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| Pic by Gajanan Dudhalkar |
It was a time when most diamond dealers had been hit by the global recession. But two years ago Nirav Modi, a young Indian jeweller little known outside the jewellery business, quietly went on a buying spree of extraordinary proportions. He snapped up an amazing collection of the rarest pink and blue diamonds — which were all being sold relatively cheap by cash-strapped diamantiares around the world. Modi then spent the next two years cutting and polishing the stones he had gathered up from around the globe. In particular, he focused on a cache of 34 rare pink diamonds he’d acquired. The result? The exquisite Golconda Lotus necklace that stole the show at Christie’s jewellery auction in Hong Kong in November when it sold for a breathtaking Rs 16.29 crore to a Chinese collector.
“The Golconda Lotus necklace is an extraordinary piece that has launched Nirav Modi into the world of jewellery as an artistic form,” says Josephine Archer, business manager, Argyle Pink Diamonds. At the heart of the 121.99-carat Golconda Lotus necklace is a 12.29-carat pear-shaped Golconda diamond surrounded by smaller pear-shaped old-mine diamonds. It’s suspended from a flexible latticed band of rectangular pink diamonds (all 22.8 carats of them) and white diamond links.
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| The newly-opened Nirav Modi salon in Mumbai has an air of whispered luxury |
Don’t take a breath yet. There’s more. Zoom in on the astounding Shalimar ring that Modi unveiled in December when he launched his Nirav Modi jewellery salon in India — the launch also marked his partnership with the Argyle Diamond Mine, one of the world’s largest suppliers of diamonds. Modi’s now the sole distributor for Argyle’s rare pink diamonds in India.
The purplish pink 1.25-carat round Shalimar diamond was one of the most coveted stones in Argyle’s annual pink diamond auction in 2009 when Modi snapped it up. Now Modi says it “rises like Goddess Lakshmi emerging from a lotus” as it sits on top of layers of pink and white petals made from pear-shaped and round pink and colourless diamonds. It’s rumoured to cost Rs 10 crore but Modi won’t confirm that figure.
These one-of-a-kind heirloom jewellery pieces have firmly announced Modi’s entry onto the global luxury jewellery stage. Says Archer: “Nirav Modi is a master of his craft. He can proudly stand beside the great luxury diamond retailers of the world.”
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| (From top) The stunning purplish pink Shalimar diamond ring is inspired by the idea of Goddess Lakshmi emerging from a lotus; an Endless Cut band with its seamless circle of diamonds; the Sunburst Centre Stone Bracelet dazzles with its rays of diamonds |
Now Modi’s making his presence felt in the global market in no uncertain fashion. His pieces are appearing at one auction after another. Last week, Sotheby’s Hong Kong sale had his Endless Cut collection while a Christie’s auction in May will feature blue and pink diamond ear-pendants by Modi. And he’s getting calls from collectors from around the world.
Modi’s aiming for the very top. He wants his Nirav Modi line to be counted with the Harry Winstons and Van Cleef & Arpels a hundred years from now. “What I really want to represent is timeless design, something which will be passed on for generations. My vision is to have the finest diamonds, exquisite craftsmanship and the finest designs,” says the soft-spoken jeweller.
The hushed tones seem to fit with the whispered luxury of the Nirav Modi salon. The discreet beige-gold-and-purple lounge is located within Modi’s multi-thousand-crore firm Firestone Diamond’s corporate office at Kamala Mills in Mumbai. With its 24ft ceilings, Zen décor and with Modi’s stunning art collection all around, the setting is distinctive.
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| Modi’s stunning Golconda Lotus necklace sold for Rs 16.29 crore at a Christie’s auction in November 2010 © Christie’s Images Limited 2010 |
This is Modi’s first salon. He has only been making high-end jewellery for international clients for four years. Before this, the Nirav Modi line was only available through private sales. “Today, India has enormous wealth and there’s an awareness of diamond jewellery. It’s ready for this,” says Modi. One measure of this is his partnership with Argyle, which mines 90 per cent of the world’s rare pink diamonds. Pink diamonds command a premium of 10x to 100x over colourless diamonds.
But if Indian customers have mostly gone for flash and bling over quality so far, Modi’s clear that that’s not his focus. “You won’t see any bling here. Our pieces make a statement but they don’t shout, they whisper,” he says. Take a look at the Rs 3.5-crore 108-carat Scheherazade necklace. Here, perfectly matched Asscher cut, marquise, baguette and round diamonds are set in a geometric pattern inspired by the mosaic motifs of the Taj Mahal. Or look at the stunning Rs 1.5-crore Emerald Dream necklace with its huge 186-carat Columbian emerald drop.
“We’ve used Columbian and not Zambian emeralds. In India, this is quite new because they don’t look at quality. For us, we only use the best quality,” asserts Modi casually picking up a Rs 40-crore, 70-carat fancy vivid yellow diamond. “This is what we used to work on — important diamonds — before we started jewellery,” he says.
