Laurence Graff, the foremost world diamond dealer in super large diamonds, has set his sights on mainland China, as the country grows in wealth and its citizens move on the fast track to the modern middle and upper class lifestyle.
Graff’s company, aptly named Graff Diamonds, is famous for its quality super large diamonds. Recently Graff purchased a rough 603 carat diamond for 12.4 million dollars which was cut and set into a necklace now worth 60 million dollars.
They are also famous for not loaning out their jewelry to celebrities because it is the company’s belief that “…it is a bit of an insult to our clients who actually purchased our jewelry. If you spend $1 million, that is a lot of money. Do you want a little model wearing it?” as stated by Henry Barguirdjian, the is head of sales operations for Graff in the United States.
And now Graff and Co. is spearheading into China, where De Beers has just landed not a month ago. The rich and upperclass are growing exponentially in number in China, where expensive jewelry has been in high demand culturally for ages.
Graff explains, “Americans are not attracted in the same way in spending money on jewelry as in the Far East.”
Ever more these days, it is China that is the biggest consumer of large diamonds, especially colored diamonds as the numbers of new rich are growing rapidly.
