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On Thursday, I watched Martin Rapaport’s webinar. The webinar ran for almost two hours. As Rapaport carried on, I became progressively more uncomfortable. Did he ask valid questions? He sure did. Here are some of the questions he asked. Are diamonds more than a luxury product? Are they better than shoes and pocketbooks? Are diamonds valuable? Why?Who makes them valuable? Who stands behind those diamonds?  Are diamonds a store of value in troubled times? Good questions, you’ll agree. He then continued making some more good [...]

This blog, written in 2013, did not make it to the digital screen at the time, but with the Swatch company announcing it is withdrawing from BaselWorld 2019. I'm happy to share it, five years later.... I love going to Basel. I mean BaselWorld, that unique fair that has been held steadfastly, uninterruptedly – even during WWII… – since 1917 and ultimately evolved, over time, into Europe’s leading watch and jewelry fair, and into a must-attend event for European, North American and Asian buyers. I [...]

From today and onward, the diamond industry and trade can stop screaming foul. During the past decade(s), the diamond industry has been discussing, arguing and sometimes been kicking and screaming foul against the tendency to call synthetic diamonds….indeed, diamonds. Throughout the years, I have witnessed grown men and women getting worked up and all emotional, arguing passionately that synthetic or lab-grown diamonds cannot be called diamonds, because they just aren’t. Their arguments were driven by emotion, not by reason. This contrary to their colleagues in [...]

(Orginally published on GemKonnect on June 1, 2018) Earlier this month, the Diamond Producers Association (DPA) released the findings of a survey done by the Harris Poll revealing that ‘a clear majority of American consumers (68 percent) recognise that diamonds created in a factory (also known as “synthetic” or “laboratory-grown”) are not “real” diamonds’. The purpose of the survey was, as stated on the first slide of the survey's presentation, to "assess the extent to which consumers associate the term 'real diamonds' with 'natural diamonds’.” [...]

One of my favorite quotes is by the Greek philosopher Heraclitus who said that “Change is the only constant in life.” Wikipedia states that "Heraclitus was famous for his insistence on ever-present change as being the fundamental essence of the universe…" Some 2500 years later, this philosopher's pearls of wisdom are still fresh and applicable, also to the diamond, gem and jewellery industry and trade in which many of my blog's readers make, or try to make, a living in. Currently, one of the world's [...]

As a diamond industry communications specialist, I read Rapaport - and many other new sources - daily. In the diamond industry and trade itself, Rapaport is no doubt an important news source. "Rapaport's weekly email is the first thing I read on Friday morning," a religiously-observant diamond trader told me a while ago. Add to that his multiple, daily consultations of the Rapaport diamond price list, and he most probably reads Rap many more times a day than he opens his prayer book. Therefore, when [...]