Editor’s Note
This excerpt from a jeweler’s perspective highlights the timeless demand for classic emerald, ruby, and sapphire pieces, while noting a subtle shift as newer, younger clientele explore their offerings. It speaks to balancing tradition with evolving tastes.
We’ve always had a significant business in the core three: emerald, ruby, and sapphire. And that has stood the test of time. Anytime we venture off into doing something more on the modern side, we always revert back to the really traditional pieces, such as the classic three-stone. Those do very well for us—from $2,500 to you name it.
But I will say, with our new Buckhead location, we have a little bit of a younger audience that is coming through the doors. At the jewelry shows in Las Vegas this year, color was everywhere. Everybody wants color. Everybody wants that fun rainbow sapphire necklace or the blue sapphire necklace that has fun colors scattered throughout.
In our Roswell location, David Yurman dominates. We have our classic ruby, sapphire, emerald jewelry collections. But when I’m talking about fashion jewelry, Yurman really scratches that itch as far as that pop of color that people want.
The great thing about Yurman is that when they have a core collection, they typically do it in every gemstone with a wide offering of products and price points. Our best sellers still tend to be blue topaz, black onyx, pearl. If we’re buying a collection, we will do those gems, some amethyst, some citrine.
As I said, anytime we venture into that really fun, modern stuff, we always tiptoe back. But I think in our new Buckhead location, designers like Emily P. Wheeler, who we’re just buying into, are going to be very successful.
With Emily, we went with the more fun ombré rings, the wide bands, that you see out there. We got those in a couple of different colors.
We stock Marco Bicego and do well with his gemstone pieces. Right now, we have a beautiful case of product—you walk by it, and it’s a huge pop of color. We have a turquoise set right now that obviously makes an impact when you walk by. But everything from their Jaipur collection is tried and true.
Our bridal business is strictly diamond. We very rarely put a colored gemstone in the center. If anything, it would be on the sides, like a very classic diamond center with sapphire sides. We do very well with colored gemstone bands that people can either stack with other bands, wear on the right hand, or stack with a bridal set.
We have this one eternity band. It’s emerald-cut emeralds bezel-set in yellow gold. I don’t even know how many times we’ve sold it. Out of the big three gems, sapphires and emeralds are our best sellers, and ruby’s number three. But before Vegas, we always send out a questionnaire of what everyone wants us to get, and a few people on our sales team mentioned that they are getting requests for ruby set in yellow gold.
My favorite colored gemstone pieces are the right-hand rings. We always keep the Princess Diana sapphire ring style in stock, no matter what. That ring will always sell. I just love that really chic, classic, simple look of a right-hand colored gemstone ring.
We do a lot of custom work. I just updated a friend’s ring that she inherited from her grandmother. It was a cushion-shape sapphire in the center with two diamond trillions on either side. Very beautiful, but it wasn’t her style. We changed it by doing bezel settings, and we did it in yellow gold. And she traded in the trillions. We did a bezel setting around her cushion sapphire and then made it into a different take on a toi et moi style with a pear-shape diamond bezel setting. Now she has a badass cushion-shape sapphire that she can wear all the time and it’s not this big prong-y, sharp edge, three-stone ring with trillions.
