As we put 2025 behind us we note that some business owners are celebrating valiant success, while others have been left licking wounds. Time stops for no one.
There were highs and lows; however, as always, the day-to-day work went on, whether that be supplying or selling the type of jewellery that has come to encapsulate Australia’s stellar reputation on the global stage.
This isn’t an industry that waits for calm waters – it navigates them.
So let’s celebrate some of the Australian jewellery industry’s 2025 achievements.
Numero uno: A Win for Apprentices
Perhaps the standout story of this year was the combined effort of Australia’s three buying groups – Nationwide Jewellers, Showcase Jewellers and the Independent Jewellers Collective – showing what industry collaboration looks like when people actually work together.
Led by Colin Pocklington, Anthony Enriquez and Josh Zarb, the trio identified a glaring flaw in how the Australian government tracks occupational shortages and launched an industry-wide campaign to secure recognition of the need for more jewellery apprentices.
It was a journey far from smooth, and if you’ve ever dealt with the government, you’ll know exactly what we mean. However, in the end, the groups succeeded: Jewellers are now officially recognised on the Occupation Shortage List.
This is a real step forward, and it matters. Recognition unlocks access to training subsidies and pathway support designed to help apprentices and employers. This is critical infrastructure for the long-term health of the trade.
Fair’s fare
In more examples of success, the Australian Jewellery Fair once again proved a rousing achievement on the Gold Coast. All eyes have now shifted to Adelaide, the surprising new home for this low-key but high-intensity trade show.
Likewise, the Australian Opal Exhibition maintained its reputation as a key fixture for local buyers and suppliers alike.
The International Jewellery Fair continued to impress, with highlights including a renewed passion for the Mystery Box Bench Challenge. The Big Night Out was a smash hit, an evening on Sydney Harbour that brought the industry together in perhaps its most informal but important setting of the year.
Looking towards 2026, the Jewellers Association of Australia (JAA) has announced it will return to the Australian Jewellery Fair next year, the first time in nearly a decade that the JAA and Expertise Events have been on the same page.
That reunification was driven by new JAA board members Jay Bartlett and Stephen Schneider. While a small chorus of naysayers briefly crawled out of the woodwork, the industry’s collective eye-roll was swift and universal.
In the end, facts won out over fuss.
Ghosts, scammers & Punch Back
One of the widely discussed subjects of the past year has been the rise of so-called ‘ghost stores’ – sophisticated offshore operations that pose as local retailers to capture consumer trust and then disappear without a trace. These aren’t spooky abandoned stores; they’re digital illusions.
We told the story of a retailer who refused to be outfoxed by fraudsters. After discovering a scammer had stolen intellectual property and marketed it under a fake storefront, the jeweller successfully fought back with enough tenacity to make anyone in the industry sit up and take notice.
This experience underscores how real this threat has become and how even seasoned business owners can be vulnerable when impostors exploit trust that never existed.
Saying goodbye is always hard
The past year will undoubtedly be remembered as the year the diamond industry stopped pretending everything was okay. At the centre of it all has been the De Beers Group, which is still navigating a potential sale as rough diamond demand softens and inventory pressure mounts.
After years of experimentation with its Lightbox lab-created diamond jewellery brand, De Beers said ‘goodbye’ to, and then shuttered, the operation in 2025.
Compounding the unease was the global debate between lab-created and natural diamonds - a wedge issue that began as a tired talking point and morphed into a heated ideological divide. Many in the trade have sharpened their perspectives to the point that they resemble old-style Western standoffs.
Indeed, the topic became so charged that Jeweller to publish a third edition of the Great Diamond Debate III, featuring global analysts and experts dissecting where the industry has come from, where it stands today and where it might go next.
The result wasn’t a consensus; however, it was a successful conversation the trade needed to have.
Say what?
And just in case anyone thought 2025 had been all boardrooms and benchmarks – someone actually stole France’s Crown Jewels from the Louvre Museum in Paris. In a brazen daylight heist that took fewer than eight minutes, thieves made off with eight historic pieces – including sets with Napoleonic heritage that most have only ever seen behind glass.
Meanwhile, halfway around the world, the living, breathing rollercoaster that is US President Donald Trump installed a trade policy that kept the jewellery industry on edge, with particular strain felt in the diamond industry. Meanwhile Jeweller had our own Trump Time!
On a lighter note – if anything in this industry can really be described as that – one of the world’s most famous stones, the Florentine Diamond, resurfaced after more than a century in obscurity, turning up in a Canadian vault as a mult-generational family pact came to an end.
Keep smiling, it's contagious
If the past year has shown us one thing, it’s this: running a jewellery business demands the type of grit most people never see from the outside.
Between ghost stores sprouting like weeds, apprentice shortages that have stores scrambling for help, and global tariffs threatening to jack up costs and slow supply chains, anyone could have been forgiven for wondering whether it was all too much.
Instead, you kept showing up, day-in, day-out, doing the job you signed up for, one customer at a time.
Sure, there were curveballs, plenty of them; however, those standing behind the counter at 9am, polishing that ring or sizing that bracelet, deserve a hard-earned nod of respect. If the past year was a test, the trade didn’t just survive it; it showed exactly what it’s made of.
That kind of no-nonsense perseverance is worth more than any headline; it’s the real backbone of this industry.
So, let’s celebrate the end of 2025 - as ‘interesting’ as it has been - and cheer in 2026.
We too made it through the noise, the headlines, and the chaos, and we smiled when we broke 13 million!
From everyone behind the scenes at Jeweller who keep the pistons firing and the wheels spinning, best of luck for your all-important holiday sales period, and we’ll see you next year.
And remember, always sell with a smile - it’s a successful formula.