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| Argyle Pink Diamonds’ Josephine Archer (left) announces the diamond major’s partnership with Nirav Modi (right) for its pink diamonds in India |
Vickie Sek, director of jewellery & jadeite at Christie’s Hong Kong feels Modi’s “high standard when selecting stones” distinguishes his jewellery. “Every stone is handpicked to fit into a greater picture. The attention to detail is exemplary and the craftsmanship rivals some of the international jewellery houses,” she says.
Leading jeweller Mehul Choksi, who heads the Gitanjali Group and is Modi’s uncle — he initiated Modi into the diamond business when he moved from Belgium to India in 1990 — adds: “What Nirav does is exceptional. Internationally, there are only a couple of brands of the ilk of Graff and Harry Winston and he’s looking at working at that level.”
Modi’s not the only Indian jeweller making it big on the international stage. There’s Viren Bhagat, whose works have also featured at Christie’s auctions. But while Bhagat’s known more for Mughal-inspired jewellery, Modi believes that in diamonds, his is the only line making the cut internationally.
He wants to work “on the frontiers of jewellery making”. “If you look at the high-end jewellers internationally, it’s all very classic designs. You won’t see anything innovative,” he says. But he’s hell-bent on innovating.
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| The elegant Ainra Emerald necklace costs Rs 2.65 crore |
Take the Golconda Lotus necklace. Modi didn’t want to use gold chains to link the pink diamonds. Rather, he’d been long “racking my brains” on “how do you make diamonds on diamonds”. The result? The patented Ainra diamond link comprising two crescent-shaped diamonds. “It took a year to perfect,” says Modi. Christie’s’ Sek says: “The necklace is a work of art with superb workmanship, one that you rarely see in the market. Its detail and craftsmanship are of the highest calibre.”
The innovation’s led to an entire Ainra collection with pieces like the understated Rs 2.65-crore Ainra Emerald ‘Y’ necklace. Or take Modi’s other innovation, the Endless Cut collection. He’s made diamonds with such finely calibrated curvatures that you can’t tell where one ends and the other begins. Moreover, they’re set without prongs or clamps. An Endless Cut ring or bangle, then, is a seamless circle of diamonds.
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| The stunning Scheherazade necklace has myriad shaped diamonds in a mosaic pattern |
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| A 57.10-carat Tanzanite Sugar Loaf is the centrepiece of this stunning Tanzanite necklace |
Clearly Modi loves the challenge of making “something which has never been done before”. “The reason we haven’t seen something that’s beautiful before is because nobody had the patience to make it or they gave up. For us, we never give up, we will go on at it till it’s perfect,” he says.
And it doesn’t matter if each piece takes months to make. Indeed, he only turns out 75 to 100 pieces for the Nirav Modi line each year. Modi’s got design teams in Mumbai, Hong Kong and New York. But his inspirations could come from anywhere. It could start with a stone like the 57.10-carat Tanzanite sugar-loaf. Or it could be the Rs 20 plastic bangles worn by his children. They inspired him to make elastic gold-and-diamond bangles — and he replicated the elasticity by using gold springs inside the bangles. Priced from Rs 8 lakh to Rs 14 lakh, they’re the least expensive pieces in the salon. “In all our pieces, the craftsmanship will be impeccable,” he says.
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| A pair of earrings with fancy yellow radiants from Modi’s Sunburst collection and a yellow-and-white diamond ring from the Fluire collection |
Modi is a third-generation diamond merchant but he didn’t set out to be a jeweller. He grew up in Belgium where his father was a rough diamond dealer and mother, an interior designer. “Growing up in Belgium, you have European sensibilities,” he says. Also the family environment meant that, “you’ve grown up with very high design aesthetics”. Nevertheless after high school in Belgium, he enrolled for a finance degree at Wharton. He dropped out for “family reasons”, however, and come to India in 1990 at 19, and started working for Choksi. “I didn’t know anything about diamonds but I was working for a visionary so it was incredibly exciting,” he recalls.
He worked with Choksi for 10 years before setting up his own firm Firestone Diamond in 2000. For the first five years, he dealt in polished diamonds and manufactured low-price-point jewellery for exports. In 2005, he started scaling up by acquiring three companies in the US including a private label. He also started dealing in “important stones”. “In the past five years, our focus has been in going to the source,” says Modi, who admires the likes of Harry Winston and Parisienne jeweller JAR.
His international customers for the four-year-old Nirav Modi line include industrialists and collectors. “Internationally, we sell pieces from $500,000 to $10million. We’re now looking at creating an around $20million piece,” he says without revealing any more details.
His biggest markets are the Far East (read China, Taiwan, Singapore and Hong Kong ) — “They buy the very best,” he says — apart from Europe and the US. Indeed, after India, he hopes to open salons in cities like Hong Kong and New York in future. But he’s in no hurry. After all, he’s creating a legacy that he hopes will be passed on through generations.