Tiffany Buys Back Titanic Watch for Record $1.97m

Tiffany & Co paid a record $1.97m for a gold pocket watch it made in 1912, and which was gifted to the captain of a ship that rescued more than 700 passengers and crew from the Titanic.

The watch was sold by UK auction house Henry Aldridge & Son Ltd last month, but the buyer’s identity was not revealed at the time.

Tiffany & Co has now announced that it was behind the “record-breaking acquisition” – the highest price ever paid for an item of Titanic memorabilia.

The watch was a gift from three wealthy women who were saved by the passenger ship R.M.S. Carpathia as the Titanic sank on its maiden voyage, with the loss of over 1,500 lives. The recipient was Captain (later Sir) Arthur H. Rostron.

A ledger in The Tiffany Archives records that the watch was purchased by Mrs. G. D. Widener, one of the three women.

It is engraved with the inscription “Presented to Captain Rostron with the heartfelt gratitude and appreciation of three survivors of the Titanic April 15th 1912, Mrs. John B. Thayer, Mrs. John Jacob Astor and Mrs. George D. Widener”.

The previous record for a Titanic-related object sold at auction was also a pocket watch, which sold for $1.485m earlier this year.

“The fact the world record price for Titanic memorabilia has been broken twice this year demonstrates the ever-decreasing supply and an ever-increasing demand for memorabilia related to the ship,” auctioneer Andrew Aldridge.

Source: DCLA

Tiffany Vacates Half its Flagship Shanghai Store

Shanghai,China-Oct.7th 2022: large Tiffany Co. flagship store at Huaihai Road with many walking people

Tiffany & Co. is reportedly vacating half of its 12,000 sq ft flagship store in Shanghai as luxury sales plummet in China.

The two-floor store (pictured), at the city’s Hong Kong Plaza, opened in 2019, with a bold design featuring almost 7,000 handcrafted glass diamonds.

But LVMH, the luxury conglomerate that owns Tiffany, has been hit by the economic slowdown globally and by government restrictions in China on ostentatious consumption.

In Q2 of this year LVMH posted a 14 per cent drop in sales for Asia (excluding Japan), which includes China. Profits globally for its watch and jewelry operations fell by 19 per cent during the quarter.

Tiffany will give up half the space at its Shanghai store later this month, according to a Bloomberg news report, and the landlord is in talks with potential new tenants.

It said Tiffany had asked property development and investment Lai Fung to reduce its rent.

Source: DCLA

Tiffany "Losing Staff to New Sales Targets"

Tiffany & Co is reported to be losing staff after setting unachievable sales targets.

Employees at the flagship Fifth Avenue store – newly rebranded as The Landmark – have received lower commissions as a result and many have moved elsewhere, according to sources who spoke anonymously to Fashion Network.

The fashion news website says staff at The Landmark, which generates 10 per cent of all Tiffany revenue, were set a $60m sales target for December 2023, compared to $30m the previous year.

Before the LVMH acquisition of Tiffany, for $16bn in 2021, monthly targets were typically increased by 5 per cent or 10 per cent.

Employees at The Landmark reportedly sold $50m last December. A hefty increase on 2022, but not enough to meet the company’s target.

Tiffany has also been falling short of the $25m monthly targets set for Q1 of 2024, according to the Fashion Network report.

It said some employees claimed they’d been told three quarters of the store’s 350 staff had left in a year.

A Tiffany spokesperson said earning for its top 20 client advisors were up by as much as 75 per cent on the previous year.

Source: DCLA

Tiffany’s tickled pink to be grabbing the world’s last Argyle diamonds

“This is truly once in a lifetime,” says the jeweller’s chief gemologist of the 35 sparklers acquired from the now-closed mine in the Kimberley.

Vicky Reynolds wants to take you on a date with a diamond.

Reynolds, Tiffany & Co’s chief gemologist, has had the enviable task of chaperoning the final 35 Argyle diamonds sold around the world, meeting with potential buyers and discussing exactly how these incredibly rare and exceptional gemstones will be used.

It is, she says, “the stuff my dreams are made of. This is truly once in a lifetime.”

Reynolds has worked with New York-based Tiffany & Co since 1987 – almost as long as the Argyle diamond mine, owned by Rio Tinto, operated in Western Australia’s East Kimberley region (it opened in 1983). When the mine closed in 2020 due to finite resources, the final annual tender – ordinarily a highly anticipated and prestigious event on the gemstone calendar – was considered the hottest ticket going.

The Argyle mine produced 90 per cent of the world’s pink diamonds, and each year, only 50 to 60 were ever offered in an invitation-only tender process. So when Rio Tinto rang Reynolds after the tender, to offer Tiffany and Co a further 35 diamonds noted for their vivid pink and purple colour, she jumped at the chance.

Source: DCLA

Tiffany Launches Diamond Engagement Rings for Men

 

For the first time in its history, iconic New York jeweler Tiffany & Co. has launched engagement rings for men.

