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Graff (jewellers)

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Graff Diamonds International Ltd.
IndustryJeweller, Watchmaker
Founded1960
FounderLaurence Graff
Headquarters
London
,
United Kingdom
Number of locations
64 (2023)
Area served
Worldwide
Key people
Laurence Graff (Chairman)
Number of employees
500
Websitegraff.com

Graff is a British multinational jeweller based in London.[1] It was founded by British jeweller Laurence Graff in 1960. A vertically integrated company, Graff operations comprise the design, manufacture and retail distribution of jewellery and watches.

Awards

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Graff were the first ever jewellers to receive the Queen's Award for Industry and Export (now known as the Queen's Award for Enterprise), awarded in 1973.[2] Since then, the company has received this award a further four times, most recently in 2014.[3][4][5][6][7][8]

Sourcing

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Graff adheres to the Kimberley Process, never knowingly buying or trading rough diamonds from areas where this would encourage conflict or human suffering.[9] The majority of Graff diamonds are laser engraved with unique Gemological Institute of America (GIA) tracking numbers, which whilst invisible to the naked eye, allow for their origin to be traced.[10] Graff’s cutting and polishing processes are carried out in Johannesburg by the South African Diamond Corporation, a division of Graff.[11]

Notable pieces

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Diamonds

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The Windsor Yellows were acquired by Laurence Graff in 1987 in Geneva during the auction of the jewels belonging to Wallis Simpson, Duchess of Windsor. The Duchess was often photographed wearing the Windsor Yellows, a pair of clips of fancy yellow pear shaped diamonds of 51.01 and 40.22 carats respectively. "I also bought another pair of clips the Duchess had owned," Laurence Graff explains. "Of course they needed re-cutting to bring them to their full potential, I bought all four, repolished them, and eventually made the Windsor earrings."[12]

The Paragon diamond was acquired by Graff in 1989. The Paragon is a 7-sided diamond of 137.82 carats (27.564 g), cut,[13][14] and was worn as part of "millennium" necklace of round, pink, blue and yellow diamonds by Naomi Campbell in 1999.[15]

The Lesotho Promise was acquired as a rough 603-carat (120.6 g) stone for $12.4 million in 2006.[16] The stone was cut by a team of 35 using computer-controlled lasers into 26 D-flawless diamonds totaling 223.35 carats (44.670 g), the highest yield from a single diamond.[17][18]

The Wittelsbach-Graff Diamond is a 31.06-carat (6.212 g) fancy deep-blue diamond with internally flawless clarity purchased by Laurence Graff in 2008 for £16.4 million.

The Delaire Sunrise is, at 118.08 carats, the largest square emerald cut Fancy Vivid Yellow diamond in the world. Discovered in 2008 at an alluvial mine in South Africa, the 221.81 carat rough diamond. When Laurence Graff unveiled the finished diamond, he named it "the Delaire Sunrise".[19]

The Graff Pink was acquired by Graff in November 2010. A pink diamond with a type IIa classification and modified emerald cut shape, the diamond was previously held in a private collection for over 60 years. The diamond displayed 25 natural flaws. The recut 23.88 carat diamond displayed new colour, clarity and internal flawlessness.[20][21][22]

The Sultan Abdul Hamid II is a 70.54 carat light yellow acquired by Graff in 1981. It has been suggested that this stone may have been cut from "The Ottoman I" which originally belonged to Suleyman the Magnificent of Turkey.[23]

The Graff Lesedi La Rona, a 302.37 carat D color high-clarity emerald cut diamond. It is the main stone cut from the Lesedi La Rona, bought by Graff in 2017 and cut in 2019. The cutting of the rough stone also produced 66 smaller stones. According to Graff, the stone is the "largest highest clarity, highest color diamond ever graded by the Gemological Institute of America (GIA)".[24][25]

Jewellery

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The Peacock Brooch takes the form of a peacock with a display of fanned tail feathers, this diamond brooch features a collection of coloured diamonds. A total of 120.81 carats of diamonds adorn the brooch, which measures a little over 10 cm in height. At the heart of the brooch, sits a 20.02 carat deep blue pear shape diamond. The piece also features an additional clasp to the rear, allowing the blue diamond centrepiece to be removed and worn two ways.[26][27]

