24th August, 2021
Diamonds are forever, so goes the title of one of James Bond’s epic movies. And gold, they say, are precious but very few know they can be such good investments as well.
The Chief Executive Officer of Nigerian-owned, London-based luxury jewelry brand, Whitestone Jewellers, Mr Matthew Awotunde has given some reasons why they are more than precious stones.
“Luxury watches nowadays have become huge investments. You could buy a watch today for £3K for example, keep the watch for like 6 months to a year and after a year you sell it back to us for a whopping £4K. That’s a profit of £1K to you. We buy some of our watches back by the way. Dealing with customers has become something we won’t stop improving at, It just varies but mostly, customers are usually understanding and easy to deal with,” he said.
“Gold somewhat has more value than diamonds in their elements but in jewelry form you really cannot separate because diamonds are set in gold, they go hand in hand. But in their elements (raw form), gold seems to be more valuable because the value is more predictable and stable compared to diamonds. Rather than keeping cash, it is better to invest in gold because it doesn’t fall and rise like the dollars. It is the most secure and stable investment known to man,” he added.
Whitestone Jewellers does nothing but sell everything from solid gold to diamond watches/jewelries. For this, the brand has become popular and a darling of the rich and the famous of society. But for the CEO everyone counts as he would not accept they cater to a particular class of people
“We have a wide range of clients, saying it’s a particular category of people will be wrong! We deal with socialites, general civil servants, celebrities and indeed rich kids with love for luxury. It’s quite funny nowadays how normal people with normal jobs got huge interest in putting their money on Luxury watch brands such as Audemars Piguet, Rolex, Cartier’s and so on,” he said.
Aside from giving investment tips, the CEO also highlighted what to look out for when shopping for luxury watches or jewelries.
“When buying jewelry, you need to consider a wide range of things, from verifying your dealer to be sure you’re not getting sold a fake product to making sure you go for products that actually keep your money for investment purposes. I’d say there are a lot of factors to take into consideration,” he advised.
Based on his experience and dealings he averred that women tend to go for jewelries like bracelets and necklaces while men tend to cherish luxury watches more.
Whitestone Jewellers was officially established in 2017 and registered as a limited liability company in Great Britain with an office in Canary Wharf, London, England.
The brand currently has no outlet in Nigeria but ships to the whole of Africa, mostly Nigeria.