News Briefing
NEWS BRIEFING: 1 May 2026
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A curated edit of the week's global jewellery news - national and international - compiled for industry insight and trend monitoring.
💰 ‘Our Long Love Affair With Gold’
Lane Florsheim, 16 April 2026, The Wall Street Journal
From the trading floor of Bullion Trading on New York's 47th Street Diamond District to private vaults in Switzerland, the WSJ reports on how gold's record-breaking rally has reshaped consumer behaviour and brought a new generation of investors face-to-face with physical bullion.
💰 ‘Analysts See Gold to End 2026 Below $4,500/Ounce’
Reuters / Investing.com, 27 April 2026, Yahoo Finance
A Reuters poll of 31 analysts and traders has lifted the median gold price forecast for 2026 to $4,916 per troy ounce — the highest annual outlook since the survey began in 2012 — even as prices remain about 11% below January's $5,595 record after recent geopolitical strikes prompted a flight to liquidity.
💰 ‘Gold Investment Demand Tops Jewellery Buying for the First Time in India’
Reuters Staff, 29 April 2026, Business Standard
World Gold Council Q1 2026 figures show that, for the first time on record, Indian consumers spent more on bullion bars, coins and gold-backed ETFs than on jewellery, marking a structural shift in the world's second-largest gold market as record prices reshape the way households accumulate the metal.
💰 ‘Gold ETF Value Check: With Gold Down 8% Since the Iran War Began, What's Next?’
Staff Reporter, 30 April 2026, The Motley Fool
Spot gold has retreated to roughly $4,700 an ounce since late February's strikes on Iran, but the Motley Fool argues that fundamentals — central-bank buying, US fiscal pressure and a softening dollar — remain intact, with Goldman Sachs targeting $5,400 and JP Morgan a punchier $6,000–6,300 by year end.
💰 ‘Diamond Prices Plunge 50% as Lab-Grown Surge’
Adam Hardy, 17 April 2026, Money
Money reports that natural diamond prices have halved since 2022 to a record low even as gold-driven jewellery inflation runs at around 10% year on year, with The Knot's 2026 Real Weddings Study confirming that more than half of US engagement rings sold last year contained a lab-grown stone.
💰 ‘Mejuri's Stacking Sale Is Here: 10 Pieces Worth Adding to Cart’
The Curator Team, 20 April 2026, Global News
Global News spotlights Mejuri's week-long Spring Stacking Sale — up to 25% off when shoppers spend over $150 — as the Toronto-founded demi-fine brand leans on Mother's Day, prom and graduation season to drive volume in the face of unprecedented gold and silver prices.
💰 ‘Sustainable Sourcing of Diamonds Is More Important Than Ever’
Degen Pener, 24 April 2026, The Hollywood Reporter
The Hollywood Reporter examines how De Beers' Sally Morrison, Fred Leighton's Rebecca Selva and direct-to-consumer specialists Brilliant Earth are responding to red-carpet stylists and Gen Z buyers who now consider provenance and traceability as non-negotiable as the 4Cs.
💰 ‘Amid Record Gold Buying, Indian Consumption Shifts to Investment’
Staff Reporter, 28 April 2026, ANI / NewKerala
A new CareEdge Ratings report finds that Indian buyers — long the world's most reliable jewellery shoppers — are quietly redirecting wallet share toward bars, coins and ETFs, with retail jewellers responding by expanding lighter, lower-carat designs and 'gold loan' products to keep traffic moving.
💰 ‘India Gold Demand Up 10% in January–March as ETFs and Bars Outshine Jewellery’
Reuters Staff, 30 April 2026, Business Standard
Total Indian gold demand rose 10% year on year to 119.6 tonnes in the first quarter, but the composition has tilted decisively: investment volumes climbed 27% while jewellery slipped 25%, a dynamic that retailers including Tanishq and Kalyan Jewellers say is reshaping store assortments and wedding-season pricing.
💰 ‘Five Trends and Details That Popped at Watches and Wonders 2026’
Roxanne Robinson, 1 May 2026, WWD
Wrapping up the Geneva fair, WWD highlights the 'tweed' diamond-setting Chanel debuted on its Gabrielle Long Necklace, the rise of stone dials at Piaget, and the way maisons including Cartier, Bvlgari and Van Cleef & Arpels are blurring the line between high jewellery and watchmaking to insulate themselves from precious-metal volatility.
💎 ‘6 Must-See Jewelry Predictions to Watch For at the 2026 Met Gala’
Marion Fasel, 24 April 2026, Galerie Magazine
Ahead of next Monday's gala, Galerie's jewellery columnist forecasts a pearl-led red carpet for honoree Beyoncé and co-chair Nicole Kidman, more architectural Taffin and Lorraine Schwartz commissions, and a continued lean toward archival Mikimoto and Yoko London pieces in line with the 'Costume Art' theme.
