Many noteworthy events honoring His Majesty the King’s 50th Anniversary of His Accession to the Throne made the 18th Bangkok Gems, Jewelry, Watch & Clock Fair one for the history books. But the September fair will also be remembered as the one which rebounded attendance figures for Bangkok trade shows.
The four-day event, jointly organized by the Department of Export Promotion (DEP), the Thai Gem & Jewelry Traders Association (TGITA), the Jeweler’s Association of Thailand and the Thai Diamond Manufacturers Association (TDMA), was geared to generate growth for one of the kingdom’s high-ranking export industries.
Deputy Prime Minister Samak Sundaravej presided over the opening ceremony. He dismissed the pre-written speech for a portion of his address to audience members regarding the country’s gem and jewelry industry. The off-the-cuff speech, in both Thai and English, was direct but upbeat regarding Thailand’s export industries contribution to the nation’s economy. The gem and jewelry sector is a strong contributor to the Kingdom’s emerging growth markets, he said.
A fashion show of jewelry creations from the Top Ten Jewelry Awards with dresses designed by Gina followed the opening speeches. Eli Izhakoff, president of the World Federation of Diamond Bourses, joined Deputy Prime Minister Samak Sundaravej at the ribbon cutting ceremony to officially open the fair. They were joined by well known gem and jewelry industry leaders on a tour through the fair.
The many scheduled events for the fair drew the interest of attendees, but also attracted a large local crowd to examine the country’s award winning gold and jewelry designs, along with gifts of distinction given to the King as part of Thailand’s Golden Jubilee celebration.
Gifts presented to the King on display for fair attendance were the world’s largest faceted blue topaz, a jeweled replica of the Narai Song Suban Royal Barge and a working version of a gold Leica camera.
His excellent General Prem Tinsulanondda, Privy Councilor and Senior Statesman, presided over Thailand’s first jewel award auction. Bidding was open to fair attendees for the top 25 jewelry creations selected from hundreds of entries from various jewelry design competitions in the last three years. Proceeds went to benefit His Majesty the King’s Royal Projects.
Thailand’s top 50 gold jewelry designers who participated in the Gold Design Awards ’96, a regional gold jewelry design competition sponsored by the World Gold Council, were given certificates, with the top five designers receiving trophies, from Somkid Chotikavanich, director general of the fine Arts Department.
Over 5,000 attendees had the chance to inspect goods, products and services from over 800 exhibitors. Many segments of the gems and jewelry industry were represented at the fair.
The Asian Institute for Gemological Sciences (AIGS) was offering gem consultations for 300 baht. The AIGS also brought in Randy Wagner, president of LamdbaSpec instruments, to demonstrate his company’s latest imaging spectrophotometer technology, the ISP-9400.
The Gemological Institute of America (GIA) invited Dr James Shigley, director of research for the GIA, at the Carlsbad, California, research facility, to attend the trends.
A booth from the Union of Myanmar Economic Holding Co (UMEHL), a major shareholder in a joint venture with Nouveau Marketing of Thailand, marked the fist exhibitor from Myanmar (Burma) in the history of Bangkok fair. The framed Myanmar corundum was a big attraction.
“Many people came by to see our stones. We’re looking to come back in the future. Maybe next time we’ll get a bigger booth,” said Lt-Col Sein Than, director of UMEHL.
“Everyone is looking here because of the Burma stones. Customers think the price is a bit high, but this is the first time we have brought these stones to a Bangkok fair. People are anxious to get stones from Burma,” said Lapinee Harntha, general manager of Nouveau Marketing.
Platinum us making its way into more jewelry designs. James Wong, of James Casting Manufacturing, said current fashion trends are looking to lighter colors.
“Semi-precious stones mounted in gold can spoil in platinum, it gives the stone more color. People now know more about platinum. There is a greater market demand for it,” Wong said.
In response to this increase in consumer demand, 80 percent of Wong’s jewelry is now platinum. Although it is more difficult to work with compared to gold, Wong sees greater potential for platinum jewelry. Designs by James at the Bangkok fair were mostly made with precious stones.
Felicia (Thailand) was another company taking advantage of platinum’s increasing popularity. The jewelry company is introducing an inexpensive alternative to platinum jewelry with their line of sterling silver rings coated with platinum.
The new line was being test marketed at the Bangkok fair only to regular customers. According to Vibeke Lyssand Leirvag, managing director of Felicia, the low price point of the new line makes it attractive alternative to other types of more expensive platinum jewelry.
