Modern Jewelry Trends

In the grand tradition of our Million Dollar Bling video, today we celebrate the year’s top ten over-the-top diamond-encrusted objets. Extra points for functioning electronics, of course. (Planned Obsolescence + Forever = Cognitive Dissonance.) No diamond-covered phones or diamond pave USB drives allowed because they’re just too common these days.

10. Philips Diamond-Set Television Set: Yes, those are 2,250 diamonds on a TV! This is the winner in the sightholder category this year, despite stiff competition from a diamond ice cream cone, a diamond dress, and a diamond steering wheel, although it can’t compare to the diamond lost in a crash of a race car last year. This, no doubt, is exactly what De Beers had in mind when they developed Supplier of Choice.

9. Million Dollar Laptop by Luvaglio: You can’t show a million dollar laptop to just anyone, obviously, so the Luvaglio website is “by appointment only.” Sadly, I am unable to confirm that the laptop comes in pink for the ladies. But in the photo Engadget no doubt purloined, the diamonds are confined to the power button. May I suggest that this is perhaps a bit too discreet for anyone who wants a million-dollar laptop?

8. Diamond-Studded Computer Mouse: Actually the flower-pattern diamond mouse, priced at about $26,775 for “high net worth shoppers,” is pretty conservative for this company, aside from the price. Diamonds are confined to a flower pattern on the top of the old-fashioned bar of soap style mouse. Compare to the torso mouse. Or the chili pepper mouse, which is definitely my favorite.

7. 24k Gold and Diamond Widex Hearing Aid: The most unusual entry on the list is bling for the hard of hearing. I like the idea of proudly celebrating the hearing aid instead of trying to hide it but this might go a bit too far. The large diamond encrusted logo is an especially nice touch. Is that a gold and diamond banana behind your ear?

6. JooZoo Diamond-set Pet MP3 Player: What sets this apart from your dime-a-dozen diamond pave iPod shuffle players is that this diamond-covered mp3 player is designed for your dog. (That explains the amount of hair in the photo.) It’s supposed to calm your dog’s nerves to wear a gold and diamond pendant that plays music. It would make the dog more stressed out to be mugged, however, so it might be a wash.

5. Diamond and 18k Gold Gameboy: Dot matrix with stereo sound! 1989 is calling….The item points out the general problem with adorning electronics. I can imagine giving this as a gift and the recipient would think “what? why didn’t you set diamonds on a Nintendo DS or a Wii instead of this obsolete black and white fossil?” The pattern on the gold also says 1989 to me.

4. Million Dollar Lure: This one actually makes sense. Especially if you’re fishing in the fountain at The Bellagio or the canals of The Venetian.

3. Solitaire Kicks: These white and aqua patent leather Nike Air Force 1 sneakers with eight carats of champagne diamonds are priced at $50,000. I’m not sure the champagne diamonds go with the shiny aqua soles though. Apparently Big Boi of Outkast will show up if you promise to give him a pair.

2. Icepik Toothpick Sleeve: The site explains it best: “The first diamond encrusted toothpick sleeve, and we call it the Icepik. Each Icepik is hand crafted, and set in elegance beyond compare by our goldsmiths who have been in the industry for over 30 years. No Icepik will ever be the same due to this fact. All Icepiks are set on 18k gold to keep a better shine, and keep from tarnishing. You slide your average round toothpick into our patented round 18k gold cylinder, and there you have the start of a new look on life. Your wooden toothpick still sits in your mouth, but on the outside your toothpick looks like a piece of art. We suggest you get a Icepik if you are a person who likes to stand out beyond the rest.”

1. Damien Hirst’s “For the Love of God”: The world’s most expensive piece of art sold $100 million, even if he did have to buy it himself. Real teeth! Big diamonds! Bigger pretention! Because all art should aspire to a Guinness World Record.

For more diamond-covered fun, check out Wired’s Worst Diamond-Encrusted Gadgets of All Time.

Get ready for a ban on imports of Burmese gemstones. Both the House and the Senate have passed bills to close the loophole in the import ban for stones mined in Myanmar (formerly known as Burma) that are cut and polished in another country.

