https://caratcapital.org Prices, intelligence and analysis from every desk of the stone trade: diamonds, gold and metals, gemstones, watches, auctions, retail and technology. en https://caratcapital.org/a-de-beers-blinks-july-sight.html https://caratcapital.org/a-de-beers-blinks-july-sight.html Tue, 14 Jul 2026 06:30:00 GMT Diamonds The miner opens its July sight in Gaborone this week prepared to do what sightholders have demanded for two years — bring official rough prices back into contact with the market they supposedly describe. https://caratcapital.org/a-gold-half-time-report.html https://caratcapital.org/a-gold-half-time-report.html Mon, 13 Jul 2026 06:30:00 GMT Gold & Metals From a $5,405 January peak to a $4,001.80 June trough, bullion's first half was a stress test of every gram on every bench. The consensus for the second half is calmer — and that is its own kind of decision. https://caratcapital.org/a-platinum-and-the-other-podium.html https://caratcapital.org/a-platinum-and-the-other-podium.html Sun, 12 Jul 2026 06:30:00 GMT Gold & Metals While the trade watched gold, platinum printed an all-time $2,923 and silver doubled. The white metals are no longer the cheap seats — and jewelry demand is reorganizing around that fact. https://caratcapital.org/a-blue-is-the-color-of-money.html https://caratcapital.org/a-blue-is-the-color-of-money.html Sat, 11 Jul 2026 06:30:00 GMT Auctions & Estates Christie's sold one hundred percent of its Magnificent Jewels. Sotheby's cleared ninety-eight. Two blue diamonds made $8 million-plus apiece in the same month — and the estate pipeline keeps delivering. https://caratcapital.org/a-lab-grown-96-down-and-firming.html https://caratcapital.org/a-lab-grown-96-down-and-firming.html Sat, 11 Jul 2026 06:30:00 GMT Diamonds Q2 wholesale lists show one-carat lab-grown rounds rising for the first time in years while two-carat-plus goods fall twenty percent. Rough is up 25–30. This is what a floor looks like. https://caratcapital.org/a-gold-4100-redraws-jewelry-map.html https://caratcapital.org/a-gold-4100-redraws-jewelry-map.html Fri, 10 Jul 2026 06:30:00 GMT Gold & Metals Bullion opened above $4,135 this morning and the consequences are no longer theoretical: Surat is re-engineering mountings, Vicenza is hollowing chains, and the diamond markup model that held for forty years is being re-cut in real time. https://caratcapital.org/a-world-cup-watch-gold-rush.html https://caratcapital.org/a-world-cup-watch-gold-rush.html Fri, 10 Jul 2026 06:30:00 GMT Watches Diamond-set footballs, athlete ambassadors and tournament-timed limited editions — the industry is spending the summer converting football fever into waiting lists. https://caratcapital.org/a-lab-grown-86-percent-question.html https://caratcapital.org/a-lab-grown-86-percent-question.html Fri, 10 Jul 2026 06:30:00 GMT Retail & Technology The discount to natural widened to 86% this week. The obituary readings are wrong: what collapsed is the price of carbon, and what survived is the business model. https://caratcapital.org/a-color-takes-the-counter.html https://caratcapital.org/a-color-takes-the-counter.html Fri, 10 Jul 2026 06:30:00 GMT Colored Gemstones Engagement customers are asking for sapphire, spinel and garnet by name. Margins beat diamonds. Tucson ran near-record. The colored-stone trade's long apprenticeship as 'the alternative' is over. https://caratcapital.org/a-phillips-235-million-spring.html https://caratcapital.org/a-phillips-235-million-spring.html Thu, 09 Jul 2026 06:30:00 GMT Auctions & Estates A 99.8 percent sell-through across 937 lots, a $13.9M F.P. Journe in New York, the first $10M watch ever sold in Asia — the spring of 2026 is now the standard every saleroom will be measured against. https://caratcapital.org/a-asia-ledger-record-year.html https://caratcapital.org/a-asia-ledger-record-year.html Thu, 09 Jul 2026 06:30:00 GMT Retail & Technology Chow Tai Fook's profit jumped 52 percent to a record HK$9.08 billion. Luk Fook grew revenue 29 percent. Hong Kong jewelry retail is running up 20 percent. The gold bull market found its cash register. https://caratcapital.org/a-swiss-exports-flat-may.html https://caratcapital.org/a-swiss-exports-flat-may.html Wed, 08 Jul 2026 06:30:00 GMT Watches CHF 2.11 billion, up 0.4 percent — barely growth, and the industry exhaled anyway. The map underneath tells the real story: America and France carrying, China falling, the middle hollowing out. https://caratcapital.org/a-tariff-arithmetic-zero-and-eighteen.html https://caratcapital.org/a-tariff-arithmetic-zero-and-eighteen.html Wed, 08 Jul 2026 06:30:00 GMT Retail & Technology The US–India interim trade deal will eliminate duty on Indian-cut natural diamonds while lab-growns keep an 18 percent rate — the first time trade policy has priced the two products differently. The pipeline is already repositioning. https://caratcapital.org/a-who-buys-diamonds-now.html https://caratcapital.org/a-who-buys-diamonds-now.html Tue, 07 Jul 2026 06:30:00 GMT Diamonds Average natural-diamond spend is up 25 percent to $4,063. Three-quarters of demand is non-bridal. Gen Z punches five points above its weight. The customer changed faster than the marketing did. https://caratcapital.org/a-vegas-2026-mechanicals-and-meaning.html https://caratcapital.org/a-vegas-2026-mechanicals-and-meaning.html Mon, 06 Jul 2026 06:30:00 GMT Colored Gemstones Jewelry week's real product story: pieces that transform, materials that dodge the gold price, and narrative as the feature customers actually pay for.