💎 ‘Every Confirmed Met Gala 2026 Guest So Far — and What They're Likely To Wear’
Mahalia Chang, 29 April 2026, RUSSH
RUSSH rounds up the still-evolving 2026 Met Gala guest list — from co-chairs Beyoncé, Kidman and Venus Williams to honorary committee members Bezos and Sanchez — sketching the brand alliances likely to dominate the staircase, including Tiffany, Chanel, Dior and Louis Vuitton.
💎 ‘Met Gala 2026: When and Where to Watch the Fashion Spectacle’
Trishita Bardhan, 29 April 2026, Pinkvilla
Pinkvilla offers South Asian audiences a practical guide to the 5 May (4 May ET) telecast, alongside a primer on the 'Costume Art' dress code and the jewellery-led entrances expected from the Indian contingent including Priyanka Chopra Jonas and Alia Bhatt.
💎 ‘Coachella 2026: From Tems' Pearl Choker to Karol G's Gold Stack’
Adesola Adeyemi, 22 April 2026, Marie Claire Nigeria
Marie Claire Nigeria's wrap-up of weekends one and two highlights how Tems anchored her sheer black look in a single oversized pearl choker, while Karol G layered Cartier-leaning gold cuffs and Ariana Grande wore lab-grown solitaires — a far cry from the festival's bohemian heyday.
💎 ‘Coachella Fashion 2026: Hailey Bieber's Vintage Galliano and the Jenner Sisters' Sun-Bleached Cool’
Lara Solomon, 17 April 2026, Fashion Times
Fashion Times charts how Hailey Bieber's vintage Galliano-for-Dior look set the festival's tone, with Kendall and Kylie Jenner pairing tonal Western tailoring with stacked turquoise rings and chunky silver belt buckles that signalled Coachella's pivot away from boho excess toward considered Americana.
👗 ‘The Key Jewellery Trends Shaping 2026 — From Onyx to Statement Chokers’
Charlotte Davey, 26 April 2026, PORTER (Net-a-Porter)
PORTER's spring jewellery edit identifies five wearable directions for the year — glossy onyx, sculptural gold chokers, antique-inspired engagement rings, understated tennis bracelets and revived diamond studs — with editor picks ranging from Foundrae and Yvonne Léon to Tabayer, Anita Ko and the De Beers DB Classic.
👗 ‘9 Biggest Jewellery Trends for 2026 Celebrity Stylists Are Fawning Over’
Wilfree Vasquez, 22 April 2026, Parade
Parade canvasses celebrity stylist Wilfree Vasquez and his peers on the looks dominating their pull racks for awards season and the Met Gala, from sculptural mixed-metal cuffs and sustainable signet rings to body jewellery, brooches re-imagined for menswear and the resurgence of yellow gold over white.
👗 ‘These Spring 2026 Jewellery Trends Do All the Work’
Lauren Tappan, 17 April 2026, Marie Claire
Marie Claire's spring guide argues for jewellery as outfit-anchor, citing Tory Burch's gold-set sundial shells, Chanel's coral chokers and the wider runway taste for cord pendants, baroque pearls and chunky beads as the antidote to last year's quiet-luxury whisper chains.
👗 ‘The Top 10 Most Unique Celebrity Engagement Rings (and the Trends They've Started)’
Editorial Team, 27 April 2026, The Wedding Scoop
The Wedding Scoop tracks how celebrity proposals from Selena Gomez's marquise to Taylor Swift's old-mine-cut and Zoë Kravitz's antique cushion have rewritten the bridal rulebook for 2026, fuelling a documented swing toward fancy shapes, antique cuts and unconventional metals.
👗 ‘Ten Exceptional Design Launches From April 2026’
Tianna Williams, 30 April 2026, Wallpaper*
Wallpaper*'s monthly Design Drop curates April's most distinctive new objects, with a strong jewellery thread running through it — from sculptural cuffs that nod to Brutalist architecture to glass-and-gold pendants — captured as part of a broader story about the season's shift toward tactile, hand-finished design.
💍 ‘How Cartier, Chaumet and Boucheron Are Turning Centuries-Old Archives Into Modern High Jewellery’
Sarah Royce-Greensill, 24 April 2026, The National
The National traces how Place Vendôme's three most archival maisons are mining their own histories for relevance — Chaumet reviving wing motifs from a 1910 tiara for its Envol collection, Boucheron's Claire Choisne reworking the Question Mark necklace, and Cartier leaning on its London and Paris ledgers to feed a new wave of one-of-a-kind commissions.