The two bills differ, so they will have to be reconciled before being sent to President Bush for signing. He’ll no doubt do so quickly: First Lady Laura Bush has become one of the most vocal opponents of the regime in Myanmar.

The import ban will affect Burmese ruby, almost all the world’s jadeite, and some sapphire, spinel, and peridot.

On December 17, the House voted to award the Congressional Gold Medal, the United States’ highest civilian honor, to Burmese democratic opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi, the only imprisoned recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize. She has been under house arrest in Burma for 12 years. The award, which has yet to be confirmed by the Senate, is intended as a message to the Burmese junta led by General Than Shwe, who renamed the country Myanmar in 1989.

Retail sales in November were up 1.2 percent in November, according to the Commerce Department, double analysts’ estimates. The National Retail Federation says that November sales were up 5.1 percent, ahead of the NRF projected increase of 4 percent for the overall holiday season. Online shopping continues to grow dramatically: it’s up 18 percent so far. Other bright spots so are luxury, up 10.8 percent, and electronics, up 5.8 percent.

But, as you’ve no doubt heard, there are also many negative economic indicators for the holiday season. Spending on women’s apparel dropped nearly 6 percent during the first half of the Christmas season, compared with the same period last year, according to MasterCard Advisors, a division of the credit card company.

How is jewelry doing so far? According to Phil Rist of BIGresearch, 22.2 percent of consumers plan to buy jewelry this holiday season, down from 26.4 percent in 2006. There are rumors that sales at Sterling are down 7 percent so far this holiday season. The major has responded by cancelling orders around the globe, suppliers say. I can’t confirm these rumors, though: Sterling is scrupulous about never discussing sales ahead of corporate reports. A study of 2,104 people conducted by the Jewelry Consumer Opinion Council, a division of MVI Marketing Ltd., in the last week of November 2007 showed Black Friday and the Thanksgiving weekend shopping season was down by as much as 4 percent. Only 16 percent of those surveyed purchased fine jewelry or watches as a gift over the Thanksgiving weekend, down from 20 percent in a similar study conducted in 2006. Some individual high-end retailers are doing well, however. I’ve heard reports of trunk shows with customers lining up to buy.
But remember, sales of gift cards are surging and they are not counted in holiday purchases until they are spent. According to Rist, 56 percent of consumers intend to spend $26 billion in gift cards this shopping season. When added to the expected increase of 4 percent overall, the retail numbers may not be as bad as media reports would have you believe.

The new list of international DTC sightholders has been announced and it’s official: 24 companies have been cut. No names have yet been announced, just numbers at this point. Rapaport is calling around to compile a list, available here. Rob Bates is also working the phones and reporting here. The official number from DTC is that there are 75 international sightholders, 18 fewer than the last contract period, and six of the 75 are new companies. The DTC also announced that there are 79 sightholders total when the Botswana and Namibia lists are included, which means there are four companies that are receiving sights in either Botswana or Namibia who aren’t on the international list. That’s where things get a bit complicated. Currently there are three companies on the Namibia DTC list who aren’t international DTC sightholders. That means one additional company on either the Namibia or Botswana list is not an international sightholder. The first of the new DTC sightholders to surface are Arslanian Cutting Works NWT of Canada and Dharmanandan Daimonds of India.

Many U.S sightholders made the new list, including Julius Klein, Lazare Kaplan, Louis Glick, Michael Werdiger, Premier Gem, and Stuller. Longtime U.S. sightholder Hasenfeld-Stein did not.

Jeweler Steve Quick has created the world’s most expensive Christmas tree. On display at Steve Quick Jewelers in Chicago’s Lincoln Park, the tree is made out of five solid pounds of 18k yellow gold and decorated with 250 carats of round brilliant and briolette diamonds. The platinum star on top, set with a 4.52 carat diamond, is detachable so the owner can wear it as a pendant.

Creating the tree was a lengthy process: just the wax carving, which created the needle detail, took weeks. The casting process required specialized equipment, which was purchased and specially modified for this project. The tree is made of reclaimed gold so even though it appears very yellow, it is actually quite “green”!

