Rose Gold is a pure gold and copper alloy widely used for specialized jewelry. However, rose gold jewelry is becoming more popular for engagement rings, wedding bands, bracelets, earrings, and other jewelry. It is also known as pink gold due to the resulting pink hue. NYC Wholesale Diamonds features an entire line of rose gold jewelry on its website. www.NYCWD.com
Rose gold, a rising trend, uses pure gold mixed with copper to give the precious metal a pink tinge. Continue reading
Filed under Jeweler Advice
The following was published this week in a jewelry industry trade publication. NYCWD President Keith J. Saxe will release his annual forecast for 2014 Diamond, Gold, Silver, and Platinum prices the first week of February.
New York–The per-ounce price of gold and silver both will decline more than 10 percent year-over-year in 2014 while labor issues and automotive demand are expected to push up the price of platinum slightly, analysts say.
Last week, Market Watch published an analysis of gold price forecasts for 2014 from six banks: Bank of America Merrill Lynch, Barclays, Deutsche Bank, HSBC, J.P. Morgan and UBS.
The banks’ predictions for 2014 work out to an average per-ounce price of $1,209 for gold in 2014, down 15 percent from about $1,400 an ounce in 2013.
A similar consensus of nearly 30 analysts compiled by the London Bullion Market Association pegs gold at an average of $1,219 an ounce in the coming year, a 13 percent drop.
London-based analyst Andrew Leyland, the manager of precious metals demand at Thomson Reuters GFMS, said the price estimate for the next 11 months is very similar to what the actual price of gold is right now, which was $1,242 an ounce as of press time, according to Kitco.com
“What the market is saying there is that the gold price is entering into a period of consolidation,” he said.
After dropping in 2013, gold prices are expected to stabilize this year because they are now being driven by physical demand instead of institutional investment, which tends to be a more volatile driver of price, he said.
Leyland said gold will hover around the $1,200 mark throughout 2014. He doesn’t see it rallying above $1,500 and, while it could dip below $1,000 an ounce briefly, it won’t stay there long, as jewelry demand will be enough to buoy it.
“Could the price dip below that ($1,200 an ounce)?” Leyland said. “We believe it can and it probably will but not for a sustained period of time.”
As reported in November, the per-ounce price of silver also will drop in 2014.
Leyland said Tuesday that Thomson Reuters GFMS predicts the price of silver will drop 20 percent in 2014 to $19 an ounce, driven by a decline in physical demand as more companies return to using gold.
The London Bullion Market Association’s forecast for silver in 2014 is $19.95 per ounce, down 19 percent from an average per-ounce price of $23.79 in 2013.
Leyland said when gold was $1,500 or $1,600 an ounce, many companies simply could not afford to use the metal and substituted silver.
Now there will be a return to gold, though he notes the jewelry industry won’t abandon silver entirely. Even at $1,200 an ounce, the price of gold is still considerably higher than it was prior to the recession.
While gold and silver prices are forecast to drop in 2014, platinum prices are expected to increase slightly, due to solid automotive demand worldwide and supply disruptions resulting from strikes in South Africa.
Thomson Reuters GFMS pegs the average annual price of platinum at $1,550 in 2014, a 4 percent year-over-year increase.
The consensus forecast from the London Bullion Market Association is slightly less bullish, at $1,490, up less than 1 percent from $1,487 last year.
Despite the slight increase in the platinum price, Leyland said the underlying tone for the jewelry industry in 2014–in gold, silver and platinum–is “relatively positive” due to improving economies around the globe.
Filed under Industry News
NEW YORK, Jan. 12, 2014 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ — Jewelry Information Center (JIC) – the consumer education arm of Jewelers of America – held its 12th Annual GEM Awards gala on January 10, 2014 at Cipriani 42nd Street in New York. The evening – considered the Academy Awards of the jewelry industry – gathered over 500 of the jewelry and watch industry’s elite as well as jewelry and watch adorned celebrities. GEM Awards were given to recognize the outstanding achievements of individuals whose work raises the visibility of fine jewelry and watches.
The first award of the evening was presented by Marion Fasel, contributing editor of fine jewelry and watches for InStyle and past GEM Award winner. The GEM Award for Media Excellence was given to Victoria Gomelsky, editor in chief of JCK, whose freelance work has appeared in the International Herald Tribune, the New York Times and WSJ Magazine among others. The two other nominees for Media Excellence were Benjamin Clymer and Beth Bernstein.
Audrina Patridge, host of NBC’s “First Look”, presented the GEM Award for Communications to Tiffany & Co. With a commitment to quality, craftsmanship and excellent customer service, the masterpieces of Tiffany & Co. have defined style, celebrated the world’s great love stories and graced major events for more than 175 years. The two other nominees for Communications were LoveGold, an initiative for the World Gold Council, and Tacori.
Alexis Bittar, jewelry designer, presented the GEM Award for Design to Kara Ross. Kara’s designs are known for their bold and unique use of exotic skins and gemstones across several jewelry lines, handbags and belts. The two other nominees in the Design category were Irene Neuwirth and Monica Rich Kosann.
The evening concluded with the presentation of the GEM Award for Lifetime Achievement to Marie Helene Morrow, owner of Reinhold Jewelers in Puerto Rico. Morrow’s passion for cultivating talent and building relationships with artists and luxury brands has made Reinhold Jewelers a name to be reckoned with in the industry for more than 35 years.
Lara Spencer, co-host of “Good Morning America,” hosted the gala wearing a one-of-a-kind Gemfields Zambian emerald bead necklace created by Marina B. Set with 652.15 carats of emeralds and 1.72 carats of diamonds.
Filed under Uncategorized
This interesting take from today’s Crain’s Chicago Business highlights a mini trend that NYC Wholesale Diamonds has seen surface here in the 80’s, and again in the late 90’s for a short time, especially with our European clients.
Diamonds may be a girl’s best friend—but they aren’t the default for all brides-to-be anymore.
While the traditional white diamond engagement ring always has been a classic choice, the tradition isn’t set in stone. Just a few years ago, some 98 percent of the couples walking through the doors of Geneva Seal, a family-owned jewelry store on Oak Street—were buying white diamond rings.
Today, that’s down to 90 percent.
“About 10 percent are veering away from traditional white,” says Lisa Jungers, a gemologist at Geneva Seal. “People are getting married older now, and they have a better idea of their style, and they have more of an individual sense of what they’re looking for.”
What they appear to be looking for is anything that’s not traditional: colored diamonds, sapphires and even other types of jewelry. Anything goes, including watches.
Ryan Eakes, 33, general manager of the Rolex store on Michigan Avenue, says that within the past year, he’s helped about seven couples purchase engagement watches in lieu of—or in addition to—rings.
The store offers a complimentary engraving service, and since the watches are waterproof, couples never have to take them off—and both get a keepsake of their engagement, says Mr. Eakes, who also celebrated his own engagement with his-and-hers Rolexes.
“This is your first team investment as a life partner,” he says. “I can see it when they come in and start talking about the idea. Then they come back and they say, ‘We thought it through, and both of us have always wanted a Rolex watch.’ “
Still, the majority of couples are tying their engagement knot with a ring—but increasingly, they’re looking for one that shows their unique personality, says Jennie Ma, fashion and beauty editor a TheKnot.com, a New York-based website that focuses on wedding planning.
CELEB APPEAL
The twist away from white diamonds started in 2010 when Carrie Bradshaw accepted Big’s 5-carat black diamond ring on the HBO series “Sex and the City.” Celebrities Jessica Simpson and Jennifer Lopez followed the trend, but the real colored ring bomb exploded when England’s Prince William presented his bride-to-be, Kate Middleton, with his mother’s sapphire-and-diamond cluster ring, Ms. Ma says.
The celebrity aspect of the rings is one reason for their growing popularity, but there are other reasons they have become so common so quickly, she says.
Some colored diamonds retain their value more than white diamonds, says Rachel Farwell, jeweler at Geneva Seal, who has her own 2.10-carat yellow diamond engagement ring.
But she wasn’t thinking much about investments when she spotted the intense yellow gem for the first time. After all, she had only been dating her boyfriend a year when the diamond arrived at the store from an unknown small jeweler.
Still, Ms. Farwell called her boyfriend, a director of computer software and development, and told him that if he were to ever think about looking at rings for her, he should consider that diamond.
He immediately called the store and purchased it without telling her or mentioning it for the next four years until he was ready to propose.
“I remembered the diamond, but I had no idea that he bought it,” Ms. Farwell says of his Labor Day proposal this year.
Depending on the color, many of these diamonds are pricier than white diamonds, says Heidi Harders, a gemologist and appraiser at Chicago Gem Evaluation Services in the Loop. Red, blue and purple tend to be the most expensive, says Ms. Harders, whose clientele ranges from jewelers to estates and engaged couples.
Filed under Uncategorized
Investment bank Goldman Sachs forecasts demand for polished diamonds will continue to increase due to the growing middle class in China and other emerging markets.
The bank believes diamond prices will rise as the number of wealthier people grows in the emerging markets together with a continuing U.S. economic recovery which will cancel out any additional production.
The main diamond miners – De Beers, Alrosa, Rio Tinto and Dominion Diamond – reported higher production in the first nine months of this year.
Goldman Sachs said it does not expect a new mine to come on-stream for at least eight years, and in the meantime the demand from the Chinese and improving American market will outpace supply over the medium to long term.
Goldman forecasts supply to grow by a compound 5.2% over the next four years through to 2017, well behind the forecast 11% growth in demand in . NYC Wholesale Diamonds President Keith J Saxe concurs and reiterates NYCWD’s estimate of a 12 – 15% growth in demand.
Filed under Uncategorized
