A rivière diamond necklace was the top seller at Christie’s Magnificent Jewels in Hong Kong on Monday, bringing in $5.9 million.
The sale price for the piece, which features 52 round brilliant-cut, D-flawless and internally flawless diamonds weighing a total of 104.84 carats, was within estimates. In total, the November 28 auction achieved $46.2 million, with 50% of the jewels on offer exceeding their high estimates, Christie’s said Monday.
The company sold 86% of available lots, or 82% by value, and drew global participation from 21 countries across three continents.
The auction also included a collection of jewels from Hong Kong actress Rosamund Kwan, which fetched a combined total of $11.1 million. The two leading lots from that sale saw heavily competitive bidding, lasting over 15 minutes, Christie’s noted. The top item in the group was a necklace featuring a pear brilliant-cut, 22.18-carat, D-color, VVS1-clarity diamond pendant with rubies and pink diamonds, which went for $2.1 million, within estimates.
Here are the rest of the top five:
A jadeite, diamond and sapphire necklace by Etcetera sold for $2.8 million against a presale estimate of $2.6 million to $3.8 million.
This cushion modified brilliant-cut, 60.79-carat, fancy-vivid-yellow, VS2-clarity diamond ring brought in $2.7 million, in the middle of its $2.3 million to $3.6 million presale range.
A round brilliant-cut, 19.61-carat, D-flawless, type IIa diamond ring exceeded its $1.7 million to $2.3 million presale estimate, bringing in $2.4 million.
This oval-cut, 5.32-carat Burmese pigeon’s blood ruby ring with pear-shaped diamonds by Cartier Paris achieved $2.1 million, within its expected range of $1.9 million to $2.3 million.
Jefferson Ncube, an illegal diamond miner from Zimbabwe, works on his latest tunnel at an abandoned De Beers mine near Kleinzee, South Africa.
Bracing against the vibrations of the jackhammer, illicit diamond miner Jefferson Ncube bores steadily into the rock face before him, sending chunks of dry stone clattering to the ground and filling the air with a cloud of pale gray dust. He’s 30 feet below the surface of the desert in the Namaqualand region of South Africa in a tunnel barely tall enough to crawl through.
“I don’t enjoy this at all, but I need the money,” says Ncube, who holds a degree in agricultural science from the University of Pretoria but says he has been unable to find work elsewhere. “I have a family to support, a wife and a 1-year-old child.”
The Nuttabooimine, near the coastal town of Kleinzee, was once mined by the diamond giant, De Beers, the largest of dozens of industrial mining operators who, for the best part of a century, formed the backbone of the region’s economy.
A diamond miner hauls up a bucket of gravel at an illegal mining site in South Africa’s Northern Cape Province.
But over the past 20 years, rising operational costs and a dwindling supply of diamonds have made large-scale industrial mining increasingly unviable. The sector’s steady decline has left a legacy of chronic unemployment in Namaqualand but has also created opportunities for a growing number of desperate young men and women willing to tolerate hardships and dangers as they eke out a living in abandoned mines.
Known locally as “zama-zamas” — loosely, “ones who try their luck” in isiZulu — unlicensed miners like Ncube are considered illegal by the government. Yet here on South Africa’s wild and diamond-rich Atlantic coast, residents say the number of zama-zamas has burgeoned in recent years, fueled by the lack of jobs, the economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and the rising cost of living, as well as by political and economic crises in neighboring countries.
An ilegal diamond miner breaks up rocks at the Nuttabooi mine near Kleinzee, South Africa.
Earlier this year, South Africa’s minister of Mineral Resources and Energy, Gwede Mantashe, described illegal mining as a “plague” amid reports of rampant corruption, extortion and violence linked to zama-zama activity across the country, not only in relation to diamonds but also coal, and other minerals such as gold and chromite. Once confined largely to the country’s estimated 6,100 abandoned or ownerless mines, officials say illegal mining is increasingly spilling over into operational mines too.
Ncube is part of a 12-man team, all of them migrants from Zimbabwe, where hyperinflation and unemployment have made it all but impossible to build a stable life for their families. Out in the desert, living conditions are bleak and working conditions even worse, but with some basic tools and a little knowledge of geology, they manage to make ends meet. The men, almost all of whom have arrived in the past two years, share the work and split whatever profits they make.
Members of an illegal diamond mining collective look down a mineshaft at the Nuttabooi mine.
“We dig down until we hit the bedrock, then we go sideways through this belt,” says Ncube, pointing at a band of rock and gravel on the side wall of the tunnel. “This is where we find the diamonds. In the past, they used hammers and chisels. But if you use a jackhammer, you can take out more rock and then there are more diamonds for you.”
