|
 |
SIHH: Salon International De La Haute Horlogerie.
This is a watch show that takes place in Geneva each year in January. However, they have started a mini version of this in Las Vegas, and Independent Jewellers has been invited to attend. The brands that are represented are mainly brands under the Richemont Group: Montblanc, Baume et Mercier, Panerai, Jaeger-LeCoultre, Audemars Piguet, and others.
This will be my first time attending a SIHH event and I am looking forward to it. The brands that are represented here employ some of the world’s most prestigious watchmakers and are extremely exclusive. Some of the timepieces that will be shown will be highly limited and cost well into the hundreds of thousands of dollars!
In a month I will be attending the Baselworld tradeshow in Basel, Switzerland. Having been to Basel twice now, and never to a SIHH show, it will be nice to see the differences between the two tradeshows. More to come!
Diamonds are fascinating gemstones to say the least. They are formed in the earth, miles below the crust, under pressure and temperature’s that are truly mind-boggling. They are then pushed up through the crust, also under tremendous heat and pressure. Estimated time to make a diamond: 1 billion years, give or take.
When talking about the “quality” of a diamond, many people get hung up about the clarity and colour, when in fact, these two attributes are merely characteristics about the rarity of a diamond. We have no control over clarity, colour, or even carat weight, because these are decided by nature. What we do have control over, however, is the quality of the cut. The better the cut, the better the performance of the diamond. And by performance, I am referring to how the diamond handles light.
Poorly cut diamonds do not sparkle well at all, whereas ideal cut diamonds have lots of fire and scintillation. The reason for this is because the poorly cut diamond will leak light out the bottom and sides. The ideal cut diamond returns the maximum amount of light to the human eye, therefore, it is brighter and full of life. The man who discovered the ideal cut that we know today was Marcel Tolkowsky (1899-1991), and he discovered this through a number of different mathematical equations.
It is easy to convey the colour and clarity of a diamond over the phone, over the internet, through email, etc. However, when referring to the quality of the cut, the only way to truly know if you like it is by seeing the diamond in person. Cut quality is on a spectrum just like the other characteristics, from poor to ideal and many variations in between. Unfortunately, there is no real good way to convey just how beautiful a diamond is, you need to see it in front of you under proper lighting conditions.
We are proud to announce that we are now carrying Victor Diamonds.
What is a Victor Diamond, and why might you want it, you ask? Victor Diamonds are Canadian diamonds taken from the Victor mine located in the James Bay Lowlands of Northern Ontario. These diamonds are considered to be Products Of Canada, which means that the diamonds themselves have been mined, cut, and polished in Canada. This can be confusing as there are lots of “Canadian Diamonds” on the marketplace. Often is what will happen is that these diamonds will be mined in Canada, however once mined, the rough diamond will be shipped internationally where the labour to turn it into a finished diamond will occur.
The beauty of Victor Diamonds being Product’s Of Canada is that all the labour to turn the rough diamond into a finished one is done here. This of course is great for the economy, and one can know for certain that their diamond is completely Canadian.
We often get requests either to buy estate jewellery, or if we have any estate jewellery. Well the simple answer to this is “yes”…to both questions.
*This is a sample image, not in stock*
Right now we have quite a nice selection of estate jewellery located at our 493 Notre Dame location. We do not have it on display, so if you do decide to come down, please ask a salesperson to see some of our collection. At some point in this year (2012…hopefully the earlier part of it), I do intend on creating an estate jewellery section on our website so people can see some of the beautiful items we have (and HAVE had).
If you do decide you have something you would like us to buy, we would be more than happy to have a look. However, please do not be offended by the price we may offer you, as sometimes it might be lower than your expectation, or the “appraised value.” Sometimes the price we offer will be a scrap gold value (we will weight it for the gold and pay you out per gram), but if there are some special gemstones involved there might be more value in it for us, and therefore more money in it for you.
If you do have some special piece(s), and you are wanting to sell, please come down to our 493 Notre Dame Ave. location, or give us a shout (774.5544) and set up an appointment with Jeremy, Jonathan, or Ernie.
Blogging, as it turns out, is a very hard job. I mean, the job itself is easy; fingers pushing down little keys with letters on them is not exactly taxing on the body. But a blog is hard to keep up with, and needs to be maintained, and someone needs to be continually writing.
This year, I, or someone from Independent Jewellers, will blog once a week. Every Tuesday, at 10am Winnipeg time, there will be a new post on this blog. Most of the time it will have to do with jewellery… or watches… or other jewellery store stuff, but sometimes this blog will talk about other stuff too.
Also, it is our 75th year in business this year!!! It is hard to believe that my grandfather, John H. Epp, started Independent Jewellers in 1937. If you have any stories of him, or his sons, or just of Independent Jewellers, we would love to hear them. If you could please send them to jonathan@independentjewellers.com that would be much appreciated.
|
|
|
|
|
Jewellery | Jonathan January 31, 2012 | 
Comments (0) 
