 | |
| Industry | Jeweller, Watchmaker |
|---|---|
| Founded | 1960 in London, U.K. |
| Founder | Laurence Graff |
| Headquarters | , |
Number of locations | 64 (2023) |
Area served | Worldwide |
Key people | Laurence Graff (Chairman) |
Number of employees | 500 |
| Website | graff |
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.
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. The Queen's Award to Industry and Export award is considered to be the highest accolade for a British company. It is awarded on the advice of the Prime Minister, following thorough examinations of each application by an Advisory Committee formed of leading representatives of industry and commerce. [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8]
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]
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] In July 2007 the finished stones were unveiled. The largest gem cut from the diamond was a 75-carat (15.0 g) pear-shaped diamond; the smallest a 0.55-carat (110 mg) round brilliant. In all, twenty-six stones were fashioned from the rough gem, figuring as seven pear shapes, four emerald cuts, thirteen round brilliants and one heart shape. The finished gems total 224 carats (44.8 g).
The Letseng Legacy diamond was unearthed from the same mine as the Lesotho Promise Letseng diamond mine in 2008 and totalled 493cts. Acquired by Graff for $10.4 million, they yielded 20 diamonds totaling 231.67cts from the one rough stone.
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 Constellation is, at 102.79 carats, the largest round shaped, D colour, Internally Flawless diamond ever to be graded by the Gemological Institute of America.
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 Graff Sweethearts were originally two rough diamonds weighing 196 carats and 184 carats discovered at the Letseng Mine in Lesotho. After cutting they produced a 51.53 ct D colour Flawless type IIa and a 50.76 ct D colour Flawless type IIa, both heart-shaped.
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]
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 centerpiece 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]
Graff has over 50 stores around the world including New York, Las Vegas, Melbourne, Monte Carlo, Courchevel, Kyiv, Beijing and Taipei. [1]
Graff has corporate offices in London, New York, Geneva, Hong Kong and Tokyo.
Graff's bi-annual magazine "Graffiti' was launched in 2009 and is distributed to Graff's customers in both English and Simplified Chinese characters.
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. [30] Their haul had included the 26 carat Marlborough diamond, worth £400,000 at the time, which has never been recovered. [31]
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. [32]
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. [32]
In 2005, three armed robbers stole jewellery valued at £2 million from the Sloane Street premises. [33]
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. [32] 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. [34] Jewellery worth AED14.7 million (£2.4 million) was taken, although later recovered when two of the gang, both Serbians, were arrested. [35]
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. [32] 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. [36] [37]
The Cullinan Diamond is the largest gem-quality rough diamond ever found, weighing 3,106 carats (621.20 g), discovered at the Premier No.2 mine in Cullinan, South Africa, on 26 January 1905. It was named after Thomas Cullinan, the owner of the mine. In April 1905, it was put on sale in London, but despite considerable interest, it was still unsold after two years. In 1907, the Transvaal Colony government bought the Cullinan and Prime Minister Louis Botha presented it to Edward VII, the British king who reigned over the territory, and it was cut by Joseph Asscher & Co. in Amsterdam.
The Pink Star, formerly known as the Steinmetz Pink, is a diamond weighing 59.60 carats, rated in color as Fancy Vivid Pink by the Gemological Institute of America. The Pink Star was mined by De Beers in 1999 in South Africa, and weighed 132.5 carats in the rough. The Pink Star is the largest known diamond having been rated Vivid Pink. As a result of this exceptional rarity, the Beny Steinmetz Group called Steinmetz Diamonds took a cautious 20 months to cut the Pink. It was unveiled in Monaco on 29 May 2003 in a public ceremony.
Harry Winston was an American jeweler. He donated the Hope Diamond to the Smithsonian Institution in 1958 after owning it for a decade. He also traded the Portuguese Diamond to the Smithsonian in 1963 in exchange for 3,800 carats of small diamonds.
De Grisogono is a Swiss luxury jeweller founded in Geneva, Switzerland, in 1993 by Lebanese-Italian black diamond specialist Fawaz Gruosi. The Italian name Grisogono is derived from the Latin Chrysogonus which comes from the Greek Chrysogonos χρῡσό-γονος, meaning "begotten of gold". The company filed for bankruptcy on 29 January 2020. In 2022 it was bought by the Damac Group of Dubai.
The Lesotho Promise, a 603 carat diamond stone of exceptional colour was unearthed on 22 August 2006 at the Letseng diamond mine in the mountain kingdom of Lesotho. Announced on 4 October 2006, it was the largest reported find this century and the 15th largest diamond ever found. The stone is rated 'D', the top colour band for diamonds.
The Letšeng Diamond Mine, found in the landlocked Southern African kingdom of Lesotho, is owned by Gem Diamonds, Ltd. and the government of Lesotho, and at an elevation of 3,100 m (10,000 ft) it is the world's highest diamond mine.
