The R&M “Lettre”

Diamantaires were happy to see the back of 2014. After all, it was a tough year in which polished diamond prices declined, accelerating the general downtrend evident since mid-2011.

Digitally savvy jewelry brands are improving their web and mobile presences as the gap between them and those that are digitally deficient widens, a recent study by L2 shows.

The reduction of bank credit available to the diamond industry is a game changer that will influence the market for many years to come. Therefore, this column has chosen bank credit as its most important story of 2014, rising above other strong candidates for the title.

The World Diamond Conference that took place last week in New Delhi, India, created a buzz in the industry that, frankly, needed a bit of a pick-up considering the state of the market.

De Beers December sight closed with an estimated value of $600 million. Minor adjustments to prices and assortment qualities were reported in different categories, but no significant changes were noted.

I’ll start off this blog with a short confessional but not the scary, priest-behind-the-screen, say-10-Hail-Marys-type from my youth.

Our goal is to create a think tank, which will come up with ideas how to reach outside our closed circuit and bring people the message about diamonds, tell why they should buy them.

A pear-shaped, D color, VVS1 diamond weighing 89.23 carats sold for more than $11 million at Christie’s Magnificent Jewels sale held last Wednesday in New York.

With the box deferrals from last month being taken up in December, the Sight is estimated to be around $630m.

The Centurion 2014 holiday sales success index: luxury jewelers continue strong into season.

In its fourth annual report on the global diamond industry, Bain & Company forecasts a solid outlook for diamond demand, but cautions that access to diamond financing, particularly for the middle market, could hamper future market growth.

This was supposed to be the diamond decade. Back in 2010, De Beers executives were touting that the coming 10 years would bring unprecedented demand and growth to the industry.