Modern Jewelry Trends

Wall Street bonuses hit record levels this year, increasing an average of 15% to 20% to $23.9 billion, according to a New York State estimate. A recent survey by wealth-research firm Prince & Associates of Redding, Connecticut, of how 200 Wall Street professionals spent there bonuses shows that watches and jewelry were high on the list. The 200 bankers, who received 2006 bonuses of $2 million or more, shows how significant this group is for high-end jewelry sales in the region. Bankers surveyed spent an average of 11.2% of their bonuses on watches and jewelry, or a minimum of $200,000 for the lowest paid bankers in the survey. That’s a lot of Patek Philippe watches.  In fact the richest half of the bankers surveyed, those who took home bonuses of $5 million or more, spent 16 percent on watches and jewelry. These hard-driving professionals are unlikely to spend on travel, since they don’t take long vacations.  The only categories of spending that were more attractive than watches and jewelry were fine art, 11.9%, and purchases of residences, 16.1%.

This entry was posted on Friday, March 9th, 2007 at 12:43 pm and is filed under Consumer Pulse. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.