Traditionally, Jewelry is perceived as an ornament to complement fashion and perhaps, to determine one’s social class or influence. And people acquire them just for those reason until in recent times when they have become an industry on their own, making people who invest in them a lot of money in return.
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According to the Chief Executive Officer of Nigerian-owned, London-based luxury jewelry brand, Whitestone Jewellers, Mr Matthew Awotunde the biggest secret in owning a luxury jewelry is the investment possibility it possesses.
“I will tell you a secret you probably have never been told. These luxury watches nowadays have become huge investments. You could buy a watch today for £3 thousand as an example, keep the watch for let’s say 6 months to a year and after a year you sell it back to us for a whopping £4 thousand, that’s a profit of £1 thousand approximately 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. Trust comes with this whole, once you’re trusted, you might never have to worry about dealing with any customer,” he said.
“It is huge investment lately especially after the whole pandemic situation, productions have been reduced to the minimum from these retail shops, you could walk into a AP, Rolex or Patek store today looking for a particular watch and they add you on to the waiting list of minimum 8 months. For someone who couldn’t wait for that time length which isn’t certain either, They can easily walk up to a jeweller who’s got the same piece and buy it for double the price it is from a retail store,” he added.
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.
Although the brand currently has no outlet in Nigeria but ship to the whole of Africa, mostly Nigeria as a result of his digital presence and the brand name that stands beyond the Atlantic.
They have a wide range of targets as clients, which predominantly includes socialites, general civil servants, celebrities and indeed, rich kids with affinity 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,” Awotunde enthuses.