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Taking proposals to the digital age

One man has used a jeweler’s digital billboard over a California freeway to propose to his girlfriend.

Paul, from Tustin, Calif., used jeweler Robbins Brothers’ “Share the Love” Facebook application to create a marriage proposal for his girlfriend, Krista, on a digital billboard in Rialto, Calif.

 

She said yes.

Check out the video here:

 

Robbins Brothers’ “Share the Love” Facebook app is available to users who “like” the jewelers Facebook page. Messages are submitted under the app, and within 24 to 48 hours will appear on Robbins Brothers’ 14’ x 48’ digital billboard, visible to 180,000 commuters daily on California’s Highway 91. Check it out for yourself here.

Excuse me, your watch is showing

During the course of my first year covering the watch industry, I was asked to cover an auction that included multiple lots of “erotic” watches, watches that contain a hidden-yet-naughty scene.

After these watches appeared in several subsequent auctions, I turned to Charles Tearle, director and watch expert at auction house Antiquorum, to learn more about the origin of these interesting timepieces, which have become more desirous among collectors in recent years.

Tearle said erotic watches date back to the early 19th century and were crafted by a number of different watchmakers, Henry Capt being one of the most well-known.

In those days, it was not uncommon for the heads of the most prestigious households to hold dances at their respective manors and invite the “playboys” of that time.

Once surrounded by ladies, these amorous young men would present their watches. While the ladies were staring at the watch’s innocuous cover of music or nature, the men would set into motion the hidden, automaton erotica and, with the flip of a manual switch, open to reveal the scandalous scene.

“At that point the girls of the age would scream and run away while others would stay and watch,” Tearle said. The men then would select the ladies they liked based on their reaction to the watch.

Whether you would want the woman who stayed or the one who ran away would depend on a man’s personality or, perhaps, his purpose that evening.

Around 1830 or 1840, churches began to protest the production of these watches, especially when artists began including nuns and priests in the scenes. This caused the production of erotic watches to grind to a halt. Tearle said as he understands it, many of the watches were rounded up in a single night raid and destroyed within a span of a few days.

Batches of erotic watches have been created since that time, first re-emerging around 1880 or 1890, but it is impossible to guess how many from the pre-1830 period are still around today. Only eight erotic watches by Capt, for example, are known to exist.

Over the past few years, collectors’ interest in these rare watches has been re-awakened.

“As a whole, the novelty of it has become more popular again in recent years,” Tearle said, noting that the bidding for a collection of erotic timepieces sold at an Antiquorum auction in Geneva in March was “absolutely frenzied.”

Other, more modern takes on timepiece erotica have popped up at auction in recent years, including this 18-karat white gold wristwatch (right) by Svend Andersen, dubbed “At the President’s Pleasure,” a nod, of sorts, to former U.S. President Bill Clinton. I am leaving out the indecent scene included in this particular watch, though anyone with even the slightest knowledge of American politics should be able to drum up a pretty accurate picture in their minds.

The watch sold for about $34,000 at Antiquorum in 2010.

In addition, as I was writing this blog, I received a release from watch brand Perrelet, which has just designed a set of four Turbine Erotic Limited Edition watches.

The 44 mm watches feature a mechanical self-winding P-181 movement with a scene displaying hentai, or sexually explicit Japanese cartoons. Created to evoke the erotic watches of the early 19th century, the scene is visible only in snippets or when the 12-blade wheel of the turbine is spinning quickly.

A holiday take on window shopping

One jewelry store is drawing traffic to its store with a mix of jewels and a few old-fashioned tales.

For the holidays, Shreve & Co.’s window displays have been transformed into renderings of some of the most popular fairytales, including Alice in Wonderland, Cinderella, Goldilocks, The Little Mermaid and The Wizard of Oz.

Titled “Once Upon A Time,” the concept was created by designer Jim Cardosa, who worked with doll creator and artist Kat Soto and illustrator Bruce Henderson to bring the idea to life.