Felicia also introduced day and night jewelry, what Leirvag calls “a disco item. We took high polished 925 silver and put phosphorous enamel designs on rings and earrings, it’s something the younger people would like, but it is also an attractive and inexpensive thing for adults to wear when going to discos. Again, the price point is very low, and it is quite affordable,” she said.
The two new lines kept the Felicia booth quite busy, said Leirvag. “People are very positive about the new sterling and platinum line, the day and night line, well, it’s something new at the far. Everybody’s always looking for something new,” she added.
Another low price point jewelry item is amber. The organic gemstone mounted in silver sold quite well for S U C Trading, according to Heinz Swatosch.
“People from Thailand know amber. Its low price point makes it very affordable. People visiting the fair are very happy when they can look at large quantities of amber jewelry,” Swatosch said.
Although the amber attracted a lot of lookers and buyers, those browsing over the colored stone section of the S U C Trading booth were mainly old customers. We didn’t meet many new customers for colored stones. Sales for this show were down compared to other Bangkok shows,” Swatoach said.
Caeser Habib, of Kaiser Gems, said they experienced good sales for their colored stones thanks to foreign buyers who were buying green garnet, peridot, and alexandrite. Japanese buyers were ordering commercial calibrated goods while showing interest in larger stones, Habib said.
He added that with the growing popularity of colored stones there is an increased interest in larger stones for jewelry. Clients from the Middle East and Turkey purchased gemstones from Habib, something he normally does not see at a Bangkok show.
Pacific East is continuing its education process for the local market with its black Boulder opals, said Lee Wolf. In order to help stimulate interest in opals, Pacific East is looking to print a Thai language buyers’ guide.
Black opal jewelry is catching on in the Thai market, but Lee mused that some people seemed more interested in the opal display items at the fair. “One gentlemen saw some opal in the rough and wanted buy it. It’s not a particularly pretty or valuable price, but it was opal in the rough and he very much wanted to have it,” he said.
Opals made a strong presence some dealers were mixing in doublets and triplets with their regular opals. “That’s like mixing CZ [cubic zirconium] with natural polished diamonds, it’s deceiving to the customer who doesn’t know any better,” he said.
The company is moving toward opal jewelry produced in Thailand. “We are not unhappy with the interest we have developed here. We want to help promote opal and follow-up on new contacts from the show,” he said.
Thomas Gruending of Germany, a wholesaler of precious stones, who shared a booth with Harmony By Hand, a local jewelry manufacturer, said the fair brought in new customers. “Overall we are very content with the show. Bangkok is the place to be in the future regarding its potential as a center for colored stones and jewelry when Hong Kong is returned to China,” he said.
Kurt Zbinden, of Golay Buchel, also said their jewelry booth quite busy. “We are very happy with the show and we have been very busy throughout the fair. For us, we are focusing on pearls at this fair. Pearls are getting a strong interest in Thailand. More people may be at this fair because more prominent Japanese and German jewelry companies are here this time,” he said.
Although many people attended the show, not every exhibitor was satisfied with their sales. Savon Lo, of Thien Po, said it was a slow show for him, but felt an obligation to make a presence at a local trade fair. Tom Banker of GemEssence expressed similar sentiments.
The overall impression of this fair was that many people were at the show, but few were serious buyers. The strong days for sales were the second and third day of the show.
Still others were satisfied in just being at the Bangkok fair based on the country’s strong role in the jewelry industry. Tyler Teague, of Neutec USA, was one jewelry manufacturing equipment dealer who said of all the regional fairs, Bangkok proves to be a good fair each year.
“I’ve been to Bangkok a few times now. Although business here is a little slow compared to Bombay, the fairs are always well organized and supported well. I’ve sold one machine so far, that’s good enough for me. I have sold nearly 35 casting machines here in Thailand,” Teague said.
He attributes good sales to his company’s use of flight control instrument panels in the equipment, which are made to work under extreme temperature, pressure and weather conditions. Each panel board that goes into hi equipment is laminated; allowing the electronic components to last longer in Thailand’s humid and rainy weather conditions, Teague said.
Not all jewelry equipment manufacturers are so upbeat about the promotional efforts of the DEP fair. Simone Callai, of Jewelry New Wave, said the organizers tend to focus on the export potential of the Bangkok shows and ignore the needs of local manufacturers. “My customers are local. Thais must know they can access the show. I am making new contacts here, but this is a slow time of the year for manufacturers at trade shows. Many company’s are producing their lines for Christmas sales,” Callai said.