The largest flawless diamond in the world is known as The Paragon, a D-color gem weighing 137.82 carats (27.564 g), and the tenth largest white diamond in the world. The gem was mined in Brazil and attracted attention for being an exceptional white, flawless stone of great size. The Mayfair-based jeweller Graff Diamonds acquired the stone in Antwerp, cut it into an unusual seven-sided kite shield configuration, and set it in a necklace which separates to both necklace and bracelet lengths. Apart from the main stone, this necklace also contains rare pink, blue, and yellow diamonds, making a total mass of 190.27 carats (38.054 g). The necklace has associations with the end of the millennium and was worn by model Naomi Campbell at a diamond gala held by De Beers and Versace at Syon House in 1999.
Gem Diamonds is a British-based global diamond mining business. It is headquartered in London and is listed on the London Stock Exchange. In 2017, the company generated a profit of $20.8 million.
Petra Diamonds Ltd is a diamond mining group headquartered in Jersey. Petra own one of the world's most productive mines historically, the Cullinan Diamond Mine is famed for having produced the world's largest rough and polished diamond. The company is listed on the London Stock Exchange.
The Nassak Diamond is a large, 43.38 carats (8.676 g) Golconda Diamond that originated as a larger 89 carat diamond in the 15th century in India. Found in Golconda mines of Kollur and originally cut in India, the diamond was the adornment in the Trimbakeshwar Shiva Temple, near Nashik, in the state of Maharashtra, India from at least 1500 to 1817. The British East India Company captured the diamond through the Third Anglo-Maratha War and sold it to British jewellers Rundell and Bridge in 1818. Rundell and Bridge recut the diamond in 1818, after which it made its way into the handle of the 1st Marquess of Westminster's dress sword.
The Wittelsbach-Graff Diamond is a 31.06-carat (6.212 g) deep-blue diamond with internally flawless clarity, originating in the Kollur Mine, India. Laurence Graff purchased the Wittelsbach Diamond in 2008 for £16.4 million. In 2010, Graff revealed he had had the diamond cut by three diamond cutters to remove flaws. The diamond was now more than 4 carats (800 mg) lighter and was renamed the Wittelsbach-Graff Diamond. There is controversy, as critics claim the recutting has so altered the diamond as to make it unrecognisable, compromising its historical integrity.
The 968.9-carat (193.78 g) Star of Sierra Leone diamond was discovered by miners on February 14, 1972, in the Diminco alluvial mines in the Koidu area of Sierra Leone. It ranks as the fourth-largest gem-quality diamond and the largest alluvial diamond ever discovered.
Brown diamonds are the most common color variety of natural diamonds. In most mines, brown diamonds account for 15% of production. The brown color makes them less attractive to some people as gemstones, and most are used for industrial purposes. However, improved marketing programs, especially in Australia and the United States, have resulted in brown diamonds becoming valued as gemstones and even referred to as chocolate diamonds.
The Graff Diamonds robbery took place on 6 August 2009 when two men posing as customers entered the premises of Graff Diamonds in New Bond Street, London and stole jewellery worth nearly £40 million. 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 Tonbridge, Kent, in 2006. The robbers' haul totalled 43 items of jewellery, consisting of rings, bracelets, necklaces and wristwatches. One necklace alone has been reported as being worth more than £3.5m. Britain's previous largest jewellery robbery also took place at Graff's, in 2003.
Laurence Graff is an English jeweller and billionaire businessman, best known as the founder of Graff Diamonds, supplier of jewellery and jewels.
The Hooker Emerald Brooch is an emerald brooch designed by Tiffany & Co. The brooch is on display in the Janet Annenberg Hooker Hall of Geology, Gems, and Minerals at the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of Natural History in Washington D.C., United States.
The Graff Pink is a rare 24.78 carat pink diamond, once owned by American celebrity jeweller Harry Winston. The diamond, mounted in a ring, was sold by Sotheby's auctioneers in Geneva, Switzerland on 16 November 2010. Before its sale, the stone was expected to enter the list of the top ten most expensive diamonds in the world; on selling for US $46 million it became the most expensive single jewel ever sold at auction at that time.
Lucara Diamond Corp. is a diamond exploration and mining company, founded in 2009 by two Canadian mining executives, Eira Thomas, Catherine McLeod-Seltzer and Swedish-Canadian mining billionaire Lukas Lundin, operating in Southern Africa but established in Canada. In November 2015, Lesedi La Rona, the world's second largest gem-quality diamond ever found, was found at the Karowe mine in Botswana.
Lesedi La Rona, formerly known in media as Karowe AK6 or as Quad 1 by the personnel at the mine, is the fourth-largest diamond ever found, and the third-largest of gem quality. It was found in the Karowe mine, in Botswana on 16 November 2015.