Danger in the tunnels
A zama-zama uses a jackhammer to break up rock in an abandoned De Beers mine.
The miners have little in the way of safety equipment, and their tunnels are prone to collapsing. A little more than half a mile from here, at the neighboring Bontekoe mine, a simple granite plaque in the desert commemorates the miners who lost their lives in a particularly deadly collapse in 2012. Smaller accidents occur frequently and often go unreported. Community leaders say that at least six people have died at Nuttabooi alone in the past few months.
To try to stay safe, Ncube and his colleagues make a point of leaving “pillars” at 6-foot intervals as they tunnel through the ground. But it’s an imperfect system, made harder by the fact that tunnels dug by different groups of miners often collide.
An illegal diamond miner looks out from the top of a De Beers mine that has since been taken over by zama-zamas.
“If the hole is ‘paying,’ people get greedy and they eat away at the pillars until the whole thing is just hanging,” says Ncube. “That’s how some guys died just two holes away from here. If you get greedy you’ll die down here, and then your family will suffer even more.”
After handing over to a colleague, Ncube climbs carefully back up the vertical mine shaft and hauls himself over the edge. At the surface, in a stark, lunar landscape of craters and piles of rubble, zama-zamas cluster together around their holes, sifting through gravel and chatting over the low hum of diesel generators. A few hundred yards away, the old De Beers mine lies abandoned, a massive scar on the face of the desert, hemmed in by towering mine dumps.
“De Beers has taken all the diamonds out of Namaqualand and now we’re back in poverty,” says Andrew Cloete, a longtime illicit miner who lives in a small tent of black and red plastic sheeting in the ever-expanding squatter camp below the Nuttabooi mine. “The companies left us like they found us — with nothing. But if we just sit there thinking about it, our kids will die. So we, the diggers, come in here and take the scraps.”
Andrew Cloete, a diamond miner and activist for mining rights, photographed in his shack in a squatter camp at the Nuttabooi mine in Namaqualand, South Africa. The government considers the activity at Nuttabooi illegal because the miners do not possess permits.
The plight of the zama-zamas
There is a palpable sense of anger, particularly among the miners who grew up in Namaqualand, over how little of the region’s diamond wealth has stayed in the local area. Over several decades, vast quantities of diamonds have been exported overseas, yet most of the area’s roads are still unpaved, service provision is haphazard at best and poverty and alcoholism are endemic. Unemployment in the province stands at over 46%.
“Africa’s f***ed up. We don’t have jobs, all we have is minerals — but they’re being looted by the West,” said one miner, an unemployed mechanical engineer who didn’t want to be named, citing concerns that he may be targeted by the authorities. “This is our Africa. This is our land. These are our minerals.”
Zama-zamas have little bargaining power and are forced to sell their finds to black-market buyers for a fraction of their true value.
Outside Cloete’s tent, men wander through a small city of plastic lean-tos that has sprung up in the desert over the past two years. The camp has enveloped a handful of derelict buildings left behind by the mining companies, where zama-zamas now sleep side by side on filthy mattresses on the floor. The camp, home to around 1,500 people, has no electricity, running water, clinics or sanitation but a surplus of bars and taverns that do a steady round-the-clock trade.
“Nobody would live in conditions like this if there wasn’t a need,” says Cloete, gesturing toward the scene outside. “We’re here because of poverty, hunger and joblessness.”
They’re not getting rich off their diamonds
Diamond miners at an illegal dig site in Namaqualand, South Africa.
After lighting a cigarette, Cloete reaches for a small glass jar and takes out a plastic packet from inside. Carefully, he empties its contents into his palm. About a dozen small, rough diamonds tumble out. On international markets they might fetch a substantial sum, he says, but due to the illegal nature of their work, the zama-zamas have little bargaining power and are forced to sell their finds to black-market buyers for a fraction of their true value.
“They buy diamonds like they’re buying sweets,” complained one zama-zama. “You get people buying diamonds for 100 Rand [about $5.50].”
Cloete, who founded an informal group of mineral rights activists known as the “Mining Fighters,” has spent years petitioning the South African government to find a productive way to formalize zama-zama mining, a move that he says would lead to safer working conditions and a fairer marketplace for local diamonds, as well as bringing in considerable revenue for the government. Similar systems are in place in many other African countries, where so-called artisanal mining, carried out by individuals or small groups using traditional methods and basic equipment, is now a major employer and revenue generator.