Suppliers Manak Jewels, United Gem Limited, Clark Jewelers, Chicago Gem Appraisers also contributed to the tree.

This “outrageous, over the top labor of love” benefits a good cause: it will be auctioned off on eBay beginning on December 17 with 100 percent of the profits going to benefit the American Cancer Society.

The tree is valued at $500,000. If that’s a bit over your holiday budget, Quick has also designed miniature versions of the Tree in sterling silver for $20, gold-plated for $25, and 14k gold for $195. All of the profits from the Mini-Trees will also be donated to the American Cancer Society.
“Our tree was created to bring hope and help to people battling cancer,” Quick says. “To us, helping others is priceless.”

Almost $1 billion in diamond jewelry sales take place during the last week of December and first two weeks of January. Post-holiday sales have been growing in importance thanks to the gift card boom. The Diamond Promotion Service is hoping to encourage more consumers to use their gift cards and shopping money to purchase Journey diamond jewelry. The Diamond is Forever holiday commercial promoting Journey will continue to run after Christmas this year. In addition, DPS is contributing $250,000 to a co-op fund to pay half of retail jewelers’ Journey television commercials during these three post-holiday weeks. To qualify for up to $20,000 in television co-op dollars, just create a television advertising plan with Spot Runner, the DPS television ad partner to run a Journey television spot in your local market. You can pick your ad, customize it and create a media plan yourself online. Here are the details. Since the opportunity is first-come, first-served in each market and expires on December 10, contact DPS right away if you are interested.

Store traffic and sales were up a bit as shoppers opened the holiday shopping season on Black Friday, but average sales per customer were down slightly. According to the National Retail Foundation, traffic at stores last weekend was up 4.8 percent but the average amount spent dropped 3.5 percent, probably due to fewer big ticket TV sales. Although sales are still ahead of last year, the media coverage was surprisingly negative, possibly affecting consumer confidence (and the stock market isn’t helping either.)

Now data from the opening of the online shopping season shows a similar trend, with the exception that traffic is up much more dramatically. A study by comScore reports that Cyber Monday sales were up 21 percent to $733 million this year. The number of buyers online during the day rose 38 percent from one year ago but the average per-customer purchase fell 12 percent.

Major online retailers did well this year. According to comScore, Amazon.com, Wal-Mart, and Target were the top three website destinations for consumers. According to the Hitwise Retail 100 Index, traffic to top retail websites on Cyber Monday rose 26 percent over 2006. CyberMonday.com received more than 1.5 million unique visitors on Cyber Monday alone, five times more than one year ago. Although there is some debate about the concept of Cyber Monday, especially since several other online shopping days are more important, the concept has legs. Internet service provider Akamai reported that its metrics for 300 monitored retail sites yielded 4.6 million visitors per second, making it the single largest day of Internet retail traffic in 3 years.

Several online jewelry retailers reported big sales boosts on Monday. At Diamond.com, traffic rose 58 percent and sales increased 65 percent. At Ice.com, with a discount offer, traffic was up 70 percent and sales increased 82 percent.

But there’s much more to come, of course: as of Sunday, November 26, the average person has completed 36.4 percent of their holiday shopping, the same as last year at this time, the NRF says. One in 12 has finished their holiday shopping. (And of course, we hate them.)

Online jewelry retailers are placing more emphasis on Cyber Monday, today’s symbolic beginning of the holiday online shopping season. Shop.org’s Cyber Monday promotion site has a large list of jewelry promotions from Ice.com, Blue Nile, HSN, QVC, Shop NBC, Jewelry Television, eLuxury, Overstock, JC Penney and Nordstrom’s. Seventy-two percent of online retailers will offer special holiday deals on Cyber Monday, up from 43% two years ago, according a Shop.org survey. But the general retailing community is doing less promotion: a BDO Seidman survey of chief marketing officers reported that only 39% of all retailers are conducting special holiday promotions to boost online sales.

Shop.org’s Cyber Monday site does benefit a cause, but the cause is creating more online retailers, which seems a bit self-interested: participating retailers agree to donate a percentage of proceeds to the Ray M. Greenly Scholarship Fund, which provides scholarships for students interested in an eCommerce career. Is that really the best cause they could find to motivate consumers? (I suspect another organization that promised to donate 5 percent to benefit sick children or breast cancer research could get a lot of support.)

