World’s finest gems showcased at Jewellery Arabia

EXTRAVAGANT pieces of jewellery including luxury pearl necklaces, gold bracelets, precious stones and diamonds are on display at one of the most prestigious exhibitions in the region.

The 27th edition of Jewellery Arabia was opened yesterday by His Royal Highness Prime Minister Prince Khalifa bin Salman Al Khalifa at the Bahrain International Exhibition and Convention Centre.

More than 50,000 visitors are expected to attend the five-day annual event, which is held under the patronage of the Premier and features over 600 exhibitors from 31 countries.

“Bahrain’s rich jewellery heritage chimes perfectly with Jewellery Arabia and makes it a natural host,” said UBM AEM sales and marketing director Fawzi Al Shehabi.

“As we look to the future, annual global jewellery sales are expected to grow at five to six per cent annually to over $28 billion by 2020.”

Among the extravagant pieces was a BD680,000 diamond set from Butani Jewellery Limited that went on display at Asia Jewellers exclusively for the show.

“We take pride in exhibiting in Jewellery Arabia every year and we are representing over 25 brands, many of them repeat exhibitors with new and special collections to be launched in the GCC,” said Asia Jewellers chairman Mohammed Jaffar.

“What’s special about the show is it’s a chance for brands to represent their latest collections not only for the Bahraini public but for the GCC market.”

The Hong Kong-based company specialises in big sets and special pieces made from precious stones.

“There is a piece that is a fancy yellow and white diamond earring and necklace set,” said Butani director Mukesh Butani.

“It has 235K of diamonds ranging from half a karat all the way to five karats.

“It’s a handmade beautiful piece worth BD680,000 and it has a beautiful spread covering the whole neck and chest and the earrings are waterfall earrings and it’s made especially for this show.”

The intricate array of diamonds took around three months to conceptualise and create.

An elaborate array of pearls costing BD250,000 were among the pieces on display for Al Hashimi Pearls, specialising in creating jewellery using natural Bahraini pearls.

“Jewellery Arabia is an international platform where we can focus internationally and we launch a new product every year especially for this exhibition,” said its chairman Vijay Shah.

“This is the best platform in all the GCC and we get an opportunity to spread internationally the natural Bahraini pearls.”

A pair of pear-shaped diamond earrings priced at over BD87,000 also went on display at Al Sarraj Jewellers during the exhibition.

According to managing director Mohammed Malim, procuring the 9K diamonds each was difficult because of their symmetry and quality.

“Getting a single piece is not a problem but matching two pieces together is rare which makes the piece special,” he added.

The exhibition will be open from 4pm to 10pm until Friday and from 12pm to 10pm on Saturday at the Bahrain International Exhibition and Convention Centre.

For more information, visit www.jewelleryarabia.com

Source: http://www.gdnonline.com/Details/432019