A handful of huge diamonds has arrived in the world of high jewelry that could alter the entire business.
In January 2020 Louis Vuitton, the world’s most valuable luxury brand, revealed it had bought the second- largest rough diamond ever mined. It bought the 1,758-carat Sewelô for an undisclosed amount in collaboration with Lucara Diamond Corporation, the Canadian company that owns the mine in Botswana where it was discovered, and HB Company, a diamond-manufacturing business in Antwerp, Belgium.
But it turns out the brand’s appetite for great big diamonds was just beginning. In November, it purchased a smaller, but still uncommonly large, rough diamond, the 549-carat Sethunya. Its mining partner Lucara has proved particularly adept at finding such stones. It is at the forefront of using X-ray transmission technology to locate the diamonds before they’re broken into small pieces during the ore processing and has a special Mega Diamond Recovery circuit dedicated to the search.
The acquisitions are compelling evidence that Vuitton, the star of the sprawling LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton luxury conglomerate founded by Bernard Arnault, is polishing its high jewelry credentials. And it is not alone.