Warmer colours, semi-precious gemstones and white gold are driving today's jewellery sales, although diamonds continue to reign as the most desired gemstone.
Today's popular colour palate includes gemstones such as red tourmaline, pink beryl, chocolate pearls, moonstone, fancy brown diamonds and topaz.
'There is more emphasis on coloured stones. We are using a lot of green, blue and pink tourmaline, aquamarine, spinel and opals,' says Jean-Bernard Forot, jewellery marketing director of Swiss firm Piaget. 'For high-end pieces, people still want white gold with diamonds, but for medium-end jewellery we are using more colour and more yellow and pink gold than before.'
The hi-tech look of titanium also has potential sales appeal, according to Dominic Mok, principal of the Asian Gemmological Institute and Laboratory in Hong Kong.
'People are starting to use titanium to make jewellery. It's good at bringing out the lustre of diamonds. A couple of companies are trying to use pink or red tourmaline and aquamarine with titanium. More Chinese people are paying attention to this material,' he says.
Mok says emeralds are catching on in the Hong Kong fine-jewellery market. 'The emeralds are not just coming from Colombia. More are now coming from Zambia. The ones from Zambia have a darker green colour and fewer flaws than Colombian emeralds.'
