If you still have room in your schedule, I’ve shared my hit list for the show below—designed to help you make the most of your days at the Venetian expo and your nights out on the town. See you there!

Trendspotting at Luxury

My first stop is always the Luxury show, which opens May 31. Per the advice of tastemaker Randi Molofsky, I’ll be on the lookout for new enamel styles at Yael Designs (check out the brand’s new Regalia collection), singular colored stones (especially in minty green hues) at Omi Privé, and beads, opals, and other juicy gems at Lauren K.

For diamonds, I will make a beeline to returning exhibitor Hearts on Fire, which is planning to debut a bridal collection at the show. And I can’t wait to see the work of the 2023 class of the Emerging Designers Diamond Initiative spearheaded by the Natural Diamond Council and red-carpet jeweler Lorraine Schwartz. The six designers in this year’s cohort are Gwen Beloti, Symoné Currie, Bernard James, Jessenia Landrum, Rosario Navia, and Amina Sorel.

Business recon at JCK

When the JCK show opens on Friday, June 2, I’ll cruise the plush aisles of the Plumb Club pavilion, where the industry’s heavy hitters are unveiling collections. I’m especially keen to get a read on the lab-grown diamond market. My biggest question, not surprisingly, centers on pricing. How are lab-grown manufacturers positioning their products?

I’m also looking forward to better understanding the fine jewelry business during this confusing year of bank failures and recession brinksmanship. Have the easy-selling days of 2021 and 2022 come to an end?

Most of all, however, I’m excited to see all that’s new—like IDD Luxe’s SkySet collection of lab-grown diamond styles featuring shooting star designs. “They will be hot off the press,” Kendra Bridelle, the brand’s president, tells JCK.

For one giant and not-to-be-missed dose of newness, look no further than the BIJC Collective at booth 10042. Organized by the Black in Jewelry Coalition, the space will feature six Black-owned brands exhibiting jewelry and loose gemstones: Dorian Webb, Deinté Fine Jewelry, James Mack Fine Jewelry, KuQala Diamonds, Nungu Diamonds, and Simone I. Smith. 

A jewelry education

Between the hourly JCK Talks tracks that kick off Friday on the Showcase Stage on level 2, the Saturday-morning keynote address by retail visionary “Johnny Cupcakes” (aka Johnny Earle), and the timely social media content available daily on the Social Stage (such as Manon Crespi’s Saturday session on “Deconstructing a Viral Video”), there is no shortage of essential education at this year’s event.

But don’t take it from me. Here are the sessions Yael Designs founder and CEO Yehouda Saketkhou is looking forward to: “Some educational panels that I am excited to attend are Social Media 101, ChatGPT 101, Recruiting and Hiring 101, and Branding 101,” he tells JCK.

Downtown dining

It’s not a week in Vegas without a celebratory kickoff meal at Barry’s Downtown Prime, a swanky steakhouse at Circa with groovy Rat Pack vibes. For other dining and entertainment ideas, don’t miss JCK contributor Matt Villano’s suggestions for “3 Perfect Nights in Las Vegas.” Late-night drinks at Rouge Room, anyone?

Top: Ring in 18k white gold with 3.95 ct. green tourmaline, pink enamel, and diamonds, $10,258; Yael Designs

The first clue that I was headed to one helluva shindig came last Tuesday, when my family returned from a weekend visit to Mexico City to find a delivery van parked in our driveway. The driver, who’d been told we’d be pulling in after midnight, was fast asleep in the front seat.

After I awakened him, he grabbed a bag in Tiffany’s unmistakable shade of robin’s-egg blue from the passenger seat. “You must be a very important person,” he said as he handed it to me.

Inside, a personalized invitation spelled out the details: Bernard Arnault, chairman and CEO of LVMH, Tiffany’s parent company (and the richest man in the world, according to Forbes), was inviting me to celebrate the reopening of the Landmark, the jeweler’s New York City flagship, at Fifth Avenue and 57th Street. The party was taking place on the eve of the store’s official reopening on Friday.

When I arrived at the Landmark, throngs of onlookers were pressed against the barricades across the street, quite likely squinting their eyes to see if I was a somebody.

I glided through the revolving doors beneath the Atlas statue clock right on the heels of Paloma Picasso, the immaculately coiffed Tiffany collaborator whose designs are featured in a dedicated display upstairs. She paused near the entrance long enough for me to admire her silk kimono printed with a Japanese-style tableau: birds alighting on branches of cherry blossoms. It was easy to imagine that even the daughter of the 20th century’s most lauded artist was stunned by the opulence of the ground floor, aka “The World of Tiffany.”

Nearly four years in the making, the store’s renovated interior—all 100,000-plus square feet of it—may well be the world’s most glamorous temple to jewelry. JCK news director Rob Bates did a fine job of summarizing the details that went into the brand’s first “holistic renovation” since 1940, including digitized immersive installations, 4,090 light fixtures, and 40 artworks by the likes of Jean-Michel Basquiat, Damien Hirst, Julian Schnabel, and Daniel Arsham.

I, on the other hand, am here to tell you about the scene.

And by scene, I don’t mean the 80-plus celebrities in attendance—though the famous-face spotting was, indeed, epic. Mayor Eric Adams was a guest, as were film director Baz Luhrmann, artist Jeff Koons, designer Marc Jacobs, Martha needs-no-introduction Stewart, and dozens of actors and musicians, including Gal Gadot, Hailey Bieber, Pharrell, Anya Taylor-Joy, Florence Pugh, Zoë Kravitz, Blake Lively, Mark Wahlberg, and Tiffany Haddish.

One of the first guests who caught my eye was a beautifully put-together Asian woman dressed entirely in white. Against the backdrop of her leather vest, crinoline skirt, and Dior handbag, it was impossible to ignore the Patek Philippe Tiffany Blue Nautilus on her left wrist. (When it was introduced in December 2021, the limited-edition timepiece retailed for $52,635; the current secondary-market price hovers around $3 million.)

I turned to take in the lavishness of the room and spotted Michael J. Kowalski, Tiffany’s beloved former CEO, who served in the role from 1999 to 2015. As he posed for photos with the current CEO, Anthony Ledru, I couldn’t help but wonder what Kowalski made of the new (and improved?) Tiffany.

Last November, when I interviewed Ledru over a video call for a New York Times story about the growth of the branded jewelry sector, he was candid, gracious, and undeniably clear about the brand’s repositioning under LVMH, which acquired Tiffany in early 2021 for $16 billion.

“This year has been really focused on product elevation,” Ledru told me. “One reason we’ve been growing fast is we went quite big on high jewelry.”

“When we completed the acquisition, we never thought the high jewelry business at Tiffany in 2022 would be on par with our silver business,” Ledru said. “We multiplied by five the high jewelry activity since we took over. And the focus has been on Jean Schlumberger, the designer who joined Tiffany in the ’60s. He’s a bridge between old world and new world. It is the ultimate signifier of what Tiffany stands for. I believe it is our style.”

If the designer’s iconic Bird on a Rock brooch comes to mind, you’re spot-on. According to Ledru, the piece is at the heart of Tiffany’s high jewelry ambitions.

“It’s incredible the growth we enjoy,” he said, referring to sales of the brooch. “Bird on a Rock was only mounted on Tiffany legacy gemstones: tanzanite, tsavorite, morganite, and kunzite.

“Why would clients not want that on stones that were truly exceptional?” Ledru added. “We’ve done that for this year. We’ve had it on sapphires, on a very big morganite. This year we did it on white diamonds. Today we have close to six months of waiting time on that specific piece.”

As I wandered the floors of the reimagined Landmark, the focus on high-end clientele was palpable. Starting on the seventh floor—home to a Patek Philippe salon as well as a wide selection of Tiffany “Masterpieces,” including a $1.95 million Bird on a Rock brooch with a 7.91 ct. no-oil Colombian emerald and a $1.45 million diamond necklace centered on a 14.42 ct. oval Paraiba tourmaline from Brazil—I made my way down the sweeping curvilinear staircase to the themed floors beneath.

Lifestyle and home goods plus the Blue Box Café dominate floor 6. Here I spotted deluxe table tennis rackets, throw pillows, and plates, all decked out in Tiffany Blue. Throughout the room, re-creations of window displays designed by Gene Moore, Tiffany’s former artistic director, evoked the feeling of visiting a museum.

Silver designs occupy level 5, alongside a small but delightful “Audrey Experience,” featuring a replica of Audrey Hepburn’s black Givenchy dress from the opening scene of Breakfast at Tiffany’s. (Speaking of Givenchy, which LVMH acquired in 1988, the Tiffany salespeople are all outfitted, right down to their shiny black loafers, in custom black Givenchy clothing embroidered with a blue Tiffany logo.)

The silver offerings still open at a relatively affordable $250, for a Return to Tiffany bracelet, but when I spoke to Ledru last year, he made clear that the old Tiffany, with its wide selection of accessibly priced silver jewels, was a thing of the past.

“We’re not discarding silver, but we wanted to start with first things first, which was all about the brand elevation and having a very clear message for our clients,” he told me.

When I arrived on floor 4, dedicated to “Gold & Diamond Icons,” including works by Picasso, Schlumberger, and Elsa Peretti, I got a very clear vision of the kind of clients Ledru had in mind. At a showcase of watches created specifically for the Landmark, I came across a well-heeled couple who appeared to be in their 70s. The husband was trying on a square-faced Union Square timepiece, while his wife, who wore her silvery hair in a shoulder-length straight bob, admired the accompanying bangles.

“Do you need another watch?” she asked him.

Later on, at the party space next door (the former Niketown site that became Tiffany’s temporary home in 2019), I spotted the woman and approached her to say hello. “Where do you live?” I asked her, practically screaming so she could hear me above the crowd.

“Here in New York, but we have four other homes,” she said.

“Where are you from?” I persisted.

“I’m from Hamburg,” she replied. “Where are you from?”

When she learned I was born in St. Petersburg, Russia, it was clear from her reaction that she knew the city of the White Nights. “We have been there five or six times,” she said. “With Gergiev.”

She meant Valery Gergiev, “Russia’s most powerful classical musician,” as The New Yorker once described him. He was the longtime artistic and general director of St. Petersburg’s famed Mariinsky Theatre, and served as chief conductor of the Munich Philharmonic until his post was rescinded in 2022 when he refused to condemn the war against Ukraine.

Later, the Rockettes took the stage, followed in short order by Katy Perry, who delivered a spectacular performance that had the entire room singing along. And yet all I could think about was the privilege that surrounded me.

I glanced around, only to find a pretty blond woman in a short pink tweed dress standing to my right. On her left lapel, she wore a Bird on a Rock brooch, the bird perched on the biggest pink stone I had ever seen.

Top: A scene from Tiffany & Co.’s grand reopening party on April 27 taken at the entrance to the ground-floor “World of Tiffany” room (all photos courtesy of Tiffany & Co.)

Which isn’t to say that I don’t dream about buying jewelry. Especially when I’m in Las Vegas for jewelry week. Perhaps because the pandemic limited opportunities to see jewelry in person, the collections I saw at the JCK and Couture shows in June blew me away with their creativity, originality, and craftsmanship.

Below are five pieces that have been on my mind since I spied them in Sin City.

The crab pendant in Menagerie, Lauren Harwell Godfrey’s capsule collection of animal-inspired pieces, spoke to me because my sun sign is Cancer and while I’m always drawn to the symbol, I’ve never seen the creature crafted quite so intricately or lovingly (even its little claws are articulated!).

The extraordinary earrings in Lydia Courteille’s gem-tastic Indian Song collection are statement makers of the highest order. As a devotee of Indian history and culture, I recognize a fellow Indophile when I see one. The elaborate pieces Courteille created are a love letter to Indian cosmology and architecture, to Hindu temples and the gods that occupy them, and to the birds and animals of Indian myths and magic. They are substantial in every way.

If money were no object, I’d sate my long-standing desire for an important gemstone ring with this blue sapphire stunner from Picchiotti, an old-school manufacturer based in Italy’s Valenza region. Simple in its design, the diamond-surround setting is the perfect pedestal for the 7.2 ct. unheated Sri Lankan sapphire at its center.

Designer Ann Korman, of ARK Fine Jewelry, captivated me when she explained the inspiration behind her Awakenings collection of sapphire and plique-à-jour enamel designs. In their evocation of the sunrise, the pieces—like the chic cigar band featured below—signal our collective search for new beginnings, perfectly encapsulating jewelry’s ability to be both beautiful and deeply meaningful.

Finally, I’d round out my collection with a dreamy Night & Day necklace from Anna Maccieri Rossi, whose love for my favorite artist, the Belgian surrealist René Magritte, I’ve already highlighted. “A story of change, transformation, freedom” is how Rossi described the piece, which takes its cues from Magritte’s famous The False Mirror cloudscape painting, on Instagram. Art! And jewelry! In one! What more could I ask for?

Top: Indian Song earrings in 18k gold with spinels, rubies, sapphires, white diamonds, and 53 cts. t.w. emeralds, 79,000 euros (about $79,000), price on request; Lydia Courteille

And yet for jewelers, the year was marked by some unexpected ambivalence. As the pandemic raged on, people in lockdown ceased spending on travel and experiences, and turned their sights on buying meaningful gifts of enduring value. As a result, jewelry sales remained resilient and, in some cases, even soared.

Deciphering the contradictions of the post-COVID economy will be even more challenging than interpreting the market’s mixed signals in 2020. Below, we’ve put together a guide to the five major trends that will change the way jewelry is made, bought, and sold in the year, and decade, to come. Brace yourselves.

The recovery will be digital.

It should come as no surprise that online sales were retailers’ saving grace this past year, and not just during the spring lockdowns. Mastercard SpendingPulse reported that while total holiday retail sales from Oct. 11 through Dec. 24, excluding automotive and gasoline, increased 3% compared to 2019, online sales grew a staggering 49%.

If you remember one thing about the future of selling jewelry, it is the importance of crafting a digital-first strategy. Over the course of the past year, we heard from retailers who began the year as traditional brick-and-mortar holdouts and quickly transformed into online evangelists once the pandemic took hold. We spoke to one store owner who began a series of pre-owned watch and jewelry auctions over Zoom. Many others added chat functionality to their websites, or learned how to connect remotely with clients using video calls.

Embracing a digital-first worldview, however, does not mean giving up on brick-and-mortar. A well-executed omnichannel approach—which allows for that by-now ubiquitous “buy online, pick up in store” option—is the only way jewelers will survive in the new year and beyond. Resistance really is futile.

Jewelry style will remain low-key—but once we are safely out of the COVID woods, all bets are off.

As the virus continues to plague our communities, social distancing mandates will ensure that many workers remain remote. What’s interesting, however, is how many pundits expect the work from home (WFH) trend—or its more exciting cousin, work from anywhere (WFX)—to persist long after the final lockdown ends.

That means we can count on the prevailing jewelry aesthetic, at least for the first half of 2021, to be low-key, with a focus on simpler, more contemporary designs that can be worn at home. “Imagine daytime couture meets loungewear” is how the Hong Kong private jeweler Nicholas Lieou described it.

The focus on shoulder-up adornment—in keeping with our new Zoom-ready work lives—will, of course, be a key trend, as will the bright colors and optimistic motifs that began trending in the second half of 2020.

But the future of jewelry style isn’t all modesty and restraint. Many forecasters are suggesting that once the vaccine is widely available, the tech breakthroughs of the past year—including everything from advancements in AI to SpaceX’s successful rocket launch—will fuel a boom in productivity that will juice the economy and have us all dancing on tables. Don’t be surprised to see a rush on long, flapper-style pearl necklaces, oversize cocktail rings, and jewels that capture the Roaring ’20s zeitgeist.

The pre-owned jewelry category is ripe for the picking.

No one disputes the strength of the pre-owned watch market. Valued (conservatively) at $15 billion worldwide, the category had a banner year in 2020. Consider this: According to the pre-owned watch retailer WatchBox, the secondary market price for the Rolex Daytona reference 116500LN (retail: $13,500) in November 2019 was $24,000. It dipped slightly in March, to $20,000, and then vaulted to $28,000 in November.

The jewelry industry is ripe for a similar phenomenon, but it requires a more formalized approach to the pre-owned category. Right now, the secondhand luxury business belongs to a handful of e-commerce resale pioneers such as the RealReal and 1stDibs, neither of which are jewelry specialists.

A new player in the space, London-based Omneque, aims to be an online destination for “rigorously authenticated antique, vintage, and pre-owned jewelry.” But as of now, there is plenty of room for competing players.

Augmented reality will become mainstream, with AI not far behind.

If you follow jewelers Delfina Delettrez, Lydia Courteille, or Emily P. Wheeler on Instagram, you may have already “tried on” their earrings or played around with their designs. Thanks to Ukraine-based augmented reality specialist Atelar, which develops AR filters using Facebook’s Spark AR Studio software, the designers all began to experiment with AR during the pandemic.

The AR experiences are still, mostly, novelties—fun to try and share—but it remains to be seen whether they can convert browsers to buyers. There are, however, promising signs that the technology is on the verge of going mainstream. In September, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg posted a trailer to YouTube giving the world a sneak peak of the smart glasses his company is developing through its new Reality Labs division.

“I am excited to share that we have formed a multiyear partnership starting with building and releasing our first pair of smart glasses next year,” Zuckerberg said. “They’re going to be the next step on the road to augmented reality glasses, and they look pretty good, too.”

On the heels of AR is the industry’s broader acceptance of artificial intelligence, which is already being used to help jewelers design and manufacture jewelry more efficiently, grade diamonds more intelligently, ship jewelry more cost-effectively, and do any number of other jewelry-related tasks better. To prep yourself for the coming machine-learning revolution, may we suggest a marathon movie session with our favorite cinematic renditions of AI: Her, Ex Machina, and, of course, 2001: Space Odyssey?

Companies will be held accountable.

The racial reckoning that began last May, following the killing of George Floyd, prompted an industry-wide conversation about diversity, racism, and white privilege. Now that the calendar has turned, companies that pledged to do better in 2020 will have to demonstrate how they’ve changed, or risk being called out on social media for their inaction.

On June 2, 2020, for example, Cartier posted a black square to its Instagram feed accompanied by the following statement: “As a Maison, our creativity is nurtured and inspired by the diverse cultures of the world. We find our own richness in this diversity, and we stand firmly against all forms of racism directed toward the Black Community. At this moment we are examining our own company to identify actions we can take that will result in real change. #BlackoutTuesday.”

Accountability will be a guiding force in 2021—and not just on issues that affect Black communities. Companies that have committed to corporate social responsibility and ethical sourcing will be asked to prove the vows they made in 2020 were more than platitudes. And while there are more constructive ways to deal with inaction than social media shaming, “cancel culture”—or the practice of withdrawing support from companies or people that have done something considered offensive or objectionable—is not likely to disappear anytime soon.

Top: Happy New Year from Rahaminov Diamonds!

Inspired by Capri’s famous Blue Grotto, a natural sea cave whose azure waters glow with silvery reflections of light, the new Classic Fusion Chronograph Special Edition Capri comes in a 45 mm case of polished black ceramic accented with a ceramic bezel rendered in a vivid turquoise blue. The watch comes on a striated rubber strap in the same blue hue.

“Symbolizing ‘la dolce vita,’ Capri is dotted with secret coves, sunny lanes to be discovered, cliff-top flower gardens and balconies lined with pine, lemon and olive trees,” Hublot CEO Ricardo Guadalupe said in a statement. “Boasting dizzying views over the sumptuous Bay of Naples, the pearl of southern Italy is a veritable treasure trove that inspired Hublot to set up its boutique there in 2017. We think it deserves to be celebrated again.”

The 45 mm model, which retails for $13,600 and is available in an edition of 30 pieces, epitomizes an emerging trend among watchmakers to create pieces steeped in bright colors, perhaps to offset the gloom-and-doom news cycle that has so far dominated 2020.

Last month, Zenith introduced the new Defy El Primero 21 Ultraviolet, a 44 mm high-frequency chronograph bathed in a striking shade of purple. The rationale for the unusual color choice, explained the watchmaker, had to do with violet’s positioning at the short wavelength end of the visible spectrum, meaning it has the highest frequency of all visible colors—and is therefore a perfect match for Zenith’s legendary El Primero 21 chronograph movement, which beats at a frequency of 50 Hz.

Also last month, Audemars Piguet unveiled three new versions of its masculine icon, the Royal Oak Offshore: smoked blue, green, and gray. Encased in black ceramic, the models feature colorful dials and color-coordinated textured rubber straps.

Was there ever a better time for color therapy than now?

Act I: Shinola x Smokey Robinson

Things kicked off on Thursday night with an event honoring Grammy winner Smokey Robinson at the Shinola store in Downtown Los Angeles’ Arts District. The Motown legend is the inspiration for the latest installment of the brand’s Great American series, a selection of limited-edition timepieces and products celebrating people who’ve made a mark on American history. (Past honorees include Muhammad Ali, Maya Angelou, and Jackie Robinson.)

The Smokey Robinson collection—which was on display in the store—includes two new Vinton wristwatches (a 32 mm model and a 38 mm, both featuring light blue dials inspired by the color of Smokey’s otherworldly green-blue eyes), a Runwell turntable, journals, and a greeting card featuring some of Robinson’s iconic song titles (“You’ve Really Got a Hold On Me”).

I brought my twin sister, Julia, to the event, and we had a blast gobbling up vegan hors d’oeuvres (nice touch!), drinking mezcal, and admiring the diverse and good-looking crowd that filled the beautiful brick-lined space (including Shinola fan Alice Cooper!).

Then Robinson himself showed up, fashionably late, looking dapper in a light gray suit with a pink dress shirt. “I’m very excited about this,” he told the packed room after Shinola founder Tom Kartsotis introduced him. “This watch is a beautiful watch. I have one.” He hoisted his wrist in the air to a chorus of cheers.

(The Vinton timepiece is sold only as part of a $950 limited-edition gift set that includes a vinyl record and a 45-rpm record adapter.)

Kartsotis has a knack for choosing timely and terrific partners. Hosting a party on the eve of the 62nd Annual Grammy Awards for a beloved—and remarkably spry—musical legend like Robinson was a clever and classy move. But it wasn’t just the party. The limited-edition watches are (almost) as handsome as their namesake. And because they come with engravable casebacks, they make lovely gifts (“My Girl/Guy”—awwwww). Both Jul and I left the event feeling pretty darn good about ourselves and life in general.

Act II: Bulova x Tune of Time

The good vibes continued into Saturday, the kind of January day in L.A. that makes visitors from the East Coast swoon—think 72 and sunny. It was the perfect afternoon to enjoy a rooftop brunch at the Grammy Museum, an invitation I happily accepted from Bulova, whose relationship with the Recording Academy as official timepiece partner of the Grammys is a refreshing departure from the automotive collaborations that seem to dominate the watch world.

In 2018, Bulova introduced Tune of Time, a series of short-form videos spotlighting emerging artists and the roots of their music. This year’s star, a New Jersey–raised singer-songwriter who goes by the name Fletcher, was a revelation. Her real name is Cari Fletcher, and she’s a 25-year-old from Asbury Park with some serious pipes and a lovely, genuine way about her. Before performing an unplugged set featuring songs from her EP, You Ruined New York City for Me, she spoke on stage with Scott Goldman, vice president of the Grammy Foundation, and explained her personal connection to Bulova.

“My uncle, who passed away when he was really young—I have his watch and it literally comes with me everywhere,” Fletcher explained on the video, while holding the watch, a simple bracelet style with a handsome two-tone finish. “There’s never been a performance where I’ve gone on stage and not held it in my hand for a second.”

After her poignant performance, we filed upstairs for brunch, where I ran into two local retailers: Arch Kitsinian, president of Kitsinian Jewelers, and Scott Meller, president of Feldmar Watch Co.

Arch had brought his 8-year-old son, Sako, to the event, and as we ate our meal, we talked about life in the Valley, where we both live; his new store in Valencia, Calif.; his three stores in Hawaii; and whether he’d make it to Tucson for the gem shows this year. It was a thoroughly delightful conversation. Once again, I left for home in good spirits, wearing a borrowed special-edition Grammy watch Bulova created to present to first-time winners!

Although the piece—which features a golden dial made of Grammium, the same custom alloy used on the gold gramophone statue given to winners—is not for sale, I did come away with a parting gift: the brand’s commercially available Grammy Automatic watch, a black-and-gold skeletonized number that is sexy as all get out.

Act III: The 62^nd Annual Grammys

I had just checked in for my noon appointment at Drybar Encino on Sunday morning, when one of the stylists blurted out something that sounded, frankly, unbelievable. “We just heard Kobe Bryant died in a helicopter crash around 10 a.m. in Calabasas.” I scanned the Los Angeles Times homepage and found an item about the accident, but it didn’t name any victims. It was still possible to believe the stylist had heard wrong.

By now, of course, we know that was magical thinking. I headed home to get dressed for the awards ceremony that night, still reeling from the news, which got much worse with the revelation that Kobe Bryant’s 13-year-old daughter Gianna and seven other souls lost their lives in the crash.

Feeling somber and excited—a really confusing combination, I must say—my partner, Jim, and I took an Uber to JW Marriott Los Angeles L.A. Live, ground zero for Grammy staging, if the hordes of people in spectacular, rhinestone-studded, questionable, risk-taking outfits passing by were any indication. We met up with the rest of the Bulova team and shuffled through security at the nearby Staples Center, before finally taking our seats in “the house that Kobe built,” a refrain that echoed around the Staples Center and on social media for the rest of the evening.

I loved virtually all of the performances—soulful Alicia Keyes, super-sassy Lizzo, melancholy and talented Billie Eilish (who picked up five awards that night—not bad for a newbie!), and Usher channeling Prince, chief among them. It was uplifting to be in a room full of people who recognize the healing power of music. And yet I couldn’t shake the gloomy feeling that had settled over me.

I thought back to something Fletcher said in her Tune of Time video: “One of the most amazing things that somebody can give you is their time. Because in the grand scheme of things, we’re here for such a blink of an eye. So if someone’s giving you their time, you have to respect that.”

Amen, sister. Amen.

Rest in peace, Kobe and crew.

Top: The engravable back of the 2020 special-edition Bulova watch presented to first-time Grammy winners.

And just like that, here we are, staring down the barrel of that very year. Most of the predictions mentioned in the article have come to pass—notably, the parts about the consolidation of core players and the changing role of brands (exhibit A: LVMH’s $16.2 billion acquisition of Tiffany & Co.).

I stand by my chief takeaway, penned in 2013 but equally applicable today: “In order to compete against jewelry brands with Gucci’s cache, Cartier’s global saturation, and Tiffany & Co.’s balance sheet, there’s only one way for a small American jeweler to style itself: as a venue for unique, value-added products chosen carefully for consumers with global experience matched only by their local pride and community-minded sensibilities.”

Below, I pick up where the McKinsey folks left off. What do the 2020s have in store for the jewelry industry? Allow me to share a few guesses.

Every jeweler in our industry will become a little more sustainable.

Sustainability is the keyword of the year, the decade, and, most likely, the century, but for jewelers, it’s complicated. According to its most conventional definition, sustainability is an environmental concept: “the avoidance of the depletion of natural resources in order to maintain an ecological balance.”

By that measure, jewelers—at least the fine kind, who deal in pieces made of precious metals and mined gemstones—may never be sustainable. What they can do is monitor their carbon footprints and work toward a zero-waste future. (If Walmart can do it, you have no excuse.)

A relatively easy place to begin is packaging. Even global behemoths like Hasbro have pledged to phase out the use of plastic in their packages. I know that protecting a delicate piece of jewelry is important. But placing boxes within boxes within boxes and filling all the empty spaces with plastic cushioning is overkill. If you’re shipping jewelry, think twice about all that bubble wrap. For a fantastic role model, look to Cled, which embraces a minimal and biodegradable approach to packaging—its philosophy is the gold standard (more on Cled below).

For store owners who want to invest in sustainability-minded merchandise, look to brands such as BaYou With Love, a Los Angeles–based company that uses recycled gold sourced mostly from used technology recovered and responsibly extracted from Dell’s U.S. recycling programs, or Bonito Jewelry, which donates a backpack full of school supplies to a child in need for every $100 spent.

The latter is one example of the kinds of social sustainability initiatives that have become fairly common in the jewelry industry. Among those is Gem Legacy, a nonprofit that gives back to mining communities in East Africa.

Another way to embrace sustainability is to support upcycling, the act of creatively transforming by-products, waste materials, or unwanted goods into new products. At the high end, jewelers like New York–based Brent Neale and Paris-based Elie Top have made upcycling a signature of their work, extracting valuable gems from clients’ fussy old jewels and placing them in new settings that actually get worn.

A more dramatic example of upcycling comes by way of Cled, which stands for “Conscious Lifestyle Earth Friendly & Ethical Design.” The company uses gems made of recycled glass and is remarkably transparent about where its materials come from and how they are made. While Cled’s jewels won’t fit into every fine jewelry showcase, its philosophy about sourcing, manufacturing, packaging, and customer communication should serve as a blueprint for all jewelers eager to become more environmentally responsible.

Finally, do your due diligence. Attend important events like the Chicago Responsible Jewelry Conference. Patronize companies, such as Columbia Gem House, which have been responsibly sourcing their gems for way longer than has been trendy. And don’t accept your suppliers’ sustainability claims at face value—ask them the tough questions! As Stuart Robertson, research director of Gemworld International, publisher of the GemGuide, warns, greenwashing is rampant in the trade.

“Sustainability is a tricky one,” he says. “We pick up on a few buzzwords, people make huge statements on what they’re doing in that regard, and then you find out there’s not a whole lot of action by some of these firms. In Tucson, you’ll hear a lot of people claiming how their products are sourced, but if you put heavy questioning to some of these folks, you’ll find they really don’t know a whole lot about it.”

By the end of the next decade, greenwashing will likely be an issue of the past, thanks to blockchain or newfangled technologies that make it impossible to fake good deeds. But wouldn’t it be nice if every company in our industry righted its sustainability ship before it was shamed into doing so?

Small, well-curated stores specializing in locally made goods will thrive, against all odds.

How do you know if a product is sustainable? Is it possible to have a product that is 100% sustainable? Even if something is manufactured in a manner that passes every conceivable measure of sustainability, the minute it gets shipped—via plane, train, or automobile—it generates greenhouse gases that undermine its environmental claims.

One way for consumers who care about these issues to make small but meaningful differences is to buy local. And there’s reason to believe that in the coming decade, small brick-and-mortar retailers will triumph, in their own ways, over Amazon, whose fast shipping model has been called into question for wreaking havoc not only on the environment, but also in a host of tragic accidents caused by drivers desperate to meet their deadlines.

Small-scale brick-and-mortar jewelers who showcase the work of local designers stand to benefit from the growing recognition among consumers that convenience should not come at the cost of social and environmental sustainability.

Service will be digital.

Our industry sells luxury products but continues to overlook the luxury of time when it comes to service. This is especially true for buyers of fine watches, which can disappear into a black hole for months when they need to be serviced or repaired. While lovers of mechanical timepieces may be able to put up with a lengthy repair process, what they shouldn’t have to bear is a painfully analog communication mode that pivots around phone calls and boutique visits instead of digital communications that provide regular status updates to tech-savvy consumers on the go.

Progress, however, is afoot. Earlier this month, Panerai announced the debut of a digital after-sales platform called Pam.Guard. In addition to its customized service interface (accessible across devices and formats, including desktop, mobile, and WeChat) and personalized newsletters, the platform will guide owners of Panerai watches purchased no more than two years prior to registration through a watch checkup at the end of the third year.

The development is in keeping with what McKinsey & Co. recommends in this April 2019 article drawing attention to the long, frustrating, expensive, and analog ordeal that characterizes most after-sales experiences with luxury watchmakers.

By the end of the next decade, all luxury brands—and especially those dedicated to timekeeping—will update their after-sales platforms for a tech-savvy, mobile, and time-poor clientele. Retailers who wish to stay in business will need to keep up. Think about what a digital service portal could mean for your clients. Text updates? Facetime sessions with a jeweler or watchmaker?

Just remember: While digital is the new normal, human interaction is essential to the equation. Sales experiences that successfully combine the speed and convenience of a digital transaction with the reassurance of a trusted adviser will prove that artificial intelligence has nothing on the human variety.

Happy New Year!

Top: Arrow of Love Sapphire Dot ring in 14k recycled yellow gold, $770; bayouwithlove.com

Covering nearly 20,000 square feet of space, the exhibition features more than 450 timepieces—including antique pocket watches on loan from the Patek Philippe Museum in Geneva, rare dome clocks depicting cultural motifs unique to Southeast Asia, and highly sought-after models guaranteed to make collectors swoon (Ref. 5711, anyone?).

The Singapore event, which coincides with the city’s bicentennial, marks the fifth time that Patek has staged an international, consumer-facing showcase of its horological art. The last grand exhibition took place in 2017 in New York. (The first such event was held in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, in 2012, followed by Munich in 2013 and London in 2015.)

On opening day, I sat in on a 30-minute group interview with president Thierry Stern. He seemed in excellent spirits and, true to form, spoke candidly about what makes his highly profitable business tick.

Here are five fun takeaways from the interview, interspersed with images of my favorite Singapore 2019 special editions (all intended strictly for the local market—to American collectors’ chagrin!).

Patek Philippe’s Grand Exhibitions are unparalleled in the trade.

It’s safe to say that Patek Philippe is the most sought-after brand in the prestige watchmaking sector. It does not, as a rule, need to promote its watches, many of which are spoken for long before they hit showcases. But as we’ve seen over the course of seven years of Grand Exhibitions, promote it does—in utterly spectacular fashion.

So is all the pomp and circumstance associated with each exhibition—the complicated build-out, the sky-high marketing costs, the ornate and thoughtfully designed special editions—worth it? Do these events translate into sales?

“We have a two-year period after such an event where you can see an increase,” Stern told us. “This is the fifth event and every time we see, for the next two years, there’s a really big impact, in terms of sales and knowledge, talking about Patek, all of it. Of course, just after, everybody is trying to get the limited editions. But that’s something different. For me what is more important is stable growth like this.”

Oh yes, the special editions. For Singapore 2019, Patek released six models intended for the local market. I was told only citizens could buy them, which seems limiting until you realize how much wealth resides in the city-state and how big a hub it is for high-end watchmaking. (The red-accented pieces destined for Singaporeans are uniformly to die for, as the photos here attest.)

Even though there is a collecting frenzy around the brand’s steel sport models, the metal represents a maximum of 20% of production.

On the secondary market, the Ref. 5711—the Nautilus in stainless steel with a black-blue dial—automatically goes for double its $30,000 retail price.

Whether you see that as a reflection of supply or demand is a matter of perspective. But it’s clear that Stern is never going to allow steel to be abundant in the Patek world. Of the 62,000 timepieces Patek makes in a year, a maximum of 20% are in steel.

“We don’t want to push too much steel,” Stern said. “Steel was important when business was lower. A lot of brands could not sell. That’s why they launched a lot of steel pieces. Then it became also something trendy. But it’s very dangerous. Because when you start with steel, when you will start again with gold, good luck. It’s very difficult. It’s an easy way to do easy business, but I don’t think it’s wise for Patek to do that. We are not known for steel.”

He paused to acknowledge the elephant in the room: “Yes, of course, we have the Nautilus and Aquanaut steel watches.”

The Aquanaut was intended for younger buyers before it was seized upon by collectors.

When the Aquanaut was introduced in 1997, a stainless steel watch on a rubber bracelet was considered quite scandalous.

“People said, ‘What is this?’ It’s a rubber band, a steel watch. It’s not going to work,” Stern recalled. “All the big retailers did not believe in it, were not going to order it.”

The joke was on them. Today, the model is second only to the Nautilus in the Patek Philippe unavailability hierarchy, not counting super-limited grand complications. (When I posted photos of the men’s and women’s Aquanaut special editions to my Instagram feed, it was only a few minutes before someone direct messaged me, asking for help in buying the coveted Ref. 5167.)

To think, the model was meant for Patek’s youngest buyers.

“The target was to have the Aquanaut for the younger generation who started with a fine watch but not at the highest price,” Stern said. “But most of the collectors were the first to buy one. It’s a great watch for the weekend. The younger generation had to wait a minimum of two years for it. Sometimes you have surprises.”

Patek Philippe is: Not. For. Sale.

When Stern made his opening remarks on press day, he made a point of addressing a rumor noted in a January 2019 Bloomberg report that said Patek Philippe may be up for sale.

“Patek Philippe will remain a family company,” he told the audience. “It is not for sale.”

During our group interview, Stern elaborated on the vexing rumor. “Every year, somebody is writing an article that Patek is for sale,” he said disapprovingly. “Internally at Patek, it’s a joke: Who’s going to be the stupid guy who says that this year? We make some bets. This year, I didn’t expect to see Bloomberg doing that. It’s bad. It doesn’t affect the business—here, everyone knows we’re not for sale—but internally, the little lady or guy working behind the machine, he’s the guy who’s scared. That’s why I’m angry.”

The fifth generation of the Stern family is on deck.

Thierry Stern has two sons—one is 18, the other 16—and both are poised to join the family business.

That’s another detail he made clear to members of the press. “The fifth generation is also here today,” Stern said. “I’m starting to train one of my sons. One is enjoying watchmaking school; the other is here just to learn. For our clients and ourselves, we believe in family and also in transition, like my father did with me.”

Stern said his oldest son traveled to Singapore with him and attended the brand’s “two fantastic evenings with collectors from the whole Southeast Asia area,” while his younger son, a watchmaking student, had to stay behind in Switzerland to attend school.

“I think he will be more technical,” Stern said. “He is now making his own tools at school. After three weeks, I can see he cut all his fingers already. That will teach him how difficult it is.”

Stern also revealed that even though he bought his sons the Apple Watch to see how they felt about it, they are more drawn to mechanical watches. For his 16th birthday, Stern’s younger son received a steel Rolex. The 18-year-old chose a simple gold Aquanaut.

“The youngest one—when he looks at my watches, he loves the perpetual calendar, says that’s a cool watch,” Stern said. “He has good taste also. But I told him it’s not a watch he’ll receive when he’s 18 years old. It’s too expensive.”

Top: The catalog cover for the Patek Philippe Watch Art Grand Exhibition Singapore 2019

First things first: Register for the webinar here.

I’ll be kicking things off with a review of preshow planning suggestions—everything from how to think about your inventory needs to the importance of setting appointments with exhibitors. I’ll also cover some of the things you can do at-show to make the most of your time at the Sands, including building in a couple of hours for a discovery tour, in which you walk the show without an agenda, other than simply investigating the pieces that excite and delight you.

Next, I’ll touch on packing tips, such as why you may want to bring a flash drive to the show; hit on the highlights of the JCK Talks education schedule (want to know more about lab-grown diamonds, responsible sourcing, or the startups that are changing retail? We’ve got you covered); and remind you about the hashtags you’ll want to use when posting pics to social media.

I’ll also go over the key safety guidelines all jewelers in Las Vegas need to know.

Then I’ll move on to the fun stuff, including a look at the best places on  and off campus (i.e., the Venetian and Palazzo complex) to eat, drink, and be merry. (I’ve gleaned my tips from this must-read article by JCK contributor and Vegas insider Matt Villano, which appeared in our March/April 2019 issue.)

Then I’ll pass the mic to my colleagues at JCK Events, Sarin Bachmann and Kate Youngstrom, who will talk about all the new things you can expect to find at the recently renovated Sands, from an improved show layout to new neighborhoods, such as Global Gemstone, home to hundreds of top-quality stone dealers and their caches of rarely seen gems.

Even if you’ve attended JCK in the past, you won’t want to miss this preshow webinar. Think of it as a trailer for the biggest movie spectacle of the year, the can’t-miss show you’ll be talking about for months, even years, to come. This Thursday, we’ll give you a sneak peek.

Top: The Venetian’s Grand Canal (photo courtesy of the Venetian Resort)

“A lot of the big retailers are in one city at one time,” Powell said. “It makes it easy to have meetings. Plus, we feel it’s important to maintain relationships with the brands. They’re beginning to realize what happens with pre-owned affects the new market. I can foresee that’ll become a more important part of our business longer term.”

According to Powell, Crown & Caliber is going gangbusters. “My business doubled in 2017, doubled again in 2018, and will likely again double in 2019,” he said. “We have 57 full-time employees in our Atlanta office.”

He cites people’s growing comfort with both e-commerce and pre-owned watches as factors in Crown & Caliber’s success. He also credits his “very simple” business model: “People go on our site, tell us what they have, we get their watch, and [once we’ve vetted it] we flat-out buy it. We now own 4,000 watches in-house. We just celebrated our 50,000^th transaction a couple months ago. So business has grown quite a bit.”

During our phone interview, edited and condensed below, Powell shared the details of Crown & Caliber’s trade-in program, which he intends to implement with independent retailers by year’s end. He also spoke about the shifting perceptions of the pre-owned watch business, how it differs from the pre-owned car trade, and why he’s breathing a sigh of relief about Breitling.

What were your impressions of Baselworld?

My impressions are probably not dissimilar from other people’s. It was slow. It was a bit different without the Omega booth and kind of a breath of fresh air. The show wasn’t as crowded, which was nice. The chatter and murmurs were all about, what’s going to happen? What does this all mean? That’s what monopolized the conversation. It was kind of a mediocre year in terms of new releases, which magnified the conversation about the industry.

One of the things watchmakers and retailers are talking about is how to handle the pre-owned business. Tell us a bit about how Crown & Caliber does it. For instance, how do your sales break down between vintage and contemporary models?

There are two types of “used watches”: vintage and what we call “pre-owned.” Vintage—those are really cool watches. Paul Newman Rolexes! So cool but very difficult to build a scalable business model around them. We’ll have 100-plus watches coming through the shop doing repair and servicing. But if you get a vintage Heuer Monaco that needs an original hand from 1972—that would crush my otherwise scalable process; it’s like putting a stick in the spokes of the wheel.

So we have decidedly said “no” to vintage. When we get vintage in, we’ll work with a trusted third-party dealer, or we’ll be up front with the customer. We’re working with 95 percent of what’s out there: “modern pre-owned,” roughly watches that are 1980 and newer. And we see a lot. In Basel, I’m basically seeing watches that will end up in my office in the next six months. Last year, when Rolex introduced the “root beer bezel,” four to five months later they got released at retail and weeks later they started coming in here because people got gifted and didn’t want them.

What’s your retail trade-in program all about?

We’ve built an extremely complicated, sophisticated database that will confidently allow our team to make offers to customers. We have the ability to help sellers all day, every day. A lot of retailers in the watch and jewelry space were missing opportunities when a customer came into their stores with a watch they wanted to trade in and were being denied. We found we could be their outsource partner. One of our retailers is Birks in Canada. Go to their watch trade-in program, you’ll see how they partner with Crown & Caliber. You’ll see a button: “Get a quote now.” That form is our quote form, hosted by Crown & Caliber. So when you enter it there, it’s just like you’re entering on our site.

Normally, on our site, let’s say we’d make you a $4,000 cash offer. But if you came through Birks, we’d give you a cash offer and also a second offer: a $4,800 store credit (20 percent higher than the cash offer). Once the customer makes a choice, they receive a shipping label. Once we verify the watch is authentic, which we normally do, we send that $4,000 to Birks. Birks sends a $4,800 gift card to the customer. We got a watch. The customer got 20 percent more for the watch. And Birks just got a customer with $4,800 to spend.

What we’ve seen is that the customer isn’t spending $4,800; they’re spending 2.84 times that—almost $12,000 when they go and spend that gift card, because they’re trading up, trading in a Rolex for a Patek or a Rolex for jewelry. It’s a great lead generator and foot-traffic technique and a way for customers to buy things. We’re now powering trade-in programs for the Birks Group in Canada, Jared stores, Little Switzerland, London Jewelers. And we’re about to launch a few other big ones. We believe through our technology and data, we can arm the country’s most reputable retailers with the most powerful sales tool in the watch trade.

One question I’ve heard about pre-owned “re-commerce” sites like Crown & Caliber is: Why aren’t brands running this business by themselves? Why let sites like yours take a bite out of their potential sales?

I really don’t know. If you were to tell me three years ago that brands would be involved in the pre-owned space, I’d have said you’re crazy. Last summer, Richemont purchased WatchFinder, a site that is 100 percent pre-owned and did $120 million in business last year. That said a lot. That a major group, Richemont, would want to be involved in the pre-owned space. Why? There’s a lot that happens in the pre-owned space that can help the brands. If done properly, it can preserve the integrity of the brands in the secondary market. The greater influence that Cartier [for example] can have on product in the secondary market, the greater influence they can have on their customer’s experience of the brand and on pricing in the primary market.

One of our priorities is to make sure we are very clear our objective is both those things. We are being ambassadors to those brands. Preserving their integrity by hiring good watchmakers and providing good customer experiences, as opposed to some of the shadier dealers.

In the car space, there’s a model of certified pre-owned, certified by brands themselves. That’s a model. But then you have the CarMaxes that operate outside that model. Multiple models can exist. It will be interesting to see where the brands end up. The only data point we have is what happened last summer with Richemont deciding to acquire WatchFinder.

But it also shows how hard it is to [run a pre-owned business]. Because it’s one thing to say the brands can just do this. To create, produce, and sell a watch takes a huge amount of work and skill. But to reverse engineer that, to take back a watch and do all that in reverse order is a very challenging thing, and that’s essentially what we’ve been able to do. I’d also say: There’s a difference between selling pre-owned and trade-in. The model brands are considering is certified pre-owned. How much of that will be pre-owned versus last year’s stock? Selling pre-owned versus actually having a trade-in program—to have a brand run the latter means they need to be able to take in another brand’s watch and then sell that, and that they’re able to authenticate it.

We always hear these comparisons to the car trade, but how are watches different?

Watches have a sentimental nature that cars often don’t. Cars are more of an asset than watches. We have to recognize what we’re dealing with here. It’s a memory, an experience, it’s a gift. It’s not an asset. Whereas most cars are something that gets you from point A to point B. That’s a key differentiator. Another key differentiator is data, historically. There’s been much greater data in the car industry. There are no VIN numbers in the watch industry. One of the things that’s been lacking in the watch space. Can you imagine selling your car and there’s no such thing as a VIN number? And the only way you could search for a car would be pricing at the model level. Plus, the watch industry has historically been behind in the digital space. That means trust of the online watch trade is lagging. That’s hopefully where we’ve helped. That’s a big difference: Digital sophistication is lacking.

Finally, did you notice any interesting trends in Basel?

I know my limits. There’s always a greater watch nerd. That Yachtmaster was pretty cool. On the independent side of things, the Accutron from Bulova will be interesting to see if it starts to inspire some more loyalty. I loved the two-tone Sea-Dweller—we will absolutely see that do well. Breitling crushed it. Georges Kern is killing it.

Let me tell you why: He is listening to the collector community. I would love to see his schedule. I’d bet he still has an old-school leather-bound one, and it’s filled with appointments with some of the world’s best collectors. That Navitimer 806 1959 reissue. I tip my hat to Tudor, Rolex, and Patek, but I think Breitling did such a great job, the result of lots of discussions with the collector community. The thing that’s exciting about Breitling is with Kern, they’ve found their identity. You’ve got this wonderful history, but then you’ve got Bentleys and bling and 44 mm days. What’s the identity here? Kern has brought it back. Now we can breathe a sigh of relief.

Top: Hamilton Powell, CEO and founder of Crown & Caliber, at company headquarters in Atlanta