IIJS Closes on a High Note

As this year’s Indian International Jewellery Show gets ready to close its doors, exhibitors finally have a chance to breath and relax a little after a hectic weekend that saw plenty of visitors, plenty of enquiries and plenty of transactions.

While the show’s organizers, the Gem & Jewellery Export Promotion Council (GJEPC), were hoping for 25,000 visitors over the whole show, by of the end of the day yesterday (Sunday), more than 36,000 guests had passed through the doors, with 10,665 arriving on Sunday alone.

Many overseas jewelry exhibitors pointed to India’s vibrant and growing middle class market as a reason for their appearance at the show and their entry into India; for diamantaires, the recent waiver of duties on polished diamond imports into India boosted their presence at the show.

Bob Golden of Leo Schechter Diamonds attended the show under the banner of Kama Schechter, the company’s Indian jewelry manufacturing collaboration, which began operating within the past year. “It’s been a very busy show” he said. “The Indian domestic market is really growing. The U.S. market is stable or incremental at best. India is the place to be for people looking for a growth market. It’s probably the hottest market at the moment.”

According to Golden, the greatest buzz has been around wrist-wear and necklaces. “These are also popular pieces in the U.S. right now, but for different reasons. Here these items are culturally always in demand.”

According to Steve Weil of Moshe Namdar & Co., Indian buyers are “absolutely fascinated by fancy colored diamonds,” which the company was offering under the banner of its Italian branch, Namdar-Ramagen. “Although it is not an item that the majority of local customers are accustomed to,” he said, “we have seen demand for large stones of 10+ carats.” Like many other first time exhibitors, however, Weil said that the company has a lot to do in their post-show follow up.

A. Tambi of the Thailand-based Emerald Mines Co., was attending the show for the third time. The company, which primarily offers emeralds and rubies and is breaking into polished diamonds, reported that business both with new and old customers had been good. Gem-wise, Tambi said that demand was especially strong for small, good quality emeralds of 2-3 carats in oval and pear shapes. Although rubies were less in demand than the company might have hoped, he said that there had been more interest than ever before in their goods from large jewelers and many of the big gem dealers.

Over at the Shrenuj stand in Hall 1, Rajat Chadha, deputy manager of sales and marketing, echoed the view heard so many times throughout the show that business had been good overall, but especially on Saturday and Sunday. “This year for the first time ever we have seen a lot of interest from foreign visitors, though not much business has yet materialized from their enquiries, which were largely for our loose diamonds.”

In terms of diamonds, Chadha said that they had sold a wide range of stones, from .50 pointers up to 5.5 carats in D-K colors. Jewelry-wise, Shrenuj’s solitaire rings and single line diamond bangles and necklaces had been especially popular.

Making themselves especially popular and proving the importance of clever marketing to stand out in the sea of booths, Mumbai-based Pristine Jewels had people dropping in to look at the two live (for now) fighter fish swimming around the inside of a unique necklace.

Laksh Pahuja found the inspiration for his acrylic and glass creation on a deep sea diving trip at Lakshadweep Islands. “I was scuba diving,” he said, “and saw the beautiful sea bed and decided to put what I saw in a piece of jewelry. The necklace represents the Southern tip of India and the little gold and black rhodium diver inside the piece represents me on my trip.” 

The two fish seemed blissfully unaware of all the attention as they swam around the temporary home that helped Pahuja win the jewelry designer of the year award at last night’s Retail Jewellery Awards. Pahuja hopes the necklace, which is adorned with rough and black diamonds, gold nuggets, Tahitian pearls, pink sapphires and rubies, will find a place in the Guinness Book of Records, as well as a buyer prepared not only to offer a price above the Rs. 2,500,000 ($61,200) the piece cost to make, but also to look after the fish.