RAPAPORT. Grib Diamonds registered sales of $35 million at its final tender of the year as rough prices rose amid robust demand for larger goods.
Prices at the December 11 sale increased around 5% compared with the company’s previous tender on October 25, Grib head of sales Antony Dear told Rapaport News Wednesday. A total of 450,000 carats sold, with rough weighing 2 carats and higher most in demand, he added.
The Antwerp-based company sells production from AGD Diamonds’ Grib mine in Russia. It uses “multi-round ascending clock auctions,” an online bidding system in which the second-highest offer wins.
The sale follows De Beers’ price increase of 1% to 2% for 0.75-carat stones and larger at its December sight, with customers reporting strong rough trading, especially in sizes that produce 0.50-carat polished and above.
RAPAPORT. This year could tie as the busiest on record for US retail imports, as consumer demand during the holiday shopping period led to a surge in shipments, the National Retail Federation (NRF) said.
Imports for the full year are expected to reach 21.8 million twenty-foot equivalent units (TEU), up 1% over 2019, despite predictions as recently as last month that 2020 would see a 3% decrease, the NRF reported last week.
“With inventories low, but demand growing, we have witnessed a surge in imports as retailers try to keep up,” said Hackett Associates founder Ben Hackett in the NRF and Hackett Associates’ Global Port Tracker Report. “The dramatic shift to online shopping coupled with the expectation of next-day delivery is also spurring the growth of imports at warehouses, [which] need to have enough stock on hand not just to meet demand, but to meet it instantly.”
RAPAPORT. What if the pandemic presents the largest growth opportunity the jewelry industry has
ever seen? Covid-19 and lockdowns have effectively wiped out in-person shopping, but they’ve also forced the jewelry industry as a whole to embrace e-commerce. The resulting data, if used correctly, can result in a long-overdue industry-wide recalibration that will dramatically improve efficiency and transform the customer experience to be more in line with the expectations of today’s consumer.
“Big data” is the most recent buzzword consultants are touting as the silver bullet for helping retailers predict customer behavior, gain marketing insights to boost sales, make accurate inventory projections, and increase customer satisfaction. Oxford Languages defines “big data” as “extremely large data sets that may be analyzed computationally to reveal patterns, trends, and associations, especially relating to human behavior and interactions.”
RAPAPORT. The Jewelers Vigilance Committee (JVC) will present Jewelers’ Security Alliance (JSA) president John J. Kennedy with the 2021 Stanley Schechter Award.
The accolade, which was established in 2002, recognizes industry leaders who have raised the jewelry community’s reputation through their dedication, ethics and integrity. Kennedy is a former assistant commissioner and deputy general counsel for the New York City Department of Investigation, and has been running JSA since 1992. The JVC will present the award at its 2021 Annual Event, which it will hold virtually this year on January 8, it said Tuesday.
JVC will also announce several new initiatives to support the industry’s success into 2021, it noted.
RAPAPORT. Phillips garnered $27.6 million from its flagship New York watch auction, led by Paul Newman’s Rolex “Big Red” Daytona, which sold for $5.5 million.
The price for the timepiece, purchased by an anonymous private collector, is the third-highest ever paid for a Rolex watch at auction, Phillips said last week.
The December 12 auction, named Racing Pulse, also saw a record price for any Tag Heuer watch, with a Monaco-style timepiece worn by actor Steve McQueen in the film
Le Mans selling for $2.2 million. That figure was more than 10 times the original estimate, and double the previous record.
A collection of watches belonging to actor Sylvester Stallone sold for more than three times its presale valuation. The set, which included four Richard Mille timepieces, and one by Panerai, realized $3.1 million.