Diamond Blog by MID House of Diamonds

GREEK HEIRESS’S DIAMOND NOW ON SALE CAN BE TRACED TO INDIA’S MOST FAMOUS GEM BLOOD LINE

During the 17th century, Golconda was the world’s primary producer of diamonds. Some 38 mines were active in the sultanate, with total output estimated to be around 12 million carats.

PINK ROUGH DIAMOND MINED IN ANGOLA SAID TO BE LARGEST DIAMOND DISCOVERED IN ABOUT 300 YEARS

A massive rough pink diamond, weighing about 170 carats or 134 grams, has been discovered at the Lulo alluvial diamond mine in Angola. Called the Lulo Rose, it is the fifth largest diamond recovered at the site to date.

EXPERTS SPLIT AS TO WHETHER RECESSION IS IN THE CARDS FOR GLOBAL LUXURY INDUSTRIES

A recent study conducted by the U.S.-based Luxury Institute, which looked at whether experts felt the current economic slowdown in luxury is turning into an economic downturn or a full recession, has provided a set of polarized opinions.

AS GRADING REPORTS FOR ONLINE SALES BECOME STANDARD, THE NEED FOR AI-POWERED AUTOMATED SYSTEMS INCREASES

The long-used system by which diamond companies would cherry pick what stones to send to be graded, sometimes selecting the lab according to the type of merchandise concerned, is becoming archaic. To an ever-greater degree, almost every diamond being put out into the market requires some type of report.

GLOBAL ROUGH PRODUCTION RETURNS TO PRE-COVID LEVELS, BUT ONLY IN TERMS OF VALUE

The Kimberley Process has released global rough diamond production totals for all of 2021, and while they indicate a general recovery to the levels that existed before the onset of the COVID pandemic, they also suggest that a trend of lower rough diamond production that was already evident latter part of the last decade has continued.

DESPITE INFLATION AND LAGGING CONSUMER CONFIDENCE, U.S. JEWELRY SALES RISE STRONGLY IN JUNE, REPORTS SURVEY

While there is an inflationary climate and lagging consumer confidence in the critically important U.S. market, jewelry sales in the country continued to surge. According to Mastercard SpendingPulse,
jewelry purchases far outpaced most other categories, rising 87 percent over the corresponding period in 2019.

ONCE CONSIDERED A COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE BY LUXURY BRANDS, ‘GREEN’ APPROACH NOW IMPERATIVE FOR ENTIRE SECTOR’S HEALTH

Concern about the environment, in part driven by global warming and climate change, is likely to have a profound impact on the luxury product industry and on the policies of companies operating in its space. This is a one of the key findings of a report, entitled “Luxury Outlook 2022,” released by the Boston Consulting Group (BCG) and Comité Colbert.

DESPITE EFFORTS BY NATURAL DIAMOND SECTOR, LGD GAINING GENERAL MARKET ACCEPTANCE

Once considered a marginal competitor in the jewelry market by its considerably larger natural diamond counterpart, laboratory-grown diamonds are rapidly gaining in popularity among consumers, and even making inroads in the critically important bridal jewelry sector, writes the noted Israeli diamond analyst, Edahn Golan, in a recent article entitled “Lab Grown: All Fears Materialized.”

WITH TWO MAJOR KIMBERLITE MINES NOW ON STREAM, ANGOLA TAKING ITS PLACE AMONG WORLD’S LARGEST PRODUCERS

The rough diamond mining sector is due for a shakeup, with some of the perennial major producers, like Australia, seeing output dwindle, and Russia, which for the past several years has led the pack along with Botswana, having its route the market restricted at best, because of the sanctions brought against it after its army invaded Ukraine in February. But one producer whose star clearly is rising is Angola.

BAIN & COMPANY: GLOBAL PERSONAL LUXURY GOODS MARKET TOTALED €288 BILLION IN VALUE IN 2021

After the worst dip in its history in 2020, a direct result of the COVID pandemic that broke out early in the year, the personal luxury goods market experienced a V-shaped rebound in 2021, reaching €288 billion in value, according to Bain & Company, in its Luxury 2022 Spring Update – “Rerouting the Future.”

KIMBERLEY PROCESS MEETS UNDER CLOUD OF WAR IN UKRAINE, INDUSTRY URGES DIAMONDS BE ALLOWED TO DO GOOD

The recent announcement by LVMH, the world’s largest luxury brand house, according to which it would be directing funds of an undisclosed value from its investment arm, LVMH Luxury Ventures, into an Israeli laboratory-grown diamond startup, may well be regarded as a giant step in the journey that the synthetically produced diamond industry has been taking in obtaining wide-spread acceptance.

DOES LVMH’S FORAY INTO LAB-GROWN DIAMONDS SIGNAL LUXURY BRANDS’ ACCEPTANCE OF SYNTHETIC GOODS?

NEW YORK AUCTIONS GET INTO FULL SWING IN JUNE WITH SEVERAL PLUS 100-CARAT DIAMONDS SOLD

The focus of the high-end jewelry market shifted to New York in June, with a series of major auctions being held at which several large and unusual diamonds were on offer. Most probably the most well-known of them was a pear-shaped 101.41-carat, D-color, internally flawless stone called the Juno, which went on the block at Sotheby’s on June 16.

