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News In Brief
Christie’s unveiled The Ocean Dream, a triangular-cut, 5.50-carat, fancy vivid blue-green diamond that will headline its Magnificent Jewels sale in Geneva on May 13…
The Jwaneng 28.88 sold for HKD 21.03 million ($2.7 million) at the Hong Kong High Jewelry sale...
Chow Tai Fook reported retail sales fell 1.5% in the fiscal fourth quarter ending March 31…
Luk Fook reported retail sales rose 19% year on year in the fiscal fourth quarter...
De Beers plans to cease operations at the Gahcho Kué mine in 2028, earlier than its previously scheduled closure around 2030...
Spotlight
Is Geopolitics Rerouting the Diamond Trade?
The upturn in diamond trading through Antwerp does not signal a global market recovery, but a modest restoration of activity in the city. That’s partly due to strategic structural measures implemented in 2025, as Karen Rentmeesters, CEO of the Antwerp World Diamond Centre (AWDC), stressed in a recent press release. But it’s also the result of geopolitical developments that have worked in Belgium’s favor. The resurgence was evident in Belgium’s diamond trade data published
Five Major Suppliers Push Rough Supply into Uncharted Territory
Angola’s declaration of its 2025 diamond production and exports highlights just how much the rough market has changed. Today, five groups shape the diamond market: De Beers, Alrosa, Angola, Okavango Diamond Company and the tender houses. That marks a clear shift from its historic structure. De Beers (in)famously controlled supply for about a century, largely through its agreement to market Russian production. Regulators finally broke that arrangement up in the early 2000s
The Diamond Dudes Podcast Launches
A New Podcast Bringing Expert Insight to the Global Diamond Industry Three veteran analysts unite to deliver sharp, monthly commentary on the issues shaping the diamond business April 16, 2026 — The Diamond Dudes , a monthly podcast featuring three of the sector’s most respected analysts, will release its first episode on Thursday, April 16, offering listeners timely insights, candid discussion, and expert perspective on the industry’s most pressing topics. The podcast
Rough Times for Diamond Miners
The diamond mining sector has come under pressure, not only as market conditions have weakened but as investors have grown more cautious about its prospects. It has become increasingly difficult for diamond mining companies to secure financing, with implications for the entire pipeline, as one member of The Diamond Press community wrote in an email. It’s an issue that has been building for some time and was arguably one of the more underreported stories of 2025. The mining
What’s Driving Signet Jewelers
Signet Jeweler’s latest results point to a business in transition rather than one simply returning to growth. Group revenue rose 2% to $6.81 billion and net profit increased five-fold to $294.4 million in the fiscal year ending January 31, but the improvement in earnings says as much about cost discipline and prior impairments as it does about underlying demand. The more meaningful story lies in the strategy initiated by CEO J.K. Symancyk, focused on sharpening brand position
Pressing Matters
Measuring Marketing Success
I’m not sure if you agree, but it feels to me that the industry has turned a positive corner in its marketing activity. Perhaps that’s a sign of tough times, with promotional efforts ramping up as the trade recognizes the urgency of reclaiming its place in the consumer mindset. We’ve had a seemingly successful launch of World Diamond Day by the Natural Diamond Council, De Beers’ Desert Diamonds push appears to be gaining traction, and organizations like the World Federation
New Podcast, Too Many Rough Suppliers...
It’s been a fun week for me personally, having launched a new podcast with my friends Rob Bates and Edahn Golan. We’re “The Diamond Dudes,” and I think we offer something that’s been missing in the industry for some time: unfiltered, opinionated discussion about diamond industry developments, with a bit of banter mixed in. It aligns closely with what I’m building at The Diamond Press . You can listen to the first episode on Apple Podcasts , Spotify , Amazon Music or watch
Why Desert Diamonds Leans Into Bridal
The most significant development this past week is De Beers expanding its Desert Diamonds campaign into the bridal category. It’s a considered move as the company looks to stimulate demand across a broader range of goods. For some context, De Beers introduced Desert Diamonds last year, describing it as its first beacon concept in over a decade. A beacon is designed to spark industry-wide interest and consumer demand around a specific product category or idea, much like the
World Diamond Day: Reclaiming the Narrative
We all have a starting point in this industry. Mine goes back to age 11, on a school trip to Kimberley, where I was first introduced to the world of natural diamonds. In many ways, that excursion was a coming-of-age experience for me, one I’ve probably stretched into a better story over time, with a bit of embellishment thrown in. There were a few memorable moments. At one point I was left behind at a Boer War memorial, convinced I’d been abandoned and destined to become pa
Diavik Closure Signals End of an Era
In some sense, it was a historic week for the diamond industry, as Rio Tinto announced the closure of the Diavik mine in Canada. The significance of the announcement is threefold. First, it marks the end of a consistent source of supply. The mine was launched in 2003 and yielded around 153.8 million carats over its life, an average of about 6.8 million carats a year, though that settled closer to 4 million in recent years (see graph below). Second, it effectively comple
Recommended
Retail Segmentation Is the New Jewelry Reality
Solitaire International: The US jewelry market isn’t recovering in the traditional sense, it’s adjusting. Retailers are making a clearer choice between value and volume, and that divide is reshaping the diamond pipeline. That shift is evident in recent earnings. Signet is moving toward a more focused, margin-driven model built on higher-ticket sales, while Brilliant Earth is leaning further into volume and accessibility, even as that pressures short-term profitability. The
Broken Supply Chains: Why Retail Growth Isn’t Lifting Diamonds
Solitaire International: Retail jewelry sales are growing across many major markets, yet that momentum is no longer flowing through the diamond supply chain the way it once did. The rise of lab-grown diamonds, higher gold prices, leaner inventories and retail consolidation mean fewer natural diamonds are moving through the pipeline even as jewelry revenue climbs. The result is a weakening of the industry’s traditional trading cycles, forcing the rough and polished markets to
The Way Forward For Natural Diamonds
The future of natural diamonds depends less on supply, pricing, or policy, and more on how consumers perceive, experience, and emotionally connect with the product, a panel discussion hosted by CIBJO – The World Jewellery Confederation concluded at the VicenzaOro show. Panelists challenged the industry to rethink how it defines value, and whether its messaging still resonates with the public it is trying to reach. “What are the five bullet points we could craft as a consi
What to Call a Diamond
Solitaire International: A growing debate over terminology is reshaping how the trade defines and differentiates synthetics from natural diamonds. Heated exchanges at the CIBJO Congress in Paris, along with France’s reaffirmation of the term “synthetic,” have brought language back to the center of the discussion after years in which the word became largely taboo. That shift, reinforced by the Gemological Institute of America’s move away from the 4Cs in its color and clari
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