A swimming pool lies empty in the town of Kleinzee in the Namaqualand region of South Africa.
The town was once the property of the De Beers diamond company. In its heyday, it was a thriving settlement of 4,000 people with about 30 recreational clubs. After closing down its mines in the region, De Beers sold off the town, which is now largely empty.
But Cloete says he has yet to receive a response. “They treat us like we’re criminals,” he says.
Many in the formal diamond sector would also like to see the legalization and regulation of informal mining, which they say hampers their legal operations and fuels a parallel black market in illegal diamonds.
“At the end of the day, it’s a situation that’s totally unbearable for us,” said Gert Van Niekerk, chairman of the South African Diamond Producers Organisation, an industry body representing legal diamond miners. “This is not the Wild West.”
Kim Cupito
Kim Cupito, who lives with her husband in a derelict building left behind by De Beers, lost her job during the pandemic. “We need to survive, and this is God’s ground. It’s for everybody,” she says.
In Kleinzee, a faded mining town once owned by De Beers, where most homes now lie empty, residents say the influx of illegal miners from around South Africa and neighboring countries has led to a rise in crime.
The uncertain future faced by zama-zamas
“Zama-zamas aren’t welcome here,” said one Kleinzee restaurateur. “They have knives, they have guns, they’re gangsters. They can come and buy things here, but afterward they must leave. We don’t want them here.”
Illegal diamond miners try to get phone reception at a mining site in Namaqualand, South Africa.
In a policy document released in March, South Africa’s Department of Mineral Resources and Energy announced its intention to create a new police unit dedicated to combating illegal mining. It also laid out plans to make it easier for artisanal and small-scale miners to legally acquire mining rights by streamlining the expensive and time-consuming process of applying for a permit.
Police raids are frequent. In one major operation in July, a combined force of police and other law enforcement bodies backed by two helicopters and a spotter plane raided the Nuttabooi site, arresting over 100 people and confiscating 130 generators and 121 jackhammers, along with other equipment. But within days, mining activity had resumed.
But creating new legislation to support the policies could take time. And critics say it’s unrealistic to hope that many zama-zamas will voluntarily cease their activities, undergo training, comply with regulations and start paying taxes and royalties to the government, especially given that many are in the country illegally and would not be eligible for mining permits.
In the meantime, Namaqualand’s zama-zamas don’t intend to wait around.
“There’s nothing for us out there,” said Kim Cupito, a former fruit trader who lost her job during the pandemic and now lives with her husband in a derelict De Beers building with gravel piled up in the hallways and gaping holes in the roof. “We need to survive, and this is God’s ground. It’s for everybody.”
Pre-owned timepieces are beating jewelry at auction and outselling hard-to-get newer models.
The pre-owned watch market is having a banner year. The five top auction houses for the category — Phillips, Sotheby’s, Christie’s, Antiquorum and Bonhams — finished 2021 with a combined total of CHF 634 million ($646 million) in watch sales, according to The Mercury Project, a study by auction-focused consulting firm Hammertrack. In the first half of 2022, the five houses sold CHF 379 million ($386 million) worth of watches — 47% more year on year than 2021 and 133% more than the first half of 2019.
This year is likely to set a new record, surpassing the $900 million mark, the study says — and that doesn’t include sales by non-auction dealers. Secondhand-timepiece vendor WatchBox, for example, posted sales of $310 million in 2021. Its tally for the first half of 2022 was $200 million, and the projected figure for the full year is $400 million.
A collector’s market The boom is partly due to organic growth from a steadily burgeoning community of collectors with no qualms about buying pre-owned watches. Over the past five years, online resale platforms for luxury timepieces have evolved from bulletin-board-style marketplaces run by largely anonymous sellers, to organized professional dealers who own, authenticate, restore and service their inventory. And the scale of that inventory has exploded: A 2021 study by McKinsey & Company valued the secondhand watch market at $18 billion in 2019, predicting a jump to $32 billion by 2025.
In fact, watches now outpace jewelry at auction: Auction sales of pre-owned jewelry rose 55% in 2021, while watch sales doubled, according to Hammertrack. In 2022’s first half, jewelry sales were up only 8% year on year against watches’ 47%.
The other main factor driving the boom in pre-owned timepieces is the shrinking number of new ones at retail. Brands are producing fewer watches, mainly offering limited editions at premium prices, and that puts many new models beyond the reach of most collectors. Hot commodities like the Rolex Daytona are obtainable only through waiting lists, which can be decades long. In contrast, a buyer could get a nice secondhand Rolex Daytona or other coveted model right now, online or at auction.
Outrageous prices The Rolex Daytona and Patek Philippe Nautilus are prime examples of how some watches have become commoditized. Patek discontinued the Nautilus Ref. 5711-1A with blue dial in 2021 — partly because it was overshadowing the rest of Patek’s collection, including the company’s elite complications, and partly because the hype was elevating prices to absurd levels, many times beyond retail. While the Daytona is still in production, it has been selling for up to five times its retail price, which makes it ripe for speculators.
That said, the Daytona and the Nautilus are exceptions, and over the past year, prices for these models have retreated from the all-time highs they reached in early spring 2022.
Some dealers welcome the correction.
“It’s been a wild ride the last few years, and I, for one, am looking forward to the watch market getting back to normal,” says Ken DeVaul, director of timepiece operations for retailer International Diamond Center (IDC) in Clearwater, Florida. “I got tired of talking about watches through the financial-commodity lens of resale value. I got into this business because I really enjoy watches, not because it outpaced the stock market.”
The era when a “few flippers” could buy a watch at list price “and make an easy $20,000 or more by selling to us dealers is pretty much over,” he continues. “In fact, all Rolex sports models have come down in price over the past year, inching back to [the manufacturer suggested retail price (MSRP)], where they typically lived in the past.”
Dealer Eric Wind of Florida-based Wind Vintage describes “the pre-owned hysteria” as “not much different than people paying crazy amounts for cryptocurrencies and non-fungible tokens (NFTs). The speculators were mainly active in the primary retail market, and they aren’t true collectors. The real collectors are in the vintage and independent markets.” His advice to consumers: “I personally would not recommend paying huge premiums over retail price for modern, currently produced watches right now. I am not bullish [about the value of goods on the secondary market].”
Steel and small brands The Daytona and Nautilus hype may have subsided, but it’s left its mark: a lingering preference for stainless steel sports watches.
“Steel sports models have been super popular for several years now,” says Leigh Zagoory, a watch specialist at Sotheby’s. “But trends are cyclical, and true collectors covet watches for different qualities. They’re looking for more rare examples of specific models, and those vintage pieces can only be sourced on the secondary market.”
The recent surge also shed some light on a hitherto more niche corner of the pre-owned market: independents and smaller brands. More collectors are discovering these watchmakers’ superior technical prowess and craftsmanship, especially compared to the hype models. As a result, interest in brands that were almost unheard of 10 years ago is soaring.
The top 10 watch brands that sold at auction in 2021 were a mix of established elite and smaller independents, according to the Mercury Project study. Patek Philippe was the clear leader, with 378 lots netting a total of CHF 338.8 million ($350.8 million). Next came Audemars Piguet, Rolex, F.P. Journe, A. Lange & Söhne, Richard Mille, Cartier, Greubel Forsey, Omega, and Vacheron Constantin.
Uptick in demand Bidders are interested in rare, top-quality watches, especially those with private-collection provenance, and they’re still willing to pay top dollar. Last year at auction, 29 lots surpassed the $1 million mark — a result that would have been rare 10 years ago. Phillips, Christie’s and Sotheby’s saw record sales in 2021. Among the auction houses, Phillips in Association with Bacs & Russo is leading the pack with a 33% market share, followed by Christie’s, Sotheby’s, Antiquorum and Bonhams.
“Over the last number of years, everything was seemingly on fire, with unprecedented demand across the board for both the primary and secondary markets,” says WatchBox CEO Justin Reis. “But we have witnessed a substantial increase in activity across the $50,000 to $100,000-plus spectrum. Consumer interest has markedly increased for high-end independent brands, with no signs of a forthcoming slowdown.”
Paul Boutros, head of watches for the Americas at Phillips, has found that “demand continues to be extremely strong for rare, best-quality collectors’ watches — especially in vintage and independents. For modern-production watches, prices achieved in our spring 2022 auction season were in line with the results we saw a year earlier.” Indeed, he adds, “those prices were more realistic than the peaks seen on the secondary market in early 2022 — though still significantly above retail in most cases.”
For dealers, the only downside of the surging secondhand market is keeping up with demand. There are rumors that retailers are training their staff in how to let customers down gently when their choice of model is not available.
“More people are interested in watches than ever before,” says Wind. “So my challenge is just continuing to engage with current and prospective clients. I get thousands of emails and messages each day, wanting to speak about watches.”
Rolex remains king We asked three dealers to name their Holy Grail watches for collectors right now, and all of them chose models by Rolex, proving that the brand with the crown on the dial still reigns supreme.