Each display has two sides and is on a turntable-like platform that rotates slowly every 30 seconds. One side of the display depicts the fairytale scene; the other side, jewelry that’s offered inside the store.

The Cinderella vitrine depicts a scene from the story on one side (below, top), and as the display rotates, shows a bracelet, pair of earrings and a ring (below, bottom).

The Little Red Riding Hood vitrine (below, top) gives way to a long necklace with pearls (below, bottom).

Some displays are almost exact replicas of the books and movies they come from like this scene from the Wizard of Oz (below).

All of the vitrines are impressive, especially this one depicting a scene from The Princess and the Pea.

Based on the images, the displays seem to attract a lot of attention from passers-by outside.

This isn’t the first time Shreve & Co. has turned their store windows into mini wonderlands--innovative and creative displays have been highlighting special moments in the year as far back as 2006.

The best part? The dolls incorporated into each are available for purchase, and a portion of proceeds are donated to organizations such as the San Francisco AIDS Foundation, Doctors Without Borders, Susan G. Komen for the Cure and St. Jude Children’s Cancer Research Hospital. This year, a portion of proceeds from doll sales will be donated to Hospice by the Bay.

With storied scenes, elegant jewelry and a chance for charity, it’s a window display worth stopping for.

Editor’s picks: Elizabeth Taylor

Much already has been written about the upcoming auction of Elizabeth Taylor’s jewelry, clothing and art at Christie’s, including on National Jeweler's website, where stories about the late actress and activist have lingered on the Most Popular and Most Emailed lists for weeks.

No amount of news consumption, however, could have prepared me for what I saw when I visited Christie’s last Thursday and saw Ms. Taylor’s collection of jewels, valued as high as $150 million, in person. It is, I can say with a high degree of certainty, the largest private collection of fine jewelry I’ll ever view in my lifetime.

I find it simply unbelievable that one individual owned so much beautiful jewelry by the top names in the business: Van Cleef & Arpels, Bulgari, JAR and David Webb, just to name a few.

As those of you that follow me on Twitter know, I was tweeting some of my favorite pieces during the nearly two hours I spent at Christie’s.

For those of you that don’t follow me (foolish!), here are a few of my favorites.

If I could have only one lot from the auction, it would have to be the sapphire and diamond “Trombino” ring by Bulgari (estimate $150,000 to $200,000), seen here to the right with another favorite of mine, a sapphire and diamond sautoir by Bulgari, given to Elizabeth Taylor by her legendary love Richard Burton when she turned 40 (estimate $600,000 to $800,000).

Should somebody snatch up these two pieces before I get into the thick of the bidding, I would settle for this bracelet (below) from David Webb. The pearl bracelet features a lion’s head of diamonds, platinum and 18-karat gold with pear-shaped emerald eyes.

Crafted in 1965, the bracelet is part of a suite that includes a matching necklace (estimate $60,000 to $80,000).

I also loved this relatively simple 18-karat white gold cabochon coral and diamond ring (below, estimate $3,000 to $5,000).

Christie’s auction of The Collection of Elizabeth Taylor spans five days. Her jewelry is slated for two separate auctions, an evening sale on Dec. 13 and another on Dec. 14 that begins at 10 a.m.

Following that, Christie’s will sell her haute couture on Dec. 14, other fashion and accessories on Dec. 15 and fine and decorative art along with film memorabilia on Dec. 16.

An online auction of Ms. Taylor’s jewelry and clothes is taking place right now through Dec. 17. Last I looked, there were still quite a few items that were attainable for $100.

High-priced gifts with a heart

Greenwich Jewelers is giving back this holiday season--with the help of customers.

New York City-based Greenwich Jeweler’s “3 Wishes” campaign will take the sales of three high-ticket pieces of jewelry and donate a substantial portion from the sale of each to the qualifying charity of the buyer’s choice.

“We were inspired by each of the pieces of jewelry in our 3 Wishes campaign,” Jennifer Gandia, co-owner of Greenwich Jewelers, said. “Receiving any of these extraordinary pieces as a gift would make anyone’s dream come true, and so we thought it was a great opportunity to make some dreams come true for worthwhile, charitable organizations that are close to our customer’s hearts.”

