Thousands of Diamonds Adorn New DKNY Fragrance Bottle

The first million-dollar bottle of perfume is set to debut this week, the Wall Street Journal reports.

A total of 2,700 white diamonds and a 2.43-carat yellow diamond decorate the apple-shaped container of Golden Delicious by DKNY, which is also set with several other exotic stones, such as tourmaline and yellow and blue sapphires.

The bottle, which features an image of the New York skyline crafted in jewels, is for sale on DKNY’s Facebook page. If and when it’s purchased, the money will be donated to Action Against Hunger.

-Israeli Diamond Industry

Zim diamond sales to soar, platinum royalty to be doubled

Zimbabwe boosted its revenue estimate for 2012 as diamond sales are set to soar and government doubles royalties on platinum to take advantage of higher prices.

Revenue will probably reach $4-billion next year, up from an earlier projection of $3.4- billion, Finance Minister Tendai Biti said in his Budget speech in the capital, Harare.

The royalty on platinum sales will increase to 10%, while gold producers will be charged 7%, up from 4.5%, he said.

Zimbabwe, which emerged from a decade-long recession in 2009, is seeking to earn more from mining to help bolster the economy’s recovery. The Southern African nation has the world’s second-largest reserves of platinum, which is mined by companies including Anglo American Platinum and Impala Platinum Holdings. Zimbabwe also began selling diamonds this year after a partial ban on the gems was lifted.

“The resource rent collections are not commensurate with the value of minerals extracted, especially in view of the surge in the international prices of precious metals,” Biti said. “Government expects compensation for permanent loss of resources, since minerals are a depleting resource.”

Royalties earned the Zimbabwe government $44.1-million in the first ten months of the year, compared with mineral export earnings of $1.7-billion, Biti said. Platinum makes up 45% of mineral export earnings, gold 24% and diamonds 14%, he said. Mining shipments are estimated to expand 39% this year and 13% in 2012, he said.

A ban on diamond sales from Zimbabwe was partially lifted after the Kimberley Process, set up to monitor the sale of so-called conflict diamonds, allowed exports from two operations in the Marange region.

Zimbabwe has struggled to attract investment since emerging from recession two years ago because of instability in the power- sharing government. President Robert Mugabe’s Zanu-PF rules the country jointly with the Movement for Democratic Change, led by Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai.

The economy will probably grow 9.4% in 2012 from an estimated 9.3% this year as the finance and mining industries expand, Biti said.

He did not give estimates for government spending for 2012. Recurrent expenditure, which includes salaries, amounted to $1.68- billion in the first nine months of the year, while capital expenditure was $192-million. Total revenue was $2.1-billion, he said.

-Mining Weekly

Faberge Introduces its First Advertising Campaign

Fabergé launched its first advertising campaign, which was shot by Mario Testino and showcases dramatic jewels from the iconc brand's striking contemporary high jewelry collections, Les Fabuleuses de Fabergé and Les Saisons Russes. Additionally the campaign features the new and signature egg pendant collections, Les Fameux de Fabergé and Les Favorites de Fabergé.

The campaign was led by Fabergé’s managing and creative director, Katharina Flohr, who collaborated with Testino, Carine Roitfeld, and producer Camilla Johnson-Hill. The team came together once before, back in 1998, for the launch of Russian Vogue. This time the team selected Beegee Margenyte (Bee Gee), the Russian-Lithuanian rising star and model sensation, to embody Fabergé today, fusing Russian and Western cultures both past and present.

The campaign, the first ever associated with Faberge, marks a new era of contemporary creativity for the brand that captures the intense and emotive glamour and storytelling that characterizes all contemporary Fabergé creations. It hits major magazines this month in the U.K., France, Germany, Switzerland and the U.S.

Also this month, and for the first time in almost a century, Fabergé returned to the heart of London’s prestigious jewelry area, at 14A Grafton Street in Mayfair, approximately half way between the original Dover and Bond Street stores.

Due to the repatriation of Russian resources at the beginning of the First World War, the last Fabergé store in London closed in 1915. Fabergé first opened in London in 1906 at 48 Dover Street and moved to 173 Bond Street in 1910.

The new London store features a special and striking lilac façade for the festive season, evoking the guilloche and enamel techniques for which Fabergé was renowned. The distinctive interior – warm, evocative and modern – is a seamless fusion of old and new.

Fabergé has recently made its jewelry and watch collections available at Harrods in Knightsbridge, and plans to open in New York at 694 Madison Avenue, come the second quarter of 2012. Fabergé is hosting a special seasonal “by appointment” preview of its collections at the Plaza Hotel, Fifth Avenue and Central Park South, through December 30, 2011.

Flohr said, ''We are thrilled to open the doors to the first Fabergé boutique in London since 1915. This is an important moment for us and for Fabergé to continue Peter Carl Fabergé’s legacy of exquisite creations and outstanding craftsmanship.

''Fabergé continues to attract a customer base of discerning devotees, seeking special personal possessions and gifts which illuminate the captivating world of Fabergé, linking past, present and future,'' Flohr added.

-Rapaport

Q3 sales up 16% for Movado

Sales climbed 16 percent in the third quarter for Movado Group Inc., the company reported Thursday.

Sales in the third quarter of fiscal 2012 were $142.6 million, up from $123.0 million in the third quarter of fiscal 2011.

Gross profit was $81.0 million, or 57 percent of sales, up from $68.9 million, or 56 percent of sales, in the third quarter of last year. Movado said the increase in gross margin percentage was due to a shift in channel and product mix and leverage gained on certain fixed costs, partially offset by the unfavorable effect of fluctuations in foreign currency exchange rates.

