Jeweller - February 2022

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Breakthrough with ‘floating diamond’ invention
CONTINUED FROM PAGE 15
underside of the stone and does not impede light
return or brilliance.
The diamond is set on a high-tensile titanium
alloy collet, which was found to be stronger than
traditional settings based on independent tests.
“Extensive independent testing against the
ISO standard mimicked the scenario of a ring
dropping repeatedly onto a hard wooden surface
from one meter high,” Douglas said.
“In a traditional setting, the diamond came loose
after 298 drops, while the Floeting Diamond
remained secure in its setting after several
thousand drops.”
Floeting Diamond pieces can hold stones between
.20 to 100 carats and, in the future, may be developed
for pear or oval gem shapes, as well as include
sapphires and rubies.
For the first time since 1886 when the standard sixclaw
diamond setting technique was invented, the
Floeting Diamond becomes a historical innovation
for the international diamond jewellery industry.
Douglas invested millions of dollars in the
development of the ground-breaking technique and
several test diamonds were destroyed throughout
the process.
“Secured in place using proprietary tiny laser-cut
grooves around the underside of diamonds, Floeting
Diamond jewellery uses only high-quality stones
Australian jeweller celebrates five stores
CONTINUED FROM PAGE 15
“The pandemic was the hardest situation for staff
to manage. In some cases we had police officers
coming into the store giving staff a hard time about
vaccination and check-in management, then other
police would come in saying they don’t really care,
they just wanted it to be over too!
“So I wanted to celebrate their sacrifices and
everything they have done throughout a difficult
year and, at the same time, have a belated
celebration of our first Sydney store given that not
long after it opened NSW went into lockdown,”
Curwood explained.
The first Simon Curwood Jewellers store opened
in 2016 at Charlestown, south of Newcastle, NSW.
Curwood has been in the jewellery industry since a
young boy.
He worked on the bench for his father Christopher
Curwood, who operated McCallum Gold in
Ballarat, Victoria - one of Australia’s leading
jewellery manufacturers – in the late 1970s and
early 80s. The younger Curwood worked for the
family business until he was 19 and left to join
Harvey Norman, learning the art of successful
to achieve the desired strength and appearance
for its collection.”
“We contacted one of the world’s leading diamond
cutting companies based out of Israel and had an
agreement with them to prototype and test this
concept, and they absolutely ruined it. I paid for
this batch of diamonds that just got butchered,”
Douglas said.
The journey was never easy, according to Douglas,
who noted there were “heartbreaking” moments
during the development stage when he was faced
with a “massive bill”, especially when he was handed
a “little box of cut and polished diamonds with the
groove done completely incorrectly that had ruined
their optical properties. So that got parked in the
vault for a few years.”
“It’s just been horrific. Ten years, trips around the
world to everywhere you can imagine, talking to
all sorts of people, these institutes, the testing
costs, material itself,” he explained.
“You can imagine having to test diamonds and
things going wrong, we have literally blown
diamonds apart.”
After 20 years of rigorous testing, the Floeting
Diamond became a reality and uses a speciallyengineered
titanium alloy which was found to be
20 times more impact tolerant and 10 times more
durable than traditional diamond settings.
Douglas said they are currently under scrutiny by
industry rivals and added, “I think there’s probably a
lot of people hoping that we’ll fail, but if we succeed
they’ll be jumping on the bandwagon big time.”
retailing for five years.
“I missed the jewellery industry too much so I
came back and worked for Michael Hill Jewellers
for four years. But I always wanted to start my own
business because I have always been passionate
about high-quality jewellery made by independent
craftspeople.
“I set out with the aim of being an independent
chain store – a business that sits between a single
store quality jeweller and a large jewellery chain
– bringing better quality jewellery to the mass
market,” Curwood said.
He believes he has had a good grounding
to achieve his aim given that he learned the
intricacies of fine jewellery production from his
father from the age six.
“I have been passionate about that and felt there was
a niche for a multi-store retailer that focuses on highquality
jewellery. More than 80 per cent of our entire
business is custom-made jewellery,” he said.
The 34-year old Curwood now employs around
60 people and told Jeweller that he plans to open
two new stores in 2022, “when the right locations
become available”, one in Melbourne and one in
Brisbane.