The first piece of jewelry in the campaign is Todd Reed’s 36-carat diamond necklace (below), inspired in part by the ceremonial breastplates used in ancient Mayan rituals. The diamonds originate from the Canadian Diavik mine and are near colorless diamond crystals, sawn in half and set into 18-karat gold and sterling silver in their natural state.

The suite of diamond crystals are so rare that Reed says designing the necklace was a “once in a lifetime opportunity.” Priced at $190,000, a full $10,000 will be donated to charity.


Gurhan’s 24-karat gold and rose-cut sapphire necklace (below) will also be included in the campaign. The piece holds 167 carats of midnight blue sapphires, and each purse gold frame was hand-hammered by Gurhan, rendering the piece a blend of ancient technique and modern design.

Priced at $75,000, Greenwich Jewelers will donate $7,500 of the price to the buyer’s charity of choice.


Greenwich Jewelers--inspired by their favorite winter fabric--created their own cuff bracelet for the campaign, aptly named the Cashmere diamond bracelet (below). The bracelet was created with 27 carats if perfectly matched, pale brown, black and near colorless diamonds, set in 18-karat white gold mesh.

With a retail price of $50,000, a charity will receive $5,000 when this item sells.


In total, $22,500 will be distributed to charities from the sale of these pieces. To purchase or check out these charitable jewels, visit Greenwich Jewelers at 64 Trinity Place, between Rector and Thames Streets.

Is this what a recovery feels like?

In compiling our Majors newsletter yesterday afternoon, I noticed a trend among the stories I was loading, a trend that I haven’t seen in some time.

All the quarterly financials for the major chains covered by National Jeweler and included in that particular newsletter were positive. Comps rose 14 percent for Sterling Jewelers, 6 percent for Zale Corp., 15 percent for Tiffany & Co. in the Americas and 8 percent for Neiman Marcus.

The sales figures released by major chains are in harmony with the reports we received from retailers and the post-Black Friday sales figures released by a myriad of different analysts and agencies.

In short, it was a strong weekend for sales.

But, will this momentum continue through the holiday season and into next year? The answer seems to be nobody knows, or, at least, nobody can agree on a prediction.

In analyzing sales on Black Friday, The NPD Group Inc. said that the day came in with a “roar” as consumers packed stores early to take advantage of heavily advertised savings but went out with a “whimper.”

According to NPD, 56 percent of consumers who shopped on Black Friday said they weren’t likely to shop again that weekend, an indication that consumers are “tapped out,” one industry analyst said.

The National Retail Federation (NRF), the world’s largest trade association for retail, was more positive in assessing the weekend, stating in news releases recapping the weekend that retailers are “playing a significant role in powering the economic recovery” and that consumers are “clearly demonstrating their desire to spend this holiday season.”

The NRF did note, however, that while consumers are spending, they aren’t exactly sprinting to the cash register with armloads of full-priced merchandise. Both the NRF and the analysts interviewed in this story for The New York Times said retailers are going to continue to have to discount to drive sales throughout the rest of the holiday season.

What impact this will have on retailers’ bottom lines is yet to be seen, one analyst noted.

In addition, I found the conflicting viewpoints of two car company executives interviewed in this story to be interesting, even though it does not pertain to jewelry in particular. One said it was “overstating things” to say the auto industry was in the midst of a sustained turnaround while another offered the conflicting view that the current sales momentum was not an “aberration.”

So where does that leave us? It seems like we’re running out of clichés to use to describe how we feel about these uncertain times (see “cautiously optimistic”). 

But let me borrow just one more: We’ll just have to “wait and see.”

I attended a watch event here in New York on Thursday afternoon and one of the executives told me that the company just experienced one of their best months ever for sales. Yet even he was unconvinced of the recovery, unable to commit to saying he expected a great holiday season.

I guess you could say he was “cautiously optimistic” about the weeks ahead.