A rare, 5-carat ‘vivid pink’ diamond was auctioned off for a record £6.5 million at Christies in Hong Kong last week.

The sale made by an unidentified Asian buyer beat the previous record, set 15 years ago in Geneva for a 19.66-carat stone at £4.4 million.

Graff Diamond jewellers set the chickpea-sized stone (a quarter of the size of the Geneva stone) in a ‘cushion-cut’ ring. Francois Curiel, Christie’s Europe chairman described it as a “fabulous pink diamond, probably one of the rarest stones I’ve ever seen.”

The diamond’s pre-sale estimate was between five and seven million dollars. The pink gem’s per-carat price of £1.3 million was also the highest ever paid for any diamond at auction, according to Christie’s.

£1.2 million a carat for pink coloured diamond

“No stone has ever been sold for £1.2 million a carat, we were used to £600,000 a carat for coloured diamonds but never £1.2 million,” said Curiel. “This is an absolute record that is not going to be broken for a while I believe.”

The South African-mined diamond has minor blemishes, which the auction house says can be removed by minor re-polishing. The bid beat a £6.3 million bid for a seven-carat blue diamond in Geneva this year.

“This definitely went above its high estimate, but that is what the market thought it was worth,” a Christie’s spokeswoman told AFP. “We think this will probably hold for quite some time — it’s a very strong price.”

She added Asian jewellery buyers have become “an extremely important group” for the auction house. “They are very active, very sophisticated and they’re buying at the very high end.”

For the aboriginal time in the added than 150-year history of Paris haute couture, accomplished jewellery will accommodated admirable clothes to actualize a new ‘luxury week’ for the spring/summer 2010 season.

In January, the haute couture houses will clearly acceptable the haute joaillerie makers assimilate the couture calendar, chain two of the city’s a lot of acclaimed and big-ticket hand-crafts.

The arch Paris couture houses, such as Chanel,Christian Dior, Givenchy , and Jean Paul Gaultier, calm with Giorgio Armani Privé,Valentino and Elie Saab, will be abutting by some of the a lot of acclaimed jewellery houses in the world, including Boucheron, Cartier, Chanel Joaillerie, Chaumet, Christian Dior Joaillerie, Mellerio dits Meller and Van Cleef & Arpels.

The accessible Paris haute couture anniversary begins on January 24th and will accomplishment on January 28th, the day that will be committed to the ability of accomplished jewellery.

‘Haute couture’ is the French byword for ‘high fashion’ and represents the accomplished accessible akin of creating one-off designs, accurately fabricated to the client’s measurements. The industry is about accustomed as accepting amorphous in the 1850s with an Englishman, Charles Frederick Worth, originally from Lincolnshire, who is admired as ‘the ancestor of haute couture’. Worth aboriginal formed in London and confused to Paris in 1845. His success was assured if Empress Eugenie, the wife of Napoleon III, became a client.

Although the amount of ‘maisons’ who abide on the twice-yearly (January and July) couture calendar, has alone decidedly back the bang years of the aboriginal bisected of the twentieth century, the industry charcoal an important ‘flagship’ for affluence brands. Wealthy Russian and Middle Eastern clients, calm with the affluent wives and daughters of the arising powerhouses in China and added Asian countries accept become an important antecedent of assets for the houses which remain.

Costs for a archetypal clothing or dress, fabricated absolutely to the customer’s proportions, exquisitely-lined and hand-finished, and with several fittings, can alpha from about £10,000.

Evening dresses and marriage gowns, in the world’s a lot of big-ticket fabrics, generally elaborately-embellished with adornment and beading, which can yield amid 800 and 1,000 hours of assiduous handwork, by a specialist house, such as Lesage, which was founded in 1922, can calmly ability £100,000.

Geneva–Sales from Patrizzi and Co.’s October archival bargain in Geneva totaled added than $6.2 million, with 70 percent of the 253 lots selling.

According to the bargain house, for the ages above-mentioned to the Oct. 25 sale, online action was strong, with an boilerplate of just over 3,500 visitors per day demography to the sale’s online bargain catalog.

As for the day of, 60 watch enthusiasts were present in the bargain room, with attendees acclamation from Asia, the Americas, Europe and the Middle East. In addition, 45 alternate online and behest by buzz was rigorous, the bargain abode said.

“Today we accept apparent a change yield abode in the market,” Patrizzi and Co. Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Osvaldo Patrizzi said in a media release. “There was a huge bulk of activity in the bargain allowance and this apparent itself in accomplished results–evidently aplomb is alpha to return.”

Among the a lot of approved pieces were an art deco table clock, chinoiserie biking alarm and “Mystery Barometer,” all from Cartier, as able-bodied as a Piguet and Capt apparatus agreeable spyglass and a attenuate complete set of lady’s savonette-form watch, fob, brooch, earrings, ring and analogous alternation from 1860.

The Cartier Mystery Barometer (lot 229), an acutely attenuate barometer crafted from silver, bedrock crystal, apricot and atramentous and red lacquer, awash for about $127,000, while the brand’s pendulette chinoiserie “Ecran” table alarm (lot 228), an eight-day duration, art deco alarm crafted from bizarre silver, coral, platinum, diamonds, atramentous bark and mother-of-pearl, awash for about $185,000. A abate chinoiserie pendulette (lot 227) in gold and platinum with diamonds, jade, atramentous and enamel, and inlaid in its aboriginal Cartier adapted box, awash for about $166,000.

The Piguet and Capt spyglass (lot 111), about 1805, crafted in 18-karat gold and enamel, with a pearl-set agreeable spyglass featuring a buried apparatus arena and congenital watch, awash for about $293,000.

As for the savonette-form watch in 18-karat gold and apply with analogous fob and design adornment pieces, the complete set (lot 110) fetched about $63,000.

Additional brands that awash able-bodied in the bargain included Panerai, Patek Philippe and Rolex, as able-bodied as avant-garde pieces from Ulysse Nardin and TAG Heuer.