This May, Tiffany unveils the Charles Tiffany Setting, a collection of solitaire men’s rings with sizable round-brilliant and emerald-cut diamonds measuring up to 4.3 carats.

Tiffany, which did more than $4 billion in jewelry sales last year, is on the cusp of a new era. In January, the company was acquired by the luxury-goods behemoth LVMH for $15.8 billion, and now the iconic Blue Box brand belongs to the French. And, after nearly 180 years in business, the jeweler is finally embracing the idea of diamonds for all.

“Why not diamonds for men?” asks Frank Everett, senior vice president, sales director for Sotheby’s luxury division in New York and a man known for his own collection of jeweled and diamond brooches. “Most men love diamonds but haven’t necessarily thought about applying them in their own jewelry.” While there’s always been a segment of men who favored a diamond pinkie ring, Everett says that men’s diamond rings were especially popular in the late ’70s and ’80s, but then they faded out.

He predicts Tiffany’s new engagement rings will help create a greater market for men’s diamond rings. “Once men break the ice and wear a diamond, it becomes comfortable and natural,” explains Everett.

Source: DCLA

Tiffany Launches Diamond Engagement Rings for Men

 

For the first time in its history, iconic New York jeweler Tiffany & Co. has launched engagement rings for men.

This May, Tiffany unveils the Charles Tiffany Setting, a collection of solitaire men’s rings with sizable round-brilliant and emerald-cut diamonds measuring up to 4.3 carats.

Tiffany, which did more than $4 billion in jewelry sales last year, is on the cusp of a new era. In January, the company was acquired by the luxury-goods behemoth LVMH for $15.8 billion, and now the iconic Blue Box brand belongs to the French. And, after nearly 180 years in business, the jeweler is finally embracing the idea of diamonds for all.

“Why not diamonds for men?” asks Frank Everett, senior vice president, sales director for Sotheby’s luxury division in New York and a man known for his own collection of jeweled and diamond brooches. “Most men love diamonds but haven’t necessarily thought about applying them in their own jewelry.” While there’s always been a segment of men who favored a diamond pinkie ring, Everett says that men’s diamond rings were especially popular in the late ’70s and ’80s, but then they faded out.

He predicts Tiffany’s new engagement rings will help create a greater market for men’s diamond rings. “Once men break the ice and wear a diamond, it becomes comfortable and natural,” explains Everett.

Source: DCLA

Tiffany & Co. launches men’s line, hoping diamonds are a dude’s best friend

Tiffany & Co. hasn’t had any trouble getting men to come shop for the ladies in their lives.

Now the jeweler behind those iconic blue boxes wants them to stay and peruse … for themselves.

Tiffany is rolling out its first comprehensive jewelry line for men, the company announced Thursday, in a bid to attract younger shoppers and reverse declining sales. Come October, the collection will include nearly 100 designs, some of which will fetch prices as high as $15,000. Tiffany also plans to add home furnishings and accessories, such as ice tongs and beer mugs, with male customers in mind.

But retail experts say it could be a tough sell. The glitz and glamour of Tiffany has long been tied to feminine jewelry (along with Audrey Hepburn’s soft smile and bejeweled neck).

Rolling out masculine designs are one thing. But getting male customers in the door and with themselves in mind is quite another.

“[Men] still see Tiffany as a female-based proposition, just because of its heritage and even things like the color of the boxes,” said Neil Saunders, managing director of research firm GlobalData Retail. “It could be quite difficult for them to really persuade male customers that they have something to offer and that is relevant to them.”

Reed Krakoff, Tiffany’s chief artistic director and who developed the collection, told the Associated Press that the new line will get its own floor space in Tiffany’s 300 stores, rather than being sold alongside other merchandise.

“Men all over the world are wearing jewelry and more accessories as part of a wardrobe,” Krakoff told the AP. “You started to see it on the runways, in social media.”

Krakoff said that men’s merchandise hasn’t historically been a large focus for Tiffany. But the company saw an opening given that half of the company’s global customers are men, most of whom come into Tiffany to buy women’s jewelry.

“We have a captive audience,” Krakoff said.

Mark Cohen, director of retail studies at Columbia Business School, gave credit to Tiffany for trying to become “more relevant” and less reliant on its aging “legacy customer.” That is key when younger shoppers “aren’t responding the way their parents did in terms of their affection for fine jewelry.”

But Cohen was skeptical that there was much Tiffany could mine in the men’s jewelry business. Gem stones and diamonds may glisten on the runway. But they do not carry the same currency for the average Joe.

“I just don’t see it as a meaningful business,” Cohen said. “To think this is going to be some sort of windfall — it’s just not going to happen.”

It is not just a lack of male foot traffic that has unsettled Tiffany. In November, company shares plummeted after Tiffany reported weaker-than-expected sales. Chief executive Alessandro Bogliolo said at the time that tourists, and specifically Chinese tourists, were traveling less, dampening sales in places like New York and Hong Kong. (Bogliolo said business in China was still strong, reaching double-digit sales growth throughout 2018.)

