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Unexpected Treasures: CIRCA Evaluates A Reader's Finds

Filed under: Jewelry, Timepieces / Watches

A reader submitted the following letter to Luxist's Unexpected Treasures column and CIRCA agreed to help us evaluate:

Going through some old "junk" chests I had I came upon a few of interesting pieces I thought I would submit.

The first piece is an 18K gold Zenith wristwatch. The watch belonged to my grandfather and I believe it is pre 1930. Upon further inspection (I am a watch aficionado) I believe it uses a Valjoux .22 Calibre Chronograph movement (I could definitely be wrong). The watch does not have a model or serial number as is common with a lot of older timepieces. I have not been able to find much information on the piece online so any help you and circa could provide would be wonderful.

The second piece is a Tiffany's sterling silver bean clutch purse designed by Elsa Peretti. Elsa was a good friend of my mothers and gifted the purse to her in the late 70s or early 80's (as the stamp on the back of the purse suggests.)

The third piece are a pair of Tiffany's earrings made out of palladium(stamped in the back), designed by Paloma Picasso, also gifted to my mother by Elsa.

I would love to see what circa has to say about these pieces and they certainly were an unexpected treasures.

Best Regards,
Federico

Click through for the response from CIRCA...

Tags: circa, circa jewels, elsa perretti, luxist guest post, paloma picasso, tiffany, tiffany and Co, TiffanyAndCo, unexpected treasures, zenith

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Luxist Guest Post: Chris Del Gatto of CIRCA On The Real Value of Jewelry

by Unknown (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Jewelry, Timepieces / Watches

Have you ever wondered what that diamond necklace that your grandmother left you would be worth if you ever wanted to sell it? We did, so we asked Chris Del Gatto, Chairman & CEO of CIRCA, the largest global buyer of fine jewelry from the public, to share some trade secrets on the true market value of jewelry.

As you can imagine, there's typically a disconnect between the public's perception of what jewelry is "worth", and the true market value of that item. True market value means the price that you would get if you were to sell the piece. This is very different from an appraisal value – what you would have to pay retail to replace an item if it were lost or stolen. What's important to realize is that when you're paying retail, you're paying for labor, marketing and the various profits made along the way.

For example, the generic yellow gold & diamond tennis bracelet that retails for $5,000, will typically cost a retailer an average of $1,800-$3,000, whereas the manufacturer's cost to make the piece would be more like $1,260 - $2,100. As someone who now owns that bracelet, and is selling it back into the marketplace, you're starting over again. You're not going to make back the profit that the manufacturer and retailer made. You also have to discount the labor that went into the piece. What you have left is the intrinsic value of the stones and the metal as your base. However, you can start adding value back if:

1) the piece is superbly designed and manufactured

2) the stone qualities are very high

3) it's a period piece, like Art Deco, Retro, etc.

4) the piece is signed by a famous maker such as Cartier, Van Cleef & Arpels, Tiffany & Co, etc.

Tags: accessories-pedia, awards-main, cartier, circa, circa jewels, jewelry, luxist guest post, luxist-awards, main-pedia, unexpected treasures, watches