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DIAMOND

Swatch jeweller buys auction-record diamond

Prestigious jeweller Harry Winston, acquired earlier this year by Swatch Group, bought a new colourless, flawless 101.73-carat diamond for a record $26.7 million at an auction in Geneva on Wednesday, auctioneer Christie's said.

Swatch jeweller buys auction-record diamond
The diamond now known as the "Winston Legacy." Photo: Christie's

Christie's representative Raul Kadakia told reporters after the sale that Harry Winston was the buyer of the diamond that smashed the previous auction-price record for a diamond in its category by more than $10 million.
   
"Twenty-three million francs! Your last chance! Twenty-three 
million, sold!" shouted Francois Curiel, the head of Christie's jewellery division, referring to the $23.5-million price before tax and commission, and clinching the deal in front of some 150 people gathered for the auction at a luxury Geneva hotel.
   
As the first ever buyer of the new diamond, Harry Winston had the 
priviledge of naming it and decided to call it the "Winston Legacy," Kadakia said.

He noted this was the diamond dealer's first major purchase since it was snapped up by the world's leading watchmaker for $1 billion in March.
   
Switzerland's Swatch Group, most known for its brightly coloured plastic 
watches, has been eagerly expanding its luxury offerings.

Wednesday's sparkling purchase should perhaps especially tickle the group's chairwoman Nayla Hayek, who was named chief executive of Harry Winston earlier this month.
   
"Diamonds are still a girl's best friend," she said following the January 
announcement that Swatch would buy the company, referring to the famous Marilyn Monroe song that mentions Harry Winston, from the 1953 musical film "Gentlemen Prefer Blondes".
   
The American Institute of Gemology has handed the Harry Legacy the top 
colourless grade "D" and the best clarity grade, "flawless", which is characterized by its "absolute symmetry", according to Christie's.
   
The diamond, sold at the auction by a diamond merchant, was 236 carats in 
the rough when it was extracted from the Jwaneng mine in Botswana, before it was meticulously sculpted for 21 months, Christie's said.
   
Wednesday's sale marked the highest price ever paid for a flawless 
colourless diamond at auction, although Christie's had hoped the new diamond — the largest of its kind to ever go under the hammer — would rake in $30 million.
   
The previous auction-price record-holder in the category was the 
84.37-carat Chloe round diamond, snapped up at a Sotheby's auction in Geneva in 2007 by Guess Jeans founder Georges Marciano for $16.2 million.
   
In the "colourless, flawless" category, the reigning world champion in 
terms of size is meanwhile the Cullinan Diamond, a gem weighing 530.2 carats that is part of the British crown jewels.
   
Last November, Christie's sold the 76-carat Archduke Joseph Diamond, in the 
initially flawless category a notch below flawless, on auction in Geneva for $21.5 million.
   
And in May 2011, a heart-shaped 56-carat diamond was auctioned off for 
$10.9 million.
   
The Elizabeth Taylor Diamond, which is in the same D-colour category but 
weighs in at only 33.19 carats, was meanwhile sold for $8.8 million on auction in New York in December 2011.
   
While Swatch's low-end plastic watches are perhaps its most recognisable, 
the Swiss company operates in every price range, from the Flik Flak kid's watches to prestigious timepieces under for instance the Breguet brand which can cost more than one million Swiss francs a piece.
   
Swatch's acquisition of Harry Winston — one of the world's most 
prestigious diamond dealers — comes after it ended a partnership with luxury jeweller Tiffany & Co in September 2011.

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DIAMOND

Rare pink diamond to go under hammer in Geneva

An extremely rare pink diamond will be auctioned in Geneva on November 11 by Sotheby's, which says it is worth between $23 and $38 million.

Rare pink diamond to go under hammer in Geneva
A model poses with the “The Spirit of the Rose” diamond during a press preview on Friday. Photo: Fabrice Coffrini/AFP
Named “The Spirit of the Rose” after a famous Russian ballet, the 14.83-carat diamond mined in Russia is the biggest ever to go under the hammer in its category — “fancy vivid purple-pink”.
 
The occurrence of pink diamonds in nature is extremely rare in any size,” Gary Schuler, head of Sotheby's jewellery division, said in a statement. “Only one per cent of all pink diamonds are larger than 10-carats.”
   
Speaking to AFP, Benoit Repellin, head of fine jewellery auctions at Sotheby's Geneva, said the oval-shaped diamond was “completely pure.”
 
 
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The rough diamond was unearthed by Russia's Alrosa — one of the world's leading diamond producers — in the Republic of Sakha in the northeast of the country in July 2017.
   
Repellin said it took a painstaking year for cutting masters to turn the diamond into its polished form.
   
Sotheby's said the world auction record for a diamond and any gemstone or jewel was the “CTF Pink Star”, a 59.60-carat oval pink diamond that sold for $71.2 million in Hong Kong in 2017.
   
According to Repellin, five out of the 10 most valuable diamonds ever sold at auction were pink.
   
The sale of this gem coincides with the closure of the world's largest pink diamond mine in Australia after it exhausted its reserves of the precious stones.
   
The Argyle mine, in the remote Kimberley region of Western Australia, churned out more than 90 percent of the world's pink diamonds.
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