This piece was unveiled in 2013 and priced at $100 million. As of 2015, the brooch had sold for $120 million.[28]

The Hallucination watch was unveiled at Baselworld in 2014, with Graff claiming it as the most expensive watch created at $55 million.[29] It is made with 110 carats of fancy colour diamonds and has a quartz movement.[29]

Locations

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Graff has over 50 stores around the world, with their first location outside of the UK located in Monaco's Hôtel de Paris in 2000.[30] Their largest boutique is in Rue Saint-Honoré, Paris, their second in the city.[31]

Graff has corporate offices in London, New York, Geneva, Hong Kong and Tokyo.

Robberies

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Graff has been the target of several robberies.

In 1980, two Chicago-based gangsters armed with a handgun and a hand grenade stole jewellery valued at £1.5 million from the Sloane Street premises. Mafiosi Joseph Scalise and Arthur Rachel, who took "less than a minute" to commit the crime, were apprehended eleven hours later in the United States and were extradited to England where they were tried, convicted and imprisoned for nine years.[32] Their haul had included the 26 carat Marlborough diamond, worth £400,000 at the time, which has never been recovered.[33]

In 1993, the firm's Hatton Garden workshop premises was robbed of jewellery valued at £7 million. The robbery was attributed to a group of armed robbers known as The Rascal Gang due to the Bedford Rascal vans they used.[34]

In 2003, the New Bond Street premises was robbed by two men from the Pink Panthers international jewel thief network who stole 47 pieces of jewellery worth £23 million.[34]

In 2005, three armed robbers stole jewellery valued at £2 million from the Sloane Street premises.[35]

In 2007, two robbers, who arrived at the Sloane Street premises in a chauffeur-driven Bentley Continental Flying Spur, threatened staff at gunpoint and stole jewellery worth £10 million.[34] In the same year, the Graff premises in Wafi City, Dubai was targeted by the Pink Panthers again, using two Audi A8 cars to carry out a ram raid.[36] Jewellery worth AED14.7 million (£2.4 million) was taken, although later recovered when two of the gang, both Serbians, were arrested.[37]

In the 2009 Graff Diamonds robbery, which took place on 6 August, two armed robbers stole 43 items with a total worth of nearly £40 million.[34] It was believed to be the largest ever gems heist in Britain at the time, and the second largest British robbery after the £53 million raid on a Securitas depot in Kent in 2006.[38][39]