But on to the deals. Many retailers are offering free shipping this holiday, the most popular promotion with consumers. (According to Forrester, 61 percent of consumers are more likely to shop at a site that offers free shipping.) In addition Ice.com is offering 20 percent off and Jewelry Television is offering 10 percent off. (Compare those discounts with the 70 percent off offered by major brick-and-mortar retailers on jewelry on Black Friday and you’ll see why most consumers assume that jewelry in stores is marked up much more.)

Online jewelry leader Blue Nile, which is offering free overnight shipping this holiday season, is also taking advantage of some promotional partnerships this season, which have been getting them a lot of press coverage. Starting today Blue Nile is offering 20 percent cash back on purchases made with PayPal, up to $50 per account. They also are offering $100 off on a diamond purchase as part of a Google print ad promotion. (If your customer is determined to buy online, give them the coupon code: it’s SMARTER100.)

Black Friday door-buster sales will include fine jewelry once again this holiday season. Most of the deals at major retailers, previewed on sale news sites like BFads.net which are becoming an increasingly important part of Black Friday shopping culture, are deep percent-off discounts off of all fine jewelry. JC Penney is advertising 65 percent plus an extra 20 percent off their entire stock of gold jewelry. So 85 percent off? What kind of markup are they working on? Kmart has 70 percent off all fine jewelry and 50 percent off sterling silver jewelry, JC Penney also has 60 percent off sterling silver jewelry, and Sears has 50-70 percent off all fine jewelry. Kohls is featuring half-carat tw champagne or black diamond jewelry in 10k gold for $215 and 1 ct tw diamond jewelry for $579.99. JC Penney is promoting a 1 ct tw ring and earrings for $499.99 Wal-Mart has quarter-carat tw studs for $48.84, 10k gold rope or figaro chain, 18” or 20” for $24.88, and 10k gold hoop earrings for $8.88.

Think social networking sites are just for teen party photos and favorite bands? According to a new survey from Unity Marketing, 40 percent of luxury consumers visited Facebook, YouTube, MySpace, or another social networking site in the past three months. The fact that these consumers have an average income $150,200 and an average age of 43.6 years doesn’t mean they don’t like to waste time online.

“Even middle-aged affluent consumers are networking online,” says Pam Danziger of Unity Marketing, who surveyed 1,074 consumers who made a luxury purchase in the last three months. “Young affluents, those 40 years and under, were the most active social networkers, but even one-third of the over 40 year old consumers reported visiting a social networking site.”

Jewelers are already interacting with potential new customers on social networking sites. In this month’s Modern Jeweler, we interview retail jewelers who are marketing on Facebook and MySpace in Online Marketing 2.0.

Of course, the 40 percent figure includes visits to YouTube, which isn’t primarily a social networking site. Videos on YouTube include a wide range of topics, from how-to to how much. (Modern Jeweler’s Million-Dollar Bling: Basel for Billionaires video has been viewed 3,405 times in the last six months.) LinkedIn, the business networking site, would have been better addition to the question. LinkedIn even has a few De Beers executives as part of its community.

The conventional wisdom about many consumers now researching luxury products online before buying was supported by the study: 46 percent of buyers of luxury fashion, fashion accessories, cosmetics, jewelry and watches used the Internet in support of their recent luxury purchases and spent 12.5 percent more on average.

“They used the Internet both to research purchases, especially to compare prices and read other customers’ reviews, as well as to make purchases,” Danziger says. “The research also shows that they will visit a retailers’ website to browse before they head out to the store. The lesson is that luxury marketers and retailers which offer their customers a website get a significant return on investment in terms of more spending.”

The consumers surveyed say the convenience of shopping at home is the top reason to shop online, followed by a wide selection of merchandise. They also report comparing prices and evaluating product features. “When asked what features were most important for a luxury shopping site to offer these luxury consumers, they were adamant about three features – in depth product information and specifications, detailed product pictures and a flexible return policy. They were far less concerned with company or brand news, lifestyle content or a store locator,” Danziger says.