jewelry: gems

Registration during the opening day of the 2013 September Hong Kong Jewellery & Gem Fair.

The world’s largest jewelry fair is set to begin in two weeks and its organizers are still billing it as the entryway to the fastest growing jewelry market in the world: China.

The September Hong Kong Jewellery & Gem Fair will be held from September 15 – 19 at the AsiaWorld-Expo near Hong Kong International Airport; and September 17 – 21 at the at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre in the heart of the city.

AWE will display jewelry raw materials from over 1,700 exhibitors from around the world, while HKCEC will showcase fine finished jewelry from more than 1,900 exhibitors.

China Market Research Reports reveals that 2013 jewelry sales in Mainland China were approximately $75.8 billion, equivalent to 41.2 percent of total global consumption. UBM Asia, which organizes the fair, says that Hong Kong's location and its duty-free status makes it the “ideal gateway to China and the rest of the Asia." It's a claim UBM Asia has made since I started attending the event more than 10 years ago and it's even more true now than it was back then.

“The Fair occupies 135,000 square meters of exhibition space to accommodate more than 3,680 exhibitors from 51 countries and regions,” said Sunny Chan, Deputy Fair Manager, Jewellery Fairs, UBM Asia. “We expect to welcome more than 52,000 visitors from around the world.”

New attractions at the 32nd fair include exhibitors from Egypt, Kazakhstan, Norway and Tahiti. For the first time, coral exhibitors from Japan will exhibit under the banner of Japan Coral. Together with coral exhibitors from Taiwan and Italy, there are more than 60 coral exhibitors at AsiaWorld-Expo.

In addition, the fair has 22 dedicated pavilions: Antwerp, Brazil, China, Columbia, France, Germany, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Israel, Italy, Japan, Korea, Poland, Singapore, Spain, Sri Lanka, Taiwan, Thailand, Turkey, the United States, and the International Colored Gemstone Association, UBM Asia said. This year's “Design Arena” has increased by 40 percent in terms of exhibition space and will relocate to the Chancellor Room and Mezzanine 4 of HKCEC. Also, the International Premier Pavilion is bigger by 8.6 percent in terms of exhibition area.

This outpouring of exhibitors and attendees solidifies its reputation as a truly global event.

The Alrosa Group, Russia’s leading diamond company and the world’s biggest diamond miner by volume, will again host a diamond auction, along with the Paspaley Pearl Auction. In addition, the fair will again feature the world’s largest diamond pavilion, Asia’s biggest gemstone marketplace and the biggest display of Hong Kong jewelry in the world.

Visitor pre-registration is available at this link until 1st September. The fair mobile app is available for download at this link. More details of special events are available by at this link.

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The sunset outside the Tucson Convention Center

I’ve been covering the jewelry industry for 10 years and I have never been to the Tucson gem shows. It was an eye opening experience in many ways and I gained more hands-on knowledge in my eight days in Tucson than I did at any other time working in the industry. There are approximately 36 gems, minerals, fossil and jewelry shows in Tucson over a three-week period, with a few shows beginning earlier. The following is a short list of some of the things I learned:

The Mineral and Fossil Shows Rock. Where else can you find pieces of Quartz bigger than Shaquille O’Neal, amethyst the size of a coffin and fossilized specimens ranging from alligator heads to prehistoric insects?

It’s a place where you can walk into a hotel room and find a 450-pound Meteorite. Not only that, you then can learn that it produces a gem-quality mineral called peridot, also available on Earth. The outer space version of the gem has been given the name, Palladot.

It’s a place where hotel and motel room double as living spaces and showrooms. Brings new meaning to the term, mi casa su casa.

The Centurion Show is the easiest luxury jewelry show to work. This exclusive gathering of luxury jewelry designers, manufacturers and retailers provided me with ample time to view new and exciting products. It’s not typical of the shows in Tucson but it is in the state during the same time so I included it.

If you ever have a chance to join Lois Berger’s Pearl Walk, do it. She holds it annually during the AGTA GemFair. It’s an up-close view of the pearl industry.

Passion. It’s a word that’s thrown about the jewelry industry like candy to kids during Halloween. But it’s a word you never hear in Tucson. That’s because the passion is as obvious as water is to a fish.

If you ever get a chance to see Gary Roskin’s presentation on the Hope and Wittelsbach-Graff diamonds, do it. He was one of 10 gem experts to examine and photograph the two famous deep blue diamonds as these experts tried to determine whether these two diamonds, each with their own remarkable history, are from the same source.

Below are some photos from my time in Tucson: