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Category: Trade Shows
So I feel I need to at least tell you of my trip. I was recently in Washington D.C. for the Independent Jewelers Organization’s (IJO) tradeshow (you might be thinking I spelt “Jewelers” wrong, however, that would be the American way of spelling it, and IJO is an American organization).
IJO is a fun tradeshow for a number of reasons. They usually have it in a nice place (we have been to Philidelphia, Tampa, Charolotte, Fortworth, and now Washiongton D.C. since we joined), the hotel’s they choose are usually pretty sweet, but most of all, the people are amazing! Every jeweller there is essentially a small business owner (most of them American, but lots of Canadian’s involved too), and often times they will bring their family. It is a very casual environment, and you can literally strike up a conversation with anyone at any point.
Going to these shows are helpful in many. They have an educational aspect to them that no other show I have been to has – they take a whole day and offer different seminars you can attend and learn about different topics within the industry. Also, just talking to other jewellers from across the continent, learning about new and upcoming brands, and learning about the state of the industry itself has been extremely valuable.
The suppliers are also incredible to deal with. We have taken up a number of differnt lines since we have joined (Sarah’s Hope Jewelry and Pandroa for example) and have been fortunate enough to make a few friends along the way.
Next tradeshow: Bangkok and Hong Kong. No, I won’t be going (this is where I would put a “frowny” emoticon), but my father Ernie and brother Jeremy will be attending. I will make sure they post updates to this blog while they are out there.
Our company attends at least seven trade shows every year. This year, they include Dallas, Washington, Las Vegas, Toronto, Atlanta, Bangkok, and Hong Kong. It’s our way of staying abreast of industry trends and, finding items which you may not find anywhere else. It’s also our way of staying on top of prices and making sure that we are buying very competetively.
Our latest foray was to the JCK jewellery show in Las Vegas. For those of you who have not been to Vegas in June, let me just say that you don’t spend much time outside as the temperatures hit 108 F on most days. Even the nights barely cool down. The show has become the largest jewellery show in North America (exceeded only by the Hong Kong jewellery show), and is always an eye -opener. One of our staff who had never attended before, was quite taken by the week’s spectacle; in particular a 60 carat intense vivid yellow radiant cut diamond, available for a mere seven million dollars (US). Needless to say, we admired it but unfortunately the combined limits on our credit cards was somewhat shy of their asking price. However, we did see many beautiful items and have placed orders for some very exciting pieces which will begin to arrive within the next few months. One highlight was a 4.00ct Asscher-cut diamond, already arrived and available for an exceptionally good price.
Next major shows will be in September, when I’ll be attending the Bangkok and Hong Kong shows. Washington, Atlanta, and Toronto also still to come. Who said that the jewellery industry is boring or lacklustre? It’s a wonderful, global endeavour whose primary purpose is to make people happy!!
When in Vegas, it’s hard to ignore the many shows available. This time we took in Jersey Boys and Viva Elvis. My opinion only but I’d be happy to see Jersey Boys again; reluctant to see Elvis again. Good dining options are too many to mention although, when working the trade show, the food leaves much to be desired. We did enjoy a wonderful meal at Maggiano’s as well as at a Wolfgang Puck restaurant at the Venetian.
So this is the last day for me at the show. It has been a wonderful, eye-opening time, and I am excited to return home.
I started the morning off by going around to all my favourite luxury watch lines and getting catalogues. I have catalogues from Patek Philippe, Hublot, Breguet, Chopard, Blancpain, Nomos, Breitling, and more. It will be tough bringing all of them home because these aren’t just small, compact catalogues. Some of them are hard-cover books the size of an atlas! OK, so I exaggerate a bit, but they are big and bulky.
The rest of the day I spent at the jewellery exhibit. Yes Baselworld shows more than just watches, they also have quite a large jewellery show as well. Some of the jewellery they had on display was absolutely mind-blowing; massive diamond-encrusted necklaces, emerald/rubies/sapphires the size of a large marble, and the most exquisite pearls I have ever seen. As I was walking around, I tried taking pictures to show you what I got to see, but security was all over me very quickly and made me delete all the pictures on my camera (of the jewellery). There are so many jewellery lines at this show, that after awhile you feel as though you have seen everything. But in my memory, the most notable piece(s) of jewellery that stand out were from a company called EuroPearl. They specialize in South Sea pearls, but also have very high quality Akoya and Freshwater pearls as well. They had an absolutely stunning strand (well it was three strands together) of South Sea pearls that graduated in size AND colour. At the back of the neck they would probably be around 8mm, and they graduated to probably 15mm. But the eye catching part about it was that they graduated in colour from a beautiful white, to a vivid gold, all natural of course. The strands themselves are probably around 26/28/30 inches long and the price tag would have easily cleared the $100,000 mark. Needless to say, these beauty’s stopped me in my tracks.
Well that is all from Basel. I will be posting more pictures soon on our Facebook page (if you haven’t joined, I think you should), and I will be back in the store sometime on Friday.
Today I got to meet with a few more of our suppliers; Bulova, Movado, and Tissot. I also got a chance to look at Victorinox Swiss Army.
Bulova has released a new quartz movement! They are calling the line Bulova Percisionist. The whole idea behind the movement was to create something that could have a “sweep” seconds hand (as opposed the the most common “ticking” seconds hand that you will find on virtually every battery powered watch), and more importantly be more accurate than anything on the market. A typical quartz movement will gain/lose 15 seconds a months, or about 3 minutes a year, something that most people do not even notice (in comparison, a high-quality mechanical movement that you would find in a Rolex for example, will gain/lose 6 seconds a day, but that is really comparing apples to oranges). The new Percisionist movement claims that it will only lose/gain 10 seconds a year. Quite impressive actually and the watches themselves are quite fashionable and very well priced.
Movado has many new releases this year, and I have ordered a good selection of what they offered. They are creating more automatic watches (using the coveted Valjoux Swiss ETA movement in the chronographs) than they have ever had and coming out with more sportier watches as well. I was very impressed at the styling of their new watches and am very excited to get them into our store. Pricing is inline with what you would expect from a Movado watch, however, the automatic chronographs that utilize the Valjoux movement are a little bit more expensive.
I will mention here that Concord, a brand underneath the Movado Group, released a watch this year, that if my memory serves me correct retails for $1.2 million dollars. I didn’t get a chance to see it but apparently it has twenty-five 1.00 carat baguette cut diamonds in it.
Tissot also had a large number of new releases. Also many more automatic watches being added to their line and they now have a proprietory chronograph automatic movement (designed and created by ETA) that is less expensive than the Valjoux. Again, I was very impressed with what they had to offer and I had to put a check on what I was ordering for fear of what my boss might say (sorry Dad). They have discontinued their PR50 series and upgraded the line. The line is now called PR100, has a solid strap (instead of hollow), water resistant to 100 metres, and is all around a better feeling watch. The minimal $50 price increase is certainly worth it.
So I didn’t really take any pictures today, but yesterday I failed to mention a clock company that I stumbled upon. I have never heard of the company (called I believe AHCI), but apparently they do very high-end, high-quality, and highly complex clocks.
Isn’t that amazing? The workmanship and quality is absolutely unbelieveable on these clocks. I didn’t get any prices, but I may just pop in tomorrow to find out more details. They have many other interesting clocks, some very odd looking, some with functions that you would rarely use, but all interesting and unique.
Finally, I did find a beautiful watch line that I had heard about from a customer that came in probably about a year ago. The line is called Nomos. German-made, all of the watches mechanical, and everything is made in-house. Very classy, very well-priced considering how much work goes into each watch, and very simple. They don’t seem to be jumping on the “let’s see who can make the bigger watch” fad and that is definiately OK with me (I stopped by the company U-Boat and they were showing a watch that is 64mm wide! Considering not so long ago 36mm was considered manly, they are certainly pushing the envelope). Check out Nomos watches here and let me know what you think. Prices would likely be in the $1500 to $2500 range.
More to come tomorrow.
Where to begin. Today was my first day/first time at Baselworld. I had a bunch of appointments including Rolex, Tag Heuer, Omega, Swarovski, and Citizen. So a few notable points: Rolex has upgraded their popular Submariner to include a ceramic bezel, bulkier case, larger hour markers on the dial (the “maxi” dial), as well as the patented glide-lock clasp. They are offering this new Submariner Date in the classic Black Bezel on Black Dial, as well as a new Green Bezel with a Green Gold Dial (they have achieved the Green Gold by mixing regular 18KY gold with aluminum apparently). Yes the price has changed as well. Another unexpected release, as mentioned in yesterday’s post, is that Rolex has changed their classic Explorer 1. It is now 39mm, comes with a new bracelet and new clasp, same dial (other than size difference that is), and is really quite a nice looking watch. The price has not changed substantially, but definitely expect an increase.
There are a few new changes amoung Omega, Tag Heuer, and Citizen, and Swarovski has now released their watch line to the independent’s like us. For all the women out there, if you are looking for a fashion watch, take a look at Swarovski. They are big, clunky, covered in crystal, and definitely make a statement.
Finally, I got a chance to look at some of the worlds most prestigous watch brands that are around today. No I didn’t get to handle any of their watches, but when a lot of these watches go into the hundreds of thousands of dollars, I am not sure if I would feel comfortable handling them anyways. Some names include Patek Philippe, Breguet, Chopard, Blancpain, Zenith, Corum, Hublot, Breitling, Ulysse Nardin, and Glasshutte, to name just a few that come to the top of my head. There are many, many more brands and I’ll tell you more about them as I see them. Below are a few pictures of some of the “booths” that these watch brands set up for one week out of a year.
I wrote this in the airport in Amsterdam at 6:57am.
Hello, I write this while sitting in the airport in Amsterdam, waiting for my connecting flight to Zurich, Switzerland. I am compelled to write this right now because I was just in the most amazing store, located within the airport here. The store is simply called “Jewelry and Watch,” but what caught my eye as I passed was not only the vast selection of Mont Blanc writing instruments, but the four shop-in-shops located on the back wall: Rolex, Chopard, Omega, and Jaeger LeCoultre.
On the right side wall (refer to picture) we have IWC Schaffhausen, Tag Heuer, Breitling, Baume et Mercier, Mont Blanc watches, and a number of other brands that I cannot remember. On the other wall there are various high-end jewellery brands including the likes of Mikimoto and others.
Since it is not often that I get to see such luxurious watch brands in one store, I had no choice but to go in. Seeing these beautiful timepieces and the stunning jewellery, in combination with the large cup of Starbucks coffee I had just devoured, really got my blood pumping. Tomorrow I will be in Basel visiting with some of the world’s premier watch companies, all together in one spot. I will get a chance to look at some timepieces that I have only read about in magazines and with a little bit of luck, I hope to get a chance to hold a coveted tourbillion watch (a tourbillion watch is typically a self-winding watch that takes into account the effects of gravity on the movement itself; highly complex and highly expensive. I realize that this is a very poor description of what is such a complex mechanism).
I will just finish off this post by saying that it is now almost 1am, and tomorrow I have a big day of looking at new product from some of the lines we carry (here’s a hint: Look forward to an upgraded Submariner from Rolex, and also an upgraded and changed Explorer 1).
Good night.
T-Minus 22 hours till I leave for Basel. For those of you who do not know what or where Basel is, let me explain.
First the ‘where.’ Basel is a city located in Switzerland, to be more specific, in the N.N.W. corner of Switzerland. The city is almost right on top of the border where Switzerland, Germany, and France meet.
Second, the city of Basel plays host to the worlds most luxurious watch trade show, known as Baselworld. Many of the big names, including Rolex, will be represented at this show, and I am fortunate enough to have the opportunity to represent Independent Jewellers this year at the show.
I am very excited to see what the brands we are carrying have to offer this year, as well as have a chance to look around at new brands and see what the trends for 2010 are going to be.
More posts to come shortly.
IJO (Independent Jewelers Organization) holds two trade shows a year; usually earlier in the year, and one sometime in July. I just returned yesterday from, you guessed it, Grapevine, Texas, where IJO had their first trade show of 2010.
If you do not know what a trade show is, I will tell you. Basically it is a whole bunch of supplier’s that get together in a big convention hall to display their product and retailors come to shop. See picture below.
We got to see some very nice product, we visited with the girls (and guy) from Sarah’s Hope Jewelry (see picture above), we chatted with Mark and Nancy Schneider from Schneider Design, and we enjoyed good food and conversation with many retailor friends from across the continent. Given IJO’s large membership (over 850), we are fortunate to meet many new and interesting people everytime we go to one of these shows, and get to learn from them about the jewellery industry as a whole.
If you have never stayed in a Gaylord Hotel, I must recommend it. These hotels are massive. To describe them is hard because they are so large in comparison to any hotel I have stayed in, you truly have to see it to believe it. Picture a massive park, surrounded by hotel rooms, with a glass roof (alternatively, you could look at some pictures here). All in all, the trip was fantastic despite the cold weather (ya, cold in Texas!), and be on the lookout for new inventory coming into our stores soon.
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Trade Shows | Jonathan August 3, 2010 | 
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