Tuesday, May 22, 2007

Celebrity Sagas Keep Colored Diamonds In The Spotlight

US basketball superstar Kobe Bryant splashed out $4 million on an 8 carat fancy-purple diamond ring for his wife after he cheated on her, and English soccer captain and style icon David Beckham reportedly gave his wife a $1.8 million 10-carat pink diamond ring for similar reasons. Just imagine what the annual sales of colored diamonds would be if every cheating husband would buy his wife a colored diamond as a way of saying sorry darling.

In the above two cases it apparently did the trick, but is the enormous media coverage of these gestures of rediscovered love enough to boost the colored diamond sector? If a survey by the recently formed Natural Color Diamond Association (NCDIA) is anything to go by, there's still a long way to go before colored diamonds really take off.

The NCDIA, the brainchild of founding members DTC Sightholders Rosy Blue and Michael Werdiger Inc, counts rough producers, diamond jewelry manufacturers and retailers among its members. The organization aims to change consumers' perceptions about colored diamonds and make them a much-desired commodity. But statistics show the association has a long way to go. Although a large percentage of consumers are receptive to colored diamonds, they aren't being exposed to them very much. An enormous 84 percent of consumers say their local jeweler has never spoken to them about colored diamonds. Of those who have spoken to their jeweler about them, 59 percent say the jeweler has not explained the unique pricing, grading and physical characteristics of colored diamonds.

The article continues....

"There is a huge range of prices depending on the color, the intensity, hue and so on," he noted. "The rarest colors such as red, blue and pink would be more expensive than colorless, but there is value to be found in the champagnes and the cognac colors where they would be priced more favorably than an equivalent quality white [colorless] diamond. Although colored stones have always been popular among the wealthy, there is now more of an awareness about them among the general public, since the publicity surrounding the J Lo pink diamond engagement ring and the formation of the NCDIA."
- Ben Burne, Marketing Director, Michael Werdiger Inc.

As posted on idexmagazine:
http://www.idexonline.com/portal_FullMazalUbracha.asp?id=22682

Celebrity Sagas Keep Colored Diamonds In The Spotlight
posted by Rare Colored Diamonds on Tuesday, May 22, 2007

Tuesday, May 22, 2007

Celebrity Sagas Keep Colored Diamonds In The Spotlight

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