Shining Outlook

Despite global market turmoil, jewellers are optimistic about demand for their wares

- Carmen Sin

A 100-carat diamond of a vivid yellow hue made its world debut at the Singapore International Jewelry Expo's (SIJE) opening day on July 10.

The rock - sold by Ivy Masterpiece, local jeweller to the who's who in town - is mounted on a necklace of white and yellow gold, with the whole piece valued at US$2.5 million (S$3.2 million).

It is the crown jewel of the annual jewellery expo, which in its 20th year is betting against a global luxury slump to stage its biggest show yet.

From July 10 to 13, 414 brands from 26 countries are hawking precious stones worth more than US$250 million in all, at Marina Bay Sands' Sands Expo & Convention Centre.

The catalogue includes such rarities as a 2.21-carat Afghan emerald — famously tricky to mine from the remote Panjshir Valley — Burmese pigeon blood rubies and, for a dash of the cutting-edge, a pink diamond ring embedded with a microchip that can store both sentimental and product information.

SIJE organiser IEG Asia expects 15,000 trade and individual buyers, up from 14,000 visitors in 2024.

The forecast is a rosy one at a time of global market turmoil. Cost-of-living crises, an unpredictable Donald Trump presidency in the US and tightened belts in the historically reliable Chinese market are joint forces that have rattled demand for high-end bling.

No sector is hurting more than the diamond industry, racked by the rise of cut-price laboratory-grown rocks, indistinguishable from the real thing to the naked eye and touted as an ethical alternative.

SIJE is sticking to its guns and stocking only natural diamonds that take billions of years to form, even as the biggest name in diamonds, De Beers, reportedly failed to clear its inventory in 2024.

The South African-British firm behind a third of the world's diamond supply has also cut production in its mines.