“I predict the Rolex James Cameron Deepsea will be discontinued. When this happens, it will become an instant collectible.”
Ken DeVaul Director of timepiece operations, IDC In 2012, a special Deepsea model, the Deepsea Challenge, accompanied filmmaker and explorer James Cameron on his 10,908-meter dive in the Mariana Trench. The commemorative D-Blue version of the Deepsea was introduced in 2014 to mark the event. It goes for $14,500 at retail, while models on the pre-owned market sell for up to $16,000.
“2023 will be the 60th anniversary of the Rolex Daytona, so this model is my pick as the one to watch next year.”
Paul Boutros Head of watches for the Americas, Phillips in Association With Bacs & Russo Introduced in 1963 to mark Rolex’s sponsorship of the Daytona Speedway, the Oyster Perpetual Cosmograph Daytona has become the world’s most coveted sports watch. The latest model has a black Cerachrom (ceramic) bezel, a state-of-the-art movement and a black Oysterflex rubber strap. It sells for about $46,000 at retail, and up to high six figures on the pre-owned market, depending on the model and provenance.
“Whatever Rolex comes out with will be hot, especially this year’s new left-hand GMT-Master II.”
Justin Reis CEO, WatchBox The new GMT-Master II is ideal for lefties, with the crown and the date window on the left of the case so it’s comfortable to wear on the right wrist. The green and black color combo is exclusive to this line, with the option of either a Jubilee or Oyster bracelet. It’s $10,500 at retail, or up to $40,000 on the secondary market.
A 13.15 carat pink diamond will no longer be available at the upcoming Christie’s Magnificent Jewels auction in New York.
The emerald-cut, fancy vivid pink, VVS1 clarity stone, which carried a price estimate of $25 million to $35 million, was poised to be the December 6 sale’s showcase piece. Christie’s described the diamond as one of the largest of its kind to appear at auction.
“Christie’s confirms that the fancy vivid pink diamond ring has been withdrawn from sale in New York on December 6,” a spokesperson said. The company declined to comment further or provide a reason.
The item was scheduled to appear on display in Hong Kong on Friday. The removal was “very surprising,” said one colored diamond dealer in the municipality.
Colored diamonds have had a mixed season at auction. On November 8, the 18.18-carat Fortune Pink fetched CHF 28.4 million ($28.9 million) at Christie’s Geneva, toward the lower end of its presale estimate. The following day, a 5.53 carat diamond from the De Beers Exceptional Blue Collection failed to find a buyer at a Sotheby’s auction in the Swiss city.
With the 13.15 carat pink off the list, the top remaining item at the Magnificent Jewels sale is a pear modified brilliant cut, 31.62 carat, fancy blue diamond pendant with a price estimate of $10 million to $15 million.
The House of Gübelin has introduced a digital exchange that enables buyers and sellers to connect directly to trade responsibly sourced gemstones.
The project, Provenance Proof Marketplace, is an extension of the blockchain digital ledger for colored gemstones the Swiss-based company launched in 2018 in partnership with Everledger. It is the first platform in the industry for transparently traded gems, Gübelin claimed Monday.
Consumers are increasingly demanding sustainability and transparency in the jewelry they purchase, Gübelin explained. However, it has become challenging for designers to find responsibly sourced gems, it added.
“The Provenance Proof Marketplace is a further milestone, allowing more transparency in the jewelry and gemstone industry,” said Raphael Gübelin, president of the House of Gübelin. “The online marketplace simplifies both access as well as sales of transparently traded gemstones.”
Harakh Mehta created a three-piece, 150-carat diamond set to celebrate the store’s big anniversary.
New York City has many icons, like the Empire State Building and Rockefeller Center. And Bloomingdale’s, the department store that opened shop in 1872 and this year is marking its 150th anniversary.
“To celebrate, we desired to create iconic pieces that paid homage to our rich history,” Marissa Galante Frank, the store’s fashion director of accessories and beauty, wrote in an email. “For the first time ever, we created a jewelry suite that is comprised of 150 carats of diamonds” — to echo the store’s 150 years in business.
The retailer turned to the jeweler Harakh Mehta to create the three-piece set. The designer “first caught our attention when he was named the exclusive diamantaire for the 2019 Le Bal des Débutantes in Paris,” Ms. Galante Frank wrote, referring to organizers of the French event tapping Mr. Mehta for his skills as a diamond specialist.
Mr. Mehta, whose Harakh line already had a presence in several Bloomingdale’s locations throughout the United States, said he agreed immediately. “When they announced they were celebrating their 150th anniversary, we knew that we just had to be part of their joyous occasion,” the Indian jeweler said in an email, noting that in his native language Gujarati, his name means joy.