References

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  1. ^ "Graff". Retrieved 25 September 2015.
  2. ^ "Collecting guide: Graff diamonds | Christie's". www.christies.com. Retrieved 2021-06-30.
  3. ^ DeMarco, Anthony. "Graff Diamonds Receives Queen's Award For International Trade". Forbes. Retrieved 2021-06-30.
  4. ^ Staff Writer (1970-01-01). "Queen's Award for Graff's international growth". Professional Jeweller. Retrieved 2021-06-30.
  5. ^ "Graff Diamonds wins Queens Award for International Trade". www.thejewelleryeditor.com. 2014-04-21. Retrieved 2021-06-30.
  6. ^ "Gazette" (PDF).
  7. ^ "Graff Diamonds bestowed with Queen's Award for Enterprise". Archived from the original on 2022-07-02. Retrieved 2021-06-30.
  8. ^ "National Archives".
  9. ^ Naas, Roberta (13 July 2016). "From Rough Diamond to Finished Jewelry: How Graff Cut the 299-Carat Rough Fancy Intense Yellow Diamond into the 132-Carat Golden Empress Diamond". Haute Time. Retrieved 15 October 2023.
  10. ^ Kahle, Laurie (10 April 2019). "Graff Unveils the Largest Square Emerald Cut Diamond in the World". Barron's. Retrieved 15 October 2023.
  11. ^ Sheng, Ellen (29 May 2012). "Graff Executives Tout Jeweler's $1 Billion IPO". WWD.
  12. ^ "The Most Fabulous Jewels In the World", Meredith Etherington-Smith, 1997
  13. ^ Murphy, Robert (March 1, 2008), "In the cut", W Magazine, archived from the original on July 16, 2011, retrieved November 6, 2009
  14. ^ "The Paragon Diamond". Famousdiamonds.tripod.com. Retrieved 25 September 2015.
  15. ^ Menkes, Suzy (15 June 1999). "Those Sparkling Celebrities". New York Times. Retrieved 2011-06-19.
  16. ^ Sguazzin, Antony (9 October 2006). "Graff Buys Lesotho Promise Diamond for $12.4 Million". Bloomberg. Retrieved 2009-11-06.
  17. ^ Murphy, Robert (1 March 2008). "In the Cut". W Magazine. Archived from the original on 26 September 2015. Retrieved 25 September 2015.
  18. ^ Doulton, Maria (3 April 2008). "The Lesotho promise: Diamonds cut from a rough the size of a golf ball". The Financial Times. London. Retrieved 15 January 2018.
  19. ^ "The Delaire Sunrise". Safdico.com. Archived from the original on 15 July 2011. Retrieved 25 September 2015.
  20. ^ "World's most famous 'unseen' diamond". BBC News. 30 January 2010.
  21. ^ [1] Archived January 16, 2012, at the Wayback Machine
  22. ^ Fabrikant, Geraldine (18 June 2011). "Laurence Graff Sees Demand for Big Diamonds in China". The New York Times.
  23. ^ Malecka, Anna (Winter 2015). "The Lost Diamond of Süleyman the Magnificent". Jewellery History Today. No. 22. The Society of Jewellery Historians.
  24. ^ DeMarco, Anthony (10 April 2019). "Graff Unveils World's Largest Square Emerald Cut Diamond At 302.37 Carats". Forbes. Retrieved 13 April 2019.
  25. ^ "Introducing The Graff Lesedi La Rona". Graff. Retrieved 13 April 2019.
  26. ^ "Graff to Unveil 120-Carat Diamond Peacock Brooch Valued At $100 Million". Forbes.com. Retrieved 2015-09-27.
  27. ^ "Independent Jewelers Market News - Small Jeweler Organization Reports". Nationaljeweler.com. Archived from the original on 17 May 2013. Retrieved 25 September 2015.
  28. ^ Robert Frank, Henri Barguirdjian. Graff Diamonds. CNBC.
  29. ^ a b Anthony DeMarco. "Graff Unveils $55 Million Multi-Colored Diamond Watch At Baselworld's Opening Day". Forbes.
  30. ^ "Beginnings". Graff.
  31. ^ "Paris Jewelry Store Opening". Graff.
  32. ^ "1980: Famous gem grabbed in armed raid". On This Day – 11 September. BBC. Retrieved 11 August 2009.
  33. ^ "Armed robbers in '£1m' Graff jewellery heist". The Daily Telegraph. 28 May 2005. Retrieved 11 August 2009.
  34. ^ a b c d Davenport, Justin. "£40m Mayfair raid is biggest gems heist in British history" Archived 2009-08-12 at the Wayback Machine. Evening Standard (London). 11 August 2009. Retrieved 11 August 2009.
  35. ^ Naughton, Philippe. "Robbery tip-off closes diamond exhibit"[dead link]. The Times. 23 November 2005. Retrieved 11 August 2009.
  36. ^ Fleishman, Jeffery. "Jewel thieves' fan club grows as Pink Panthers strike again". The Irish Times. 4 August 2009. Retrieved 11 August 2009.
  37. ^ Abdulla, Shadiah. "Serb Sentenced to 10 Years in Jail for Wafi City Robbery". Arab News. 9 June 2008. Retrieved 11 August 2009.
  38. ^ Edwards, Richard. "Graff Diamonds £40 million jewellery robbery is Britain's biggest gem heist". The Daily Telegraph. 11 August 2009. Retrieved 11 August 2009.
  39. ^ "Jewellery raid haul put at £40m". BBC. 11 August 2009. Retrieved 11 August 2009.
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