Though the fine jewelry market for men climbed to $5.8 billion worldwide in 2018, according to the market research firm Euromonitor International, it still lags far behind the $33.2 billion women’s market.

Saunders pointed to the athleisure brand Lululemon as a company that successfully pivoted from a mainly female audience and got more men in to shop. But Lululemon’s challenge was, in some ways, simpler to overcome, Saunders said. Lululemon does not carry the same “heritage” as Tiffany and could more easily persuade men to buy comfortable, practically gender-neutral workout clothes — not expensive bling.

Still, Tiffany has at least one major advantage: Even if men are not shopping for themselves right now, they are already inside and at the counter. Alexis DeSalva, a senior analyst of retail and e-commerce at Mintel, said Tiffany does not have to go after an entire new bucket of customers and woo them inside.

Rather, Tiffany can focus its pitch on existing male customers. Better yet, it can spread the word to its female fans who will then talk up the new line to male friends and family.

“Part of [Tiffany’s] legacy is on the service they offer,” DeSalva said. “They need to hone in on that and make sure they’re communicating [to men], ‘Hey, we have something for you too.’”

Source: DCLA

Tiffany & Co. launches men’s line, hoping diamonds are a dude’s best friend

Tiffany & Co. hasn’t had any trouble getting men to come shop for the ladies in their lives.

Now the jeweler behind those iconic blue boxes wants them to stay and peruse … for themselves.

Tiffany is rolling out its first comprehensive jewelry line for men, the company announced Thursday, in a bid to attract younger shoppers and reverse declining sales. Come October, the collection will include nearly 100 designs, some of which will fetch prices as high as $15,000. Tiffany also plans to add home furnishings and accessories, such as ice tongs and beer mugs, with male customers in mind.

But retail experts say it could be a tough sell. The glitz and glamour of Tiffany has long been tied to feminine jewelry (along with Audrey Hepburn’s soft smile and bejeweled neck).

Rolling out masculine designs are one thing. But getting male customers in the door and with themselves in mind is quite another.

“[Men] still see Tiffany as a female-based proposition, just because of its heritage and even things like the color of the boxes,” said Neil Saunders, managing director of research firm GlobalData Retail. “It could be quite difficult for them to really persuade male customers that they have something to offer and that is relevant to them.”

Reed Krakoff, Tiffany’s chief artistic director and who developed the collection, told the Associated Press that the new line will get its own floor space in Tiffany’s 300 stores, rather than being sold alongside other merchandise.

“Men all over the world are wearing jewelry and more accessories as part of a wardrobe,” Krakoff told the AP. “You started to see it on the runways, in social media.”

Krakoff said that men’s merchandise hasn’t historically been a large focus for Tiffany. But the company saw an opening given that half of the company’s global customers are men, most of whom come into Tiffany to buy women’s jewelry.

“We have a captive audience,” Krakoff said.

Mark Cohen, director of retail studies at Columbia Business School, gave credit to Tiffany for trying to become “more relevant” and less reliant on its aging “legacy customer.” That is key when younger shoppers “aren’t responding the way their parents did in terms of their affection for fine jewelry.”

But Cohen was skeptical that there was much Tiffany could mine in the men’s jewelry business. Gem stones and diamonds may glisten on the runway. But they do not carry the same currency for the average Joe.

“I just don’t see it as a meaningful business,” Cohen said. “To think this is going to be some sort of windfall — it’s just not going to happen.”

It is not just a lack of male foot traffic that has unsettled Tiffany. In November, company shares plummeted after Tiffany reported weaker-than-expected sales. Chief executive Alessandro Bogliolo said at the time that tourists, and specifically Chinese tourists, were traveling less, dampening sales in places like New York and Hong Kong. (Bogliolo said business in China was still strong, reaching double-digit sales growth throughout 2018.)

Though the fine jewelry market for men climbed to $5.8 billion worldwide in 2018, according to the market research firm Euromonitor International, it still lags far behind the $33.2 billion women’s market.

Saunders pointed to the athleisure brand Lululemon as a company that successfully pivoted from a mainly female audience and got more men in to shop. But Lululemon’s challenge was, in some ways, simpler to overcome, Saunders said. Lululemon does not carry the same “heritage” as Tiffany and could more easily persuade men to buy comfortable, practically gender-neutral workout clothes — not expensive bling.

Still, Tiffany has at least one major advantage: Even if men are not shopping for themselves right now, they are already inside and at the counter. Alexis DeSalva, a senior analyst of retail and e-commerce at Mintel, said Tiffany does not have to go after an entire new bucket of customers and woo them inside.

Rather, Tiffany can focus its pitch on existing male customers. Better yet, it can spread the word to its female fans who will then talk up the new line to male friends and family.

“Part of [Tiffany’s] legacy is on the service they offer,” DeSalva said. “They need to hone in on that and make sure they’re communicating [to men], ‘Hey, we have something for you too.’”

Source: DCLA