The designs for the earrings, bracelet and necklace were “inspired by my childhood memories of driving up the hills during the monsoons and bathing in the waterfalls,” Mr. Mehta wrote before describing each piece.
The earrings, which total 18 carats, were designed as dangling clusters of brilliant-cut round, pear- and marquise-shaped diamonds, interspersed with Harakh’s signature rose-cut round and pear-shaped stones. “They are set in specially created modulated settings to represent the energy and flow of the cascading water,” Mr. Mehta wrote.
The 32-carat bracelet had two straps of diamonds holding a central oval cluster set with brilliant-cut round, oval- and pear-shaped stones, interspersed with rose-cut gems in various shapes. And completing the trio was a V-shaped necklace, which has the same combination of brilliant- and rose-cut diamonds in rounds, pears, marquises and ovals, totaling 100 carats.
Bloomingdale’s
To make the jewelry weigh as little as possible, Mr. Mehta wrote, the diamonds were set in an 18-karat mix of white gold and a palladium-based alloy.
Finding the right diamonds wasn’t easy, the jeweler wrote: “The search for these 150 carats quite literally traversed six continents over nearly 12 months.”
In a later email he wrote: “There are certified Canadian diamonds. Also, there are diamonds in special shapes, cut and polished from rough diamonds sourced from the mines of Brazil, Africa and Australia. There are also other diamonds that were bought from the bourses of Antwerp, Mumbai and New York, which we recut.”
The suite has been displayed at various Bloomingdale’s stores, and is now available for sale as a set or as individual pieces. The high jewelry department at the retailer’s 59th Street flagship in New York has information on prices.
The project was all worth the effort, Ms. Galante Frank wrote: “Diamonds signify the longevity and brilliance of our brand. Diamonds are forever.”
Burgundy Diamond Mines managing director Peter Ravenscroft has resigned from the Australian company with immediate effect.
The board has appointed Kim Truter, who became nonexecutive chairman of the miner in December 2021, as interim CEO, Burgundy said last week.
Truter has over 30 years of experience in the alluvial and underground mining sector. He has also held executive positions at De Beers in Canada and with Rio Tinto’s diamond unit in Australia.
Meanwhile, Michael O’Keefe, who has been a nonexecutive director since 2017, will take over as executive chairman. He is the former CEO and current executive chairman of Champion Iron, which operates an iron-ore project in Canada. Burgundy has not announced whether it is looking for a long-term successor for Ravenscroft.
A blue diamond pendant will be among the headliners in next month’s Christie’s sale in New York, where it is expected to bring in up to $15 million.
The pear modified brilliant-cut, 31.62-carat, fancy-blue stone, surrounded by white and pink diamonds, is potentially internally flawless, Christie’s said Tuesday. A pear brilliant-cut, 86.64-carat, D-color, VVS1-clarity diamond pendant will join it at the December 6 Magnificent Jewels sale. That piece, which hangs from a chain of 78 diamonds between 0.50 and 2.50 carats, is estimated at $5 million to $7 million.
Other notable items include a torque bangle bracelet bearing a heart brilliant-cut, 50.05-carat, D-color, internally flawless diamond, with a presale price of $3.7 million to $4.5 million. A modified pear double rose-cut, 5-carat, fancy-vivid-blue diamond ring has an upper estimate of $4 million and no reserve. An oval brilliant-cut, 51.60-carat, G-color, VS2-clarity diamond ring carries a high price of $2.8 million.
Christie’s will also offer an unmounted modified pear brilliant-cut, 104.04-carat, fancy-intense-yellow diamond. That jewel has an upper estimate of $2.5 million, as does a round-cornered square brilliant-cut, 107.46-carat, fancy-yellow diamond brooch by Graff. Meanwhile, an emerald-cut, 13.75-carat, fancy-vivid-yellow, internally flawless diamond ring by De Beers and an oval brilliant-cut, 2.21-carat, fancy-intense-blue diamond ring are set to fetch up to $1.8 million each.
Those items join the star of the show: An emerald-cut, 13.15-carat, fancy-vivid-pink diamond ring that Christie’s expects will fetch up to $35 million at the auction.
Diamond miner Lucapa Diamond Company has sold seven diamonds from its Lulo mine in Angola for $30.1 million, equating to over $39,000 per carat.
The company and its partners, Endiama E.P. and Rosas & Petalas, placed the “special sized” diamonds on international tender earlier this month. Together, the diamonds weighed a combined 767 carats.
