GIA recently announced its entry into the race for a reliable method to detect synthetic diamonds with the DiamondCheck, a device priced at $24,000. This is considerably less than rumoured $25,000 per year lease for the De Beers Automated Melee Screening…
The Tucson Gem Show may be the largest show of any kind in the world. It is actually close to 50 officially recognized shows and dozens of other unofficial venues all happening at one time. Some are “Trade Only” and others are…
CAD/CAM is nothing new to the jewellery industry. It has been around for more than a decade. In fact most modern high volume jewellery manufacturers create their designs on a computer and make models with various forms of rapid prototyping (RPT).…
Bitcoins are one of the hottest and most controversial topics of discussion. It is a virtual currency that is not tied to any government. The value of Bitcoins is highly volatile with price swings of several hundreds of dollars. I’ll be the…
It is called the “internet of things.” Whether it is a refrigerator that informs you that you are out of milk or a baby’s diaper that will text you when it needs changing, more and more common objects are going…
It’s that time of the year. I get to gaze into my crystal ball to see what we might expect in 2014. I think that there will be many changes ahead, some predictable and some unexpected. Retail Overall, we should see a…
On Christmas Eve I stayed open an hour later than any other jewellery store in town, just for this one customer. He dressed in an expensive suit and constantly checked his gold watch. A man consumed by his work, he wore…
We are half-way through the holiday frenzy and the reports from retail jewellers are looking pretty good, or at least better than the last few years have been. There are still two weeks to go and these should be the busiest…
What gemstone has increased in price by a factor of 10 since 2009 and is expected to jump another 25% this year with predictions of capturing up to 20% of diamond’s market share over the next 20 years? According to an…
Last week the first highly determined Black Friday shoppers started to set up camp in front of their favourite retailers to be the first to snatch up bargains on the opening day of the annual holiday buying frenzy. In the…