CLOSELY FOLLOWED DIAMOND PIPELINE REPORT SAYS 2021 DIAMOND JEWELRY SALES AT RETAIL EQUALED $85.55 BILLION

2021 proved to be a spectacular year for the diamond jewelry industry with sales at retail equaling $85.55 billion, and almost 60 percent of them, or $51.23 billion worth, registered in the booming U.S. and Canadian markets, according to the just-published TACY Diamond Pipeline Report prepared Pharos Beam Consulting, and authored by Pranay Narvekar and Chaim Even Zohar.

WITH EVIDENCE THAT RUSSIAN EXPORTS HAVE BEEN IMPACTED, INDUSTRY LOOKS TO DEAL WITH EFFECTS OF CUT IN SUPPLY

With Alrosa supplying some 30 percent of the rough goods flowing into the prior to the start of the crisis, and a substantially higher percentage of the smaller sized goods, it would be a unreasonable not to assume that the market would not be impacted – both in the short and long terms. But the effects are not straightforward, nor are the solutions being sought to cope in the marketplace.

WHILE COVID, UKRAINE AND INFLATION DISRUPTIVE FACTORS ANALYSTS REMAIN OPTIMISTIC ABOUT STATE OF U.S. MARKET

With the JCK Show-led jewelry week underway in Las Vegas, quite possibly signaling the first full return to a semblance of normality since the onset of the COVID pandemic in 2020, the focus has shifted firmly to the U.S. consumer market, where once again the fortunes of the industry will rest.

AS BRITAIN CELEBRATES 70 YEARS OF ELIZABETH II’S REIGN, A TRIBUTE TO THE WORLD’S MOST FAMOUS JEWELRY COLLECTION

As the United Kingdom and the British Commonwealth celebrate the 70th anniversary of the accession to the throne of Queen Elizabeth II on February 6, 1952, it’s sensible to pay tribute to the single individual who over an unbroken seven decades has possibly done more than any other to spotlight the beauty of the diamond in jewelry.

THE SCIENTIFIC COMMUNITY LOOKS TO DIAMONDS AS A MATERIAL WITH MULTIPLE APPLICATIONS

The ability to synthesize high-quality diamonds to meet the electronic industry’s requirements are creating a new reality, whereby diamond demand will also be driven by industrial need, and the jewelry sector will need to compete for material. Unsurprisingly, it is the computer sector that has the highest vested interest.

HAVING IN SIZE WHAT THEY LACK IN FIRE AND BRILLIANCE, PORTRAIT CUTS ARE MAKING A COME BACK

The celebrity couple Joaquin Phoenix and Rooney Mara caught jewelry aficionados’ attention in 2019 when their engagement to get married was revealed. Mara, who is known to be both minimalist and avant-garde, was seen defying convention by wearing an unflashy hexagon-shaped portrait-cut diamond, set between slender baguettes on a platinum band.

LUXURY INDUSTRY PONDERS COST OF CHINA’S ZERO-COVID POLICY

The economic impact of the policy is substantial, especially if one considers that we are referring to the world’s largest producing country and its second largest consumer economy. For the luxury industries, for almost two decades the China has also been the engine for a period of almost uninterrupted growth. Could that be coming to an end?

WHILE ALROSA DELIBERATELY LOWERS ITS PUBLIC PROFILE, COMPANY APPARENTLY HARD HIT BY SANCTIONS REGIME

Three months since the start of the Russian invasion of Ukraine and the ramping up of the international economic sanctions regime against the Russian government and business sector, very little information about their impact has been released by the country’s dominant diamond producer, Alrosa.

JEWELRY TRADE PREPARES FOR JCK SHOW IN LAS VEGAS, WITH EXPECTATIONS HIGH FOR RETURN TO NORMAL

As has been the case for 30 years now, with the exception of 2020 when it was canceled because of the COVID outbreak, the jewelry world will descend on Las Vegas next month for the JCK Show. And in contrast to 2021, which was a subdued affair attended mainly by Americans, expectations are high that this year things will return almost to normal.

CHINA REMAINS A LUXURY MARKET JUGGERNAUT, BUT IT’S GROWTH IS MORE TEMPERED THAN IT ONCE WAS

For many in the luxury product industries, the Chinese consumer remains the knight on the white horse, spending more on luxury goods at home, even while he or she is restricted from traveling abroad because of COVID-related restrictions. But analysts are warning that the Chinese juggernaut may be faltering, or at the very least struggling to maintain the type of growth that it has become used to.

THE ROCK, A 228.31-CARAT WHITE STONE SELLS FOR $21.9 MILLION, WELL SHORT OF THE HIGH END OF THE PRE-SALE ESTIMATE

While it fell short of the predicted high estimate, “The Rock,” which is the largest white diamond to ever come up for auction, sold at Christie’s in Geneva on May 11 for $21.9 million. Pear-shaped and weighing 228.31-carats, about the size of an elongated golf ball, it was cut from rough mined in South Africa, and was previously worn as a lavish Cartier necklace.

FANCY COLOR PRICES SHIFT UPWARD DURING FIRST QUARTER, BUT RUSSIAN AND CHINESE CRISES MAY PORTEND CHANGE

Fancy color diamonds have dominated headlines over the past several months, with near record prices being paid at the spring auctions and celebrities getting in on the action. There was little surprise, therefore, when the Fancy Color Research Foundation (FCRF) reported that prices of fancy color diamonds continued 2021’s positive trend, rising by 1.0 percent across the board.

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