The sold diamonds include a 170-carat fancy-coloured diamond dubbed the ‘Lulo Rose’ alongside three white Type IIa diamonds of over 100 carats and three other special-sized white Type IIa stones.
In late September, Lucapa announced it had recovered its 30th diamond of over 100 carats from Lulo, which has been in commercial production since 2015.
The company kicked off commercial production from its Mothae mine in Lesotho in 2019.
Meanwhile, Lucapa said it was continuing to explore for potential primary-source kimberlites or lamproites with its partners across the Lulo concession in Angola, the Brooking project in Australia, and the Orapa Area F project in Botswana.
A portrayal of De Beers’ operations past and present.
Bruce Cleaver reflects on the changes that took effect in the six years he headed the diamond company.
RAPAPORT… Bruce Cleaver had a very focused “to do” list when he took over as De Beers CEO in July 2016. Having previously worked on strategy and business development at the company, as well as at parent Anglo American, he recognized De Beers’ need to evolve, and to protect it from the increasing volatility evident in the global economy and diamond market.
“I wanted to build a more sustainable business; one that was less prone to economic cycles,” Cleaver stresses in an interview with Rapaport News. “I wanted to ensure we’d never get caught in the position we had in 2008 when we hit a very serious downturn and our balance sheet was very stretched.”
Bruce Cleaver
He never imagined those goals would be challenged by a global pandemic and a war in Ukraine that has brought sanctions on Russian diamonds — approximately one-third of global rough supply. These aren’t events you predict in your risk analysis, he notes.
In contrast to 2008, when De Beers had to take on more debt to weather the financial crisis, the company emerged from Covid-19 stronger than before, and it may even have benefited from the limitations on Russia-based Alrosa — its biggest competitor. The $491 million in underlying earnings it reported in the first six months of 2022 was its best half-year profit since 2011, and the $3.54 billion in revenue its highest since 2014 (see graph).
But Cleaver looks beyond the financials as he reflects on his tenure at the helm of the world’s largest diamond company. His six-and-a-half-year stint brought a significant transformation to De Beers’ structure, brand positioning, messaging, and relationships, all of which he believes demonstrate transparency and a willingness to change that were not always evident at the company.
Call to collaborate
His first public statement after being appointed to the position called for greater cooperation and partnerships within the trade. He actively sought to ease the tension that often stood between De Beers and sightholders and at times its government partners, he admits.
“It was important for us to show people we would change, listen more and collaborate more,” he reflects. “I do feel there is much more trust now than before, and a sense of working toward a common goal — that we can agree to disagree in a more friendly way.”
Central to achieving that was the refurbishment of the sightholder application process, which he concedes had previously been complicated and intimidating. The current system further demonstrates De Beers’ willingness to be more open and transparent, Cleaver insists. It’s a complicated task, he adds, considering the company distributes some 33 million carats a year and must set criteria to award goods to certain people and not to others.
The sheer volume of De Beers’ production means the company is unlikely to shift away from the sight system any time soon. However, it did tweak its distribution at the beginning of 2022 to provide more bespoke supply by classifying sightholders according to their business type: manufacturer, dealer, or retailer. The move was seen as an attempt to reduce the flipping of boxes on the secondary market and to bring more efficiency to the supply chain.
Special stones to sell
There has been speculation that the Botswana government — a 15% shareholder in De Beers and a joint venture partner in its mining and selling distribution businesses — is pressuring the miner to sell its specials through the parastatal Okavango Diamond Company, in vertically integrated deals with manufacturers. The two are currently negotiating a new 10-year supply deal and the renewal of De Beers’ mining licenses in the southern African country.
Structuring supply in such a way would see the company (and government) take a share of profit from the sale of the resulting polished. Smaller companies have struck similar partnerships, such as Lucara Diamond Corp.’s agreement to sell its 10.8-carat-plus rough through manufacturer HB Antwerp.
Cleaver notes the deeper considerations with which De Beers must contend. “It’s a whole different ball game selling 33 million carats a year than 50,000 carats. We have an offering that we must sort, value, sell, trace and track on a completely different scale,” he points out. “You have to be much more sophisticated, more thoughtful and have a much stronger balance sheet.”
That’s not to say the company is set in its ways, particularly regarding how it sells specials. Last year, it partnered with sightholder Diacore to buy an exceptional 39.35-carat blue rough stone from Petra Diamonds for $40.2 million and share in the profit from the polished. The De Beers Blue, the 15.10-carat, fancy-vivid-blue polished that resulted from that rough, fetched $58.7 million at Sotheby’s Hong Kong. The two companies also teamed up to buy five blue rough diamonds from Petra in 2020, with the resulting polished stones expected to garner over $70 million at Sotheby’s in November (after press time) and December.
