Glamour, glitter and hope at the world’s largest jewellery marketplace in Hong Kong

March 2015

Glamour, glitter and hope at the world’s largest jewellery marketplace in Hong Kong

March 2015

by Monica Oproiu

The 32nd HKTDC Hong Kong International Jewellery Show took place March 4-8th at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre. Running in parallel with the International Diamond, Gem and Pearl Show (March 2nd-6th), the “Two Shows, Two Venues” event represents the world’s largest marketplace for the jewellery industry. This year, the International Jewellery Fair featured 2,491 exhibitors from 41 countries, including first time participants from Latvia, Qatar and United States Virgin Islands.

The format of the show was based on eight product zones:

1. the Hall of Fame (hosting international brands)
2. the Hall of Extraordinary (for prestigious fine jewellery brands)
3. the World of Glamour (dedicated to fine jewellery from Hong Kong-based exhibitors)
4. the Antique & Vintage Jewellery Galleria (entailing a selection of vintage pieces)
5. the Designer Galleria (featuring trendy pieces from emerging designers)
6. the Hale of Jade Jewellery (a selection of top-grade jade pieces)
7. the Hall of Time (for watches and clocks)
8. and the new Treasures of Craftsmanship (reuniting decorative arts, ornaments and carvings in precious metals and gems)

Highlights

The Diamond Federation of Hong Kong took the event as an opportunity to launch a new “Natural Diamond Quality Assurance” Mark Scheme (NDQA), as one more step in strengthening Hong Kong’s reputation as a diamond hub in Asia. The 332 merchants participating in the new mark scheme are committed to not selling man-made or synthetic diamonds and to provide consumers with quality assurances of natural diamonds. Their compliance will be monitored by a third party professional supervising group through a closer cooperation with individual gemstone identification organizations conducting quality checks.

The topics of the seminars held during the fair ranged from revealing the secrets of the top-class jewellery designers to the development of platinum industry in Japan and the world, to analyzing the conditions for success in the jewellery “e-tailing” market, to exploring the links between jewellery appraisal, gemstone standards and consumer confidence.

For a third year in a row, TRENDVISION Jewellery+Forecasting, the global trends forecasting observatory of Fiera di Vicenza, participated in the Hong Kong event. The TRENDVISION seminar provided valuable insights on the four main 2016 mega trends the observatory has identified: “Airy Perspective” (inspired by minimalism and abstraction); “Dramatic Poetry” (dedicated to a new and dark romanticism); “Global Delights” (promoting a multicultural, luxurious and eclectic elegance), and the ultramodern and futuristic style of “Digital(east)".

Honouring creativity

The opening day of the fair was marked by the International Jewellery Design Excellence Award Presentation Ceremony. This year’s competition featured 191 entries from 31 countries, making it the largest and most international contest to date. The jury comprised distinguished professionals from the jewellery, art, auctions and film worlds, as well as representatives of the organizers. The winning entries adorned graceful models during a glamorous jewellery parade and were displayed separately in Hall 1D for the duration of the show.

The finalists were :

1. “The Russian Seasons”, rings by Anna DMITRIEVA (Russia)

2. “Ancient charm of Mountain & Water”, ring by Xiaodong CAI (Chinese mainland)

3. “Motion”, necklace by Natalie FUNG, Yin Ling (Hong Kong)

4. “Sakura” (to a newborn), necklace by Kazuyo ISHIKAWA (Japan)

5. “Reflection”, ring by Seyed Mohammad MORTAZAVI (Iran)

6. “Empire” Ring by Michael WEGGENMANN (Germany)

7. “Air”, bangle by Miwako YOKOTA (Japan)

8. “Existence”, ring by Timofey TEPLINSKIY (Russia) – winner and “Champion of the Champions”

The winning entry, the “Existence” ring, was made by putting a first-class fancy-shaped tourmaline into melted wax, which turned into a shapeless mass with a stone inside. White and green diamonds were set to surround the tourmaline like a living arm in order to emphasize the unusual shape of the center stone. The glittering green diamonds gradually merge into the soft color of the tourmaline, which represents an evergreen tree of life and comets that brought it to the Earth.

The stars of the show

The exquisite design and impressive craftsmanship combined with pure luxury distinguished the pieces which caught everybody’s attention during the show.

1. The bangle of Brooklyn Bridge by Frank and Label Company Ltd (designer Evert DeGraeve )

: Dazzling 18K white gold and titanium bangle featuring 596 pavé-set round diamonds 8.35 cts and 75 channel-set baguette diamonds weighing 20.21 cts.

2. The Twilight Masterpiece Necklace by Yoko London

: Dramatic 18K white gold necklace featuring 13.88 cts diamonds and 10-14 mm South Sea and Tahitian pearls, with a perfect graduation of size and colour.

3. Van Gogh Sunflowers by Zuri Jewelry Company Ltd (designer Jaye Chen)

: Inspired by Van Gogh’s famous painting, this jewellery collection features fancy yellow diamonds and brilliant cut diamonds in order to express the positive energy of life.

4. Ever Foliage Necklace by Caratell Pte Ltd

Inspired by the Chinese traditional painting of a pine tree, the necklace features 18K white and yellow gold branches, with tapered diamonds as leaves, purple sapphires as fruits and a Burmese type A jadeite jade reflecting its glow on the entire pine tree.

Reasons for cautious optimism

The “Two Shows, Two Venues” arrangement proved its worth for a second successive year, welcoming over 76,000 buyers from 140 countries and regions, up 2 per cent over last year. Onsite surveys conducted during the two shows found that around 80 per cent of buyers expect steady or increased overall sales this year. Both buyers and exhibitors direct their optimism towards the Chinese mainland as a key market to explore. At the same time, they are also keeping an eye on emerging markets such as Thailand, Israel and South Africa, for which a significant growth in buyer attendance was registered in Hong Kong. With the number of US-based buyers recording a double-digit percentage growth and the Italian retail market showing signs of recovering slowly, there are reasons for cautious optimism. However, Chinese mainland customers remain the main target for most businesses in the industry.

In terms of trends in product materials, the same survey showed that the majority of buyers and exhibitors interviewed expect gold-karat white to be the most popular in 2015 (48%), followed by gold-karat yellow (32%) and gold-karat rose (33%). They also predicted that diamonds (50%) would be the most popular gemstone this year, and one carat (48%), round cut (45%) and colourless (41%) diamonds will lead the market.

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