Date   December 14, 2009
Time   6:00 PM - 8:00 PM
Place: Lugano Diamonds
           620 Newport Center Drive
           Newport Beach, CA 92660


PANEL DISCUSSION

The Luxury Watch and Jewelry Industries: What Makes Them Tick and Stay a CutAbove the Rest

The holidays are nearly synonymous with watch and jewelry purchases. So now would be a fine time to pause and reflect about these luxury verticals that offer more breadth and depth of brand and segment than most any other.

Fine watches are the ultimate example of craftsmanship, quality, uniqueness and authenticity. The economic downturn, combined with poor management of growth, has caused several well-known brands to lose traction due to their pervasive nature and price points. Other lesser-known brands are doing excellent work that is innovative, interesting and provides good value. What defines haute horlogerie? When is it just a marketing label intended to elevate a watch and justify a high price? Who are watch collectors and how do you market to them?

Fine jewelry is one of the oldest luxury segments and perhaps the most misunderstood. While we all get a crash course in diamonds while picking out engagement rings, there’s much more to the industry than color and clarity. How do the stones get from the mine to the mall? How do you sell on quality when low-end retailers and high-end retailers sell the same clarity and color? How much importance does brand carry? What marketing practices do you employ to sell a seven or eight digit piece?

PANEL

Moti Ferder - Owner, Lugano Diamonds

Craig Danforth - Director of Sales - Gemological Institute of America

Meehna Goldsmith - Consultant & Educator, Luxury Timepieces

A SPECIAL COMMEMORATION

The Luxury Marketing Council would like to congratulate and help celebrate Lugano Diamonds new location and beautiful new offices

SPONSORS

Lugano Diamonds
Lugano Diamonds is a high-end international jeweler specializing in fine stones, ideal-cut diamonds, and custom-designed and crafted pieces for the discerning customer or connoisseur. Doing business for over 35 years, the companycontrols all facets of item production, from origin through transportation to design and sales, which allows them to provide the best quality at the best price, backed by guarantee. Pieces, drawn from Lugano’s vast inventory of exceptional gems and exquisitely set jewelry, areshown by appointment only at the company’s Newport Beach-based US headquarters, and are exclusively available only to Lugano customers, and not sold in stores elsewhere. The Lugano offices are located at 620Newport Center Drive, Suite 100. For more information, to place your name on our client list, or to arrange for an appointment, please call949-720-1258.

Huneeus Vintners
Perhaps best known today for creating Quintessa, the luxury wine and wine estate Agustin Huneeus and wife Valeria own in Napa Valley, the Huneeus family also owns Veramonte, the fine wine estate in Casablanca Valley, Chile. In partnership with his son Agustin Francisco, Agustin launched Huneeus Vintners in 2005, a company dedicated tobuilding a family-owned portfolio of fine wine estates. Other brands in the portfolio include Faust, Flowers, Illuminations, among others.