“We continued to build on our momentum during the third quarter, achieving broad-based sales growth again across all of our brand categories,” Movado Chairman and CEO Efraim Grinberg. “In particular, we remain pleased with the strong sell-through of our Movado and licensed brands, which continue to resonate very well with consumers and validate our strategic positioning in the marketplace.”

Year-to-date, sales are up 23 percent to $345.7 million for Movado. Gross profit is $190.6 million, or 55 percent of sales, compared to $151.8 million, or 54 percent of sales, at this time last year.

Movado designs, sources and distributes Movado, Ebel, Concord, ESQ by Movado, Coach, Tommy Hilfiger, Hugo Boss, Juicy Couture and Lacoste watches worldwide and operates Movado company stores in the United States, including its flagship store in New York City and outlets throughout the country.

-National Jeweler

6.67-Carat Yellow Diamond Discovered at Crater of Diamonds State Park

A yellow diamond weighing 6.67 carats was discovered on Tuesday at the Crater of Diamonds State Park in Arkansas.

Described as the size of a marble, the diamond is the second-largest stone discovered at the park this year (after the 8.66-carat white diamond discovered in April by Beth Gilberton) and the ninth-largest stone discovered at the site since the park was founded.

The stone has been registered as the Teamwork Diamond, since it was found by a group of visitors led by Daniel J. Kinney III and Thayer Walker. Kinney has visited the park over 20 times and found 34 diamonds, including this most recent discovery.

Thus far in 2011, visitors to the Crater of Diamonds State Park have found a total of 501 rough diamonds.

-Israeli Diamond Industry

Groups Pressure Macy's to Commit to Ethical Gold Standards

Earthworks and social action group Change.org began a petition drive to rally consumers to press retailer Macy’s to commit to using ethically sourced gold. A similar petition aimed at retailer Target earlier this year signed-up 22,000 citizens and helped to convince the retailer to agree to the “Golden Rules,” which are a set of social, human rights and environmental criteria for mining gold and other precious metals by Earthwork's No Dirty Gold Campaign.

Earthworks said 80 retailers, including Target, Tiffany & Co., Sears and Helzberg Diamonds, have committed to the “Golden Rules,” and noted that Macy’s, as eighth-largest retailer of gold jewelry in the United States, was “one of the last major jewelry retailers” to fail to adhere to those standards.

Nick Magel, international campaigns coordinator for Earthworks said that “Macy’s has a very clear choice. They can listen to their customers who want to know that their gold comes from ethical sources, or continue to hold out, sending the message that they don’t value sustainability and transparency.”

Cost of Doing Business Survey Rates 421 Cities

The Claremont McKenna College’s Rose Institute of State & Local Government ranked the most expensive and least expensive cities in the U.S. for its 17th annual Kosmont-Rose Institute Cost of Doing Business Survey. Analysts gathered business fees and tax rates from 421 selected cities across the U.S. and ranked them into one of five “Cost Ratings” groups: Very low cost, low cost, average cost, high cost and very high cost.

''The survey is known as a ‘tie-breaker’ for companies contemplating a move or an expansion,'' said Larry Kosmont, the president of Kosmont Companies. ''It serves the firm that has already determined the best combination of factors important to it, such as the quality of the labor force, the cost of housing, and the proximity to their suppliers and customers. There is often a handful of side-by-side cities in a market area that meets these criteria for a given company. That’s when city-imposed fees really make a difference and information in the survey can be a cost and time saver.''

The top 20 "most expensive" cities, in alphabetical order, included:

Akron, Ohio
Beverly Hills, California
Birmingham, Alabama
Chicago, Illinois
Cincinnati, Ohio
Clarksburg, West Virginia
Columbus, Georgia
Culver City, California
Los Angeles, California
Mobile, Alabama
Naperville, Illinois
New York, New York
Newark, New Jersey
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Portland, Oregon
Richmond, Virginia
Saint Louis, Missouri
San Francisco, California
Santa Monica, California
Toledo, Ohio

The 20 least expensive cities were:

Austin, Texas
Abilene, Texas
Fort Worth, Texas
Cheyenne, Wyoming
Eugene, Oregon
Yakima, Washington
Kent, Washington
Everett, Washington
Vancouver, Washington
Federal Way, Washington
Olympia, Washington
Corpus Christi, Texas
Reno, Nevada
Spokane, Washington
Centennial, Colorado
Overland Park, Kansas
Houston, Texas
Sioux Falls, South Dakota
Bellevue, Washington
Gresham, Oregon

Kosmont-Rose found that all of the least expensive cities were located west of the Mississippi River, with five cities in Texas and eight in the state of Washington and also that 17 of the top 20 were in states without income tax.

The Cost of Doing Business Survey determined of the 20 most expensive cities, six were in the Midwest, five were in California, four in the Northeast, four in the Southeast and one in the Pacific Northwest.

High business license fees were the primary reason that cities ended up on the list of most expensive. Fifteen of the 20 most expensive cities assess business taxes based on either gross receipts or general profit. With that formula, those taxes a business pays to a city have the potential to increase rapidly. Nineteen of the 20 cities impose a business license fee of more than $10,000 a year on medium-size retail businesses. Of these 19 cities, seven have fees between $100,000 and $175,000, Kosmont-Rose found.

There was a similar pattern for the property tax rates of the 20 most expensive cities too. All of the rates were higher than 1 percent, with 12 of the cities having rates higher than 2 percent. In comparison, the majority of the cities included in the survey have property tax rates hovering just above 1 percent. New York and Chicago were the ignoble leaders with rates of 4.64 percent and 4.63 percent respectively, with Newark third at 3.18 percent.

-Rapaport