philanthropic efforts raising funds for the United Jewish Appeal, the Gesher Foundation, Yeshiva University, and the American Society of Yad Vashem.
Known for his love of beautiful stones, William Goldberg founded his own company in 1973 after he split off from Goldberg & Weiss. The company continues with the next generation -- run by his wife Lili and children, and son-in-law Barry Berg. His daughter Deborah also worked by his side for more than 20 years.
"Bill had the greatest ability to make an impression on someone," said Berg, "even if he met them for a short period of time." Berg is vice president of William Goldberg. "He always had something interesting to say, and it always made an impact."
The William Goldberg brand is synonymous with the most renowned gemstones in history, including the extraordinary Premier Rose, the 137 carat 'D' flawless pear shaped diamond, the 89 carat Guinea Star, and the 5.11 carat Red Shield, the largest red diamond ever graded by the Gemological Institute of America.
I had the privilege of polishing and cutting in Bill Goldberg's factory for ten years. A truly incredible Man. May his Memory be a Blessing.
Israeli Diamond Auction.
One of the highlights of the 32nd World Diamond Congress to be held in Tel Aviv from June 26-28th, will be the largest auction of diamonds, precious gems and jewelry ever to take place in Israel.
Organized by Tzoffey’s, an Israel-based company that is a leading auction house to the diamond and jewelry trade, the event will offer up to 450 rare items, with a total value of up to $50 million.
The auction will take place at the conclusion of the Congress on June 28, 2006 at the Tel Aviv Hilton.
Zales Searching for New CEO.
Zale Corp. has narrowed its search for a new chief executive to two leading candidates from outside the jewelry retailer, though a final decision likely won't be made for several weeks.
Mary "Betsy" Burton, a Zale board member who assumed the interim CEO job upon Mary Forte's dismissal in January, said Thursday that the search remains open though Zale has identified "a couple of excellent candidates."
Burton added that a Securities and Exchange Commission investigation of Zale's accounting announced last month hasn't deterred candidates in the search pool. Even so, an announcement isn't imminent.
"There is a concern that we're in the throes of finalizing holiday (strategies)," Burton said in an interview. "To put someone else in at such a critical juncture might actually be more disruptive."
Irving, Texas-based Zale, a retailer of diamonds and jewelry, collects most of its net in the Christmas quarter, its fiscal second. Zale ranks as the No. 2 specialty jewelry retailer in the United States by marketshare behind Sterling Jewelers Inc., the U.S. arm of London-based Signet Group PLC. In the United States, Sterling operates the Kay Jewelers and Jared the Galleria of Jewelry brands. Also in the U.S., Zale operates Zales Jewelers; Zales Outlet; Gordon's Jewelers; Bailey, Banks & Biddle; and Piercing Pagoda.
Forte, Zale's CEO since 2002, resigned in January after a strategy to shift flagship brand Zales Jewelers to a more fashionable, upscale clientele tarnished the retailer's holiday results. Following her out the door were Zales Jewelers President Paul Leonard in February and Chief Operating Officer Sue Gove in March. Zale issued the three nearly $13 million combined in severance pay
Gold Jewelry Sales Are Up.
National Jeweler reports that despite rapidly rising gold prices, U.S. gold jewelry sales grew in terms of both dollar and unit sales for 2005, according to new statistics from a survey commissioned by the World Gold Council (WGC).
Dollar sales grew 4.4 percent for the year to a record $17.7 billion, the strongest growth for the category since 1999, according to the study, conducted for WGC by GfK Audits & Surveys. In the fourth quarter of 2005, gold jewelry sales rose 5 percent in dollar sales.
For 2005, gold unit sales grew 4.4 percent over 2004, while the average price per unit remained constant at $76.01.
Gold bracelets appeared the strongest category, with unit sales increasing 6.6 percent and dollar sales up 6.5 percent. Gold neckwear posted a 4.1 percent increase in dollar sales, the strongest growth since 1995. Gold earrings continued their 10-year growth streak, with a 5.5 percent boost in dollar sales.
Accounting for 9 percent of market share, non-store retailers showed the highest percentage increase in gold jewelry sales, with a 7.1 percent increase in sales volume (totaling $1.7 billion) and a 6.7 percent rise in unit sales.
With 49 percent of market share, traditional jewelry stores saw a 3.9 percent increase in gold jewelry sales (totaling $8.63 billion) and a unit sales increase of 3.2 percent.
Mass merchants grew their gold business 5.1 percent for the year in dollar terms to $4.07 billion and 4.9 percent in terms of unit sales. For department stores, dollar sales volume rose by 3.7 percent to $3.36 billion and unit volume increased by 3.1 percent.
Laser Inscription Of Diamonds. Update.
Laser inscription of diamonds has taken on greater popularity over the past several years.
Typically it entails the inscription of the lab report number and perhaps a company logo which serves as a means of identification.
Lazare Kaplan pioneered in the development of this laser technology. Since then several other companies have attempted to develop laser inscription machines in order to capture the growing demand for this service.
In a recent announcement, lazare kaplan has filed a suit against Photoscribe Technologies alleging infringement of patent for the laser inscription of gemstones. PhotoScribe's president and CEO David Benderly said his company holds seven patents relating to diamond marking and that the lawsuit is "totally without merit."
PhotoScribe Technologies introduced its first diamond inscription laser in 1999, “after doing its due diligence,” according to Alan Israel and Martin Schiffmiller, partners in the New York City patent law firm of Kirchstein, Ottinger, Israel & Schiffmiller, P.C. “After a thorough patent search, we gave PhotoScribe our assurance that the company was not infringing on any existing patents,” said Israel and Schiffmiller.
Projections are that in the next five years, every stone from one fifth carat on up would be marked with some inscription, such as a lab name and certificate number, a manufacturer’s SKU, or a brand logo.
Luxury Spending Up in 2005
In 2005 the typical luxury consumer spent $52,588 buying luxuries, up 3.8 percent over the average amount spent in 2004 of $50,640, according to Unity Marketing.
Aggregate results from 25 leading global luxury marketers show an average revenue growth of 10.9 percent for the year 2005.. Growth for 2004 was higher at 14.5 percent. Overall the luxury market in the United States reached $1 trillion in 2005 (up 12 percent from 2004,) a figure that includes jewelry.
In 2005 the dominant trend in the luxury market was a shift in spending more – significantly more – on experiential luxuries; in other words, the things people do rather than material goods one has or one owns. The typical luxury consumer spent $22,746 on experiences in 2005, that is nearly double what they spent in 2004. Luxury consumers also spent nearly 20 percent more buying luxury automobiles, a highly experiential luxury good.
While spending on experiences and automobiles went up, luxury consumers spent less overall on home luxuries, down 4.6 percent to $19,990. Spending on personal luxuries like luxury apparel, fashion accessories, jewelry and watches, wine and spirits, pet luxuries and pens and desk accessories, rose 5.6 percent to $10,007 in 2005. A moderating factor in the growth of personal luxuries is that the super-affluent households (incomes $150,000 and above) didn’t hold up their high 2004 spending levels, while spending on personal luxuries among the near-affluent ($75,000 to $99,999) and the affluent ($100,000 to $149,999) increased at a significant rate.