“It’s not difficult as a seller of a small volume of goods to find one buyer who will buy one particular stone at a significant premium to the market — that happens to us all the time,” he adds. “We just don’t publicize it.”
Tech at play
Technology has been the central tool to improve the way De Beers sells rough, Cleaver underlines. He teases that the company will introduce various innovations in the next 12 to 18 months that will be “game changers in how we continue to sell in this evolving market,” but he declined to reveal further information about these developments.
Data is also playing a much more important role in enabling De Beers, and others, to make more rapid decisions than before — and that data-centric strategy is being driven by technology, he notes.
In fact, technology is influencing change across all De Beers business units, Cleaver says. That includes at its mining operations, where it is tackling the challenge to “mine more gently,” using less water and energy to be more environmentally friendly. He also highlights the Tracr program — De Beers’ blockchain-driven traceability platform — which is gaining traction and will enable companies to show the provenance of their De Beers supply.
Building forever
That all feeds into the strong focus on sustainability that De Beers has adopted in recent years and the need to show one’s diamond is ethically sourced. While Cleaver recognized the need to talk about sustainability early in his tenure as CEO, the rapidness with which the subject became a focal point for brands surprised even him.
“I wanted to make sustainability a bigger issue, but I don’t think I realized at the beginning just how important it is,” he admits. “Now ‘Building Forever’ is an absolutely key part of everything we do.”
Building Forever outlines 12 goals De Beers has set to achieve by 2030, encompassing four areas it has identified to make a meaningful impact.
Those are leading ethical practices, partnering for thriving communities, protecting the natural world, and accelerating equal opportunity. “These are vitally important not only to our business, but also to our employees, partners and communities across all facets of our operations,” the company emphasizes on its website.
The program gradually emerged as the core message of the De Beers brand, taking its cues from the rising awareness among millennials and Gen-Zers on issues such as carbon neutrality, climate change, and social upliftment. The program is what distinguishes De Beers, and it provides an opportunity to maximize the value of the brand that was not apparent five years ago, Cleaver says.
Cleaning the mess
The evolution of that message paralleled Cleaver’s advocating for more brands across the industry as well as cleaning up and strengthening the De Beers brand. Key to that development was taking full ownership of its name in early 2017, when it bought the 50% of De Beers Diamond Jewellers (DBDJ) that was owned by LVMH.
“It always felt messy having the De Beers name co-owned by someone else,” he observes. “I’m very pleased we’ve been able to unify the brands into one master brand.”
The company sought to leverage its strong name recognition as much as possible. Most notably that played out at retail with the LVMH deal and subsequently renaming the retail operation De Beers Jewellers (DBJ). It also rebranded Forevermark as De Beers Forevermark, and the strategy extended beyond its retail operations to align the whole group into one “De Beers” corporate identity with a common goal.
“I wanted to define a more holistic business strategy: to run the company as one business rather than three separate silos,” Cleaver shares. “I think we’ve been pretty successful in achieving that.”
Staying brilliant
De Beers previously had a more vertical structure, split between the pillars of mining, rough sales and its retail brands. Over the past half decade, it has morphed into a more integrated end-to-end business with every employee, regardless of which area of the company they work, having the same stated purpose: to “make life brilliant,” Cleaver explains.
As such, the outgoing CEO carefully defines De Beers as a “natural-diamond company” with an integrated structure that encompasses exploration, mining, rough sales, and retail brands. Lightbox, the company’s lab-grown business, is considered an “adjacency” that doesn’t fit into the core business model, he insists.
With that structure in place, Cleaver is confident the company can double-down on innovation – as he claims it did with Tracr and Lightbox — strengthen its relationships with the trade and government, and in doing so, lead the industry on big issues such as sustainability. He hopes to continue to influence that path in his new role as cochairman, through which he will take an active role in engaging with external stakeholders.
“It’s important that De Beers pushes agendas and ideas that might be surprising they came from a big organization,” Cleaver discloses. “But when you look at some of the sustainability work done by retailers and sightholders today, it’s fantastic, and I think that we did have some small influence on that — that was all deliberate.”
The industry will continue to evolve because the world will continue to change quickly, he continues. “I’ve tried hard to always think about what the next trend or the next move should be — and why shouldn’t it be us who makes them? We recognize that when De Beers talks, people do listen,” he concludes.