💍 ‘Why This Surreal 'Dripping' Cartier Watch Has Become a Cult Celebrity Favourite’
Oscar Holland, 29 April 2026, CNN
After a 1987 Cartier London Crash sold for almost $2 million at Sotheby's Hong Kong — the most paid for a Cartier wristwatch at auction — CNN unpacks how the deliberately distorted, Dalí-adjacent design moved from a last-ditch novelty for swinging-Sixties Londoners to a totem worn by Timothée Chalamet, Kim Kardashian and Bad Bunny.
💍 ‘Chanel pushes couture codes into haute horlogerie with Nœud de Camélia secret watches’
Staff Reporter, 21 April 2026, Revolution Watch
The Nœud de Camélia collection draws on Mademoiselle Chanel’s favourite flower to produce secret watches, cuffs and rings that read closer to ornamental jewellery objects than conventional timepieces, with the piece-unique Nœud de Diamants Cuff displaying more than 3,300 diamonds across its surface.
💍 ‘The Most Jaw-Dropping Jewellery in Met Gala History’
Editorial Team, 29 April 2026, Hatton Jewels
Ahead of the 2026 gala, Hatton Jewels traces the jewellery moments that have defined the Costume Institute's red carpet — from Rihanna's archival Cartier Tutti Frutti to Cardi B's 500-carat Wallace Chan necklace and Blake Lively's Lorraine Schwartz tiara — as a primer on what 'Costume Art' could prompt this year.
💍 ‘Spring 2026's Jewellery Trends — From Sculptural Silver to Reimagined Pearls’
Lara Mansour, 26 April 2026, Aquila Jewellery Journal
London designer-retailer Aquila distils the season's runway and editorial coverage into a single read — sculptural silver returning to centre stage, reimagined pearls (irregular, mixed-metal-set, solo on the ear) emerging as the modern alternative to diamonds, and a generally tactile, hand-worked aesthetic across new high-end collections.
💍 ‘Six Must-See High Jewellery Predictions for the 2026 Met Gala Red Carpet’
Galerie Editorial, 24 April 2026, Galerie Magazine
Galerie's high jewellery preview — distinct from its overall predictions piece — drills down into specific maison commissions, including Tiffany & Co.'s Schlumberger archive, Bulgari's Serpenti suites for Anne Hathaway, and the bespoke Taffin chokers and Mikimoto pearls expected to anchor honorary committee members' looks.
🏛️ ‘V&A East Will Open This Weekend — Here's Everything You Need To Know’
India Lawrence, 15 April 2026, Time Out London
Time Out previews the Saturday 18 April public opening of V&A East in Stratford, with O'Donnell + Tuomey's faceted Olympic Park building debuting two free 'Why We Make' galleries that include 19th-century coral jewellery from India and Tibet alongside garments, photography and design from across the V&A's collection.
🏛️ ‘V&A East Museum Is About to Open — Inside the Stratford Sister to South Kensington’
Ellie Stathaki, 17 April 2026, Wallpaper*
Wallpaper*'s architecture editor walks through O'Donnell + Tuomey's design for V&A East — the museum's faceted Stratford volume — examining how the displays trace continuities between traditional weaving, ceramics and jewellery from across the world and the contemporary practices they continue to inform.
🏛️ ‘V&A Exhibition Honours the Surrealist Genius of Elsa Schiaparelli’
Anna Brady, 16 April 2026, The Art Newspaper
The Art Newspaper reviews 'Schiaparelli: Fashion Becomes Art', praising how the V&A South Kensington show stages over 200 objects — including the maison's archival jewellery, the Shoe hat made with Dalí, and works by Picasso, Cocteau and Man Ray — to argue that Schiaparelli was the first to bring Surrealism to British shores.
🏛️ ‘The V&A East Museum Is Finally Here — and Everything Else Worth Seeing Right Now’
Olivia Emily, 17 April 2026, Country & Town House
Country & Town House surveys the V&A's spring slate — V&A East's Saturday opening, the ongoing 'Schiaparelli: Fashion Becomes Art', the upcoming 'Marie Antoinette Style' show and the May 'Rising Voices' Asia-Pacific exhibition — situating the institution's expansion as the most ambitious museum reset in London for a generation.
🏛️ ‘Christie's to Offer Rare 'Ocean Dream' Blue-Green Diamond at Geneva Sale’
Staff Reporter, 30 April 2026, Antiques and Art Ireland
Christie's has confirmed that the 5.50-carat Ocean Dream — the largest fancy vivid blue-green diamond ever certified by the GIA — will headline its 13 May Magnificent Jewels sale in Geneva with an estimate of CHF 7–10 million, twelve years after it last changed hands at the same saleroom.
