jewelry store

Jewelry store Tiffany & Co. is planning to open its first store in Amsterdam this fall. The new store will be approximately 2,100 square feet and located in a historic building on PC Hooftstraat, the Dutch city's main shopping street. Tiffany's architects and designers have pledged to preserve the building's original façade while giving it the Tiffany treatment on the inside with brushed stainless steel, custom furnishings and of course plenty of robin's egg blue boxes and diamonds.

Melvyn Kirtley, Group Vice President, Tiffany & Co. Europe says that opening the first Tiffany store in Amsterdam is a strong vote of confidence for Tiffany's growth potential in Europe. In the U.S., Tiffany recently announced plans to close its pearls-only store chain, Iridesse.

Engagement ring chain, Robbins Brothers, has become the latest jewelry store to file for Chapter 11. The 16-store chain billed itself as the "world's biggest engagement store" doing a brisk business in diamond rings and charming potential buyers with a media campaign featuring Skip and Steve, the Robbins Brothers.

The store will be broken into two parts and sold. As National Jeweler reports, bankruptcy documents show that the company will be divided into two parts and sold. Unless it is miraculously rescued by another buyer, Robbins Bros. Corp. will sell the California stores to Robbins Bros. Jewelry, basically to itself, while Canadian jewelry manufacturer and retailer Spence Diamonds will buy the three Houston stores and Illinois locations. Robbins Brothers expanded rapidly over the past few years and was done in by liquidity issues which were compounded by the slowdown in consumer spending. Sales decreased around three percent last year.

The three-generation, family-owned store moved from being a small jeweler to expanding into malls and then in 1995 opening a large bridal-only store.

Jewelry stores have been particularly hit by the bad economy (hence the need for a Sparkle Week). Fortunoff is in the process of liquidation and Zale's is closing 115 stores. With internet sales taking a bigger chunk of jewelry sales each year, jewelry stores were already feeling squeezed. The recession could lead more small jewelry chains to close their doors.

UPDATE: The company has restructured and emerged from bankruptcy.

A reader sent us a tip for this jewelry store, Persona Jewelry which has three stores in Boston in the lobbies of three of the city's finest hotels, The Taj, The Ritz-Carlton and the Hotel Commonwealth) as well as in the Pierre in New York City. The store is an interesting mix of high-end and more modestly priced pieces by designers such as Alexis Bittar, Stephan Blake and Gurhan. The in house jeweler and owner, Gary Shteyman, also creates custom pieces. There are also estate pieces by Van Cleef & Arpels, Bulgari, and Cartier. The glittering piece shown here is an 18K white gold bracelet set with 91.83 carats of multicolored sapphires. It sells for $23,585.

[Thanks, Vadim]

The most expensive lobster we had seen, up until today, was a $3,700 glass and silver creation. It doesn't seem terribly impressive now that this strikingly realistic solid gold lobster has come to our attention. The crustacean is made from 1.1-lbs of pure gold and is intricately worked down to the last tiny detail. It is about 13" long and 7" tall. Currently on display in a jewelry store in Nagoya Japan, the lobster's asking price is around 5 million yen, or $40,000.

[via growabrain]