With just a simple hanging stud Angelina Jolie illuminates with sparkle:

For extra drama, a larger earring brings the added WOW factor to a look.

Simple elegance keeps a natural style fresh.

This story appears in the JCK Magazine.

Retail Details: Maddaloni Jewelers’ Lou Maddaloni

The watch man on Swiss tourbillons, Florida sushi, and Long Island guys’ nights out

1. What’s your most memorable sale and why?

A few months back, a client of mine expressed interest in buying a very special timepiece by Ulysse Nardin. So I arranged a visit to its U.S. head quarters in Boca Raton, Fla. The customer suggested we fly down on his private jet. Then, Ulysse Nardin was nice enough to welcome us with a sushi lunch and a private viewing of their spectacular timepieces. It was during that visit that my client purchased a limited edition royal blue tourbillon set with round diamonds and blue baguette-cut sapphires for $400,000, as well as a few others.

2. What’s the best idea you’ve come up with for your store?

We recently instituted a watch collectors club that meets two to three times per year. At the meetings, we host a five-course dinner in the store—with tablecloths and silverware—and have [representatives of ] a featured watch brand come and speak, bring in their newest products, and talk about limited editions and introductions for the year ahead. It’s kind of a guys’ night (we have cigars). The club fosters the interests of watch collectors and connects them to others who share their passion.

3. When you walk through your front door, what do you like most about your store?

I have to say that when I come into the store every morning, I look forward to the people I work with. The Mad daloni team is dedicated to giving each customer a positive experience. Customer retention has been a key to the success of my business.

4. How do you differentiate your store from the competition?

We are passionate about watches. Maddaloni can converse about the finer points—like swan-neck gaskets underneath screw heads—of models we don’t even stock. Sometimes we know more about models than the brand representatives or stores that do carry them. We also write down everything—any and all information the customer gives, from their pets to the type of car they drive—on a job envelope. Even the most mundane information can be a tool to use in a future sale.

5. What was your finest hour in customer service?

We had a customer buying a particularly complicated platinum limited-edition perpetual-calendar pocket watch, which also happened to be the last one available in the world! In the midst of the sale, it became evident there was a screw loose inside the watch; the head of the screw had actually broken off inside. Since we have a Swiss-trained timepiece technician on premises, we were able—in the span of a few short hours—to disassemble the watch, remove the screw, and fabricate a new one from scratch, right there in the store. The watchmaker then reassembled the watch, and Maddaloni delivered the piece, a $102,000 sale, in time for the owner’s dinner plans that night. If that watch had had to go back to the manufacturer, it would have been sent back to Switzerland and would have taken four to six months to repair.

In addition to the ‘Asscher Diamond Collection’, the company has unveiled their new collection named ‘Stars of Africa’ the collection feature floating diamonds that float freely  inside natural sapphire domes, like “snowflakes” inside a snow globe. All are set in 18k yellow, white, or rose gold and range in price from $4,950 to $7,900. The collection now boasts pendants and earrings, absolutely breathtaking!  All  will be available at Maddaloni Jewelers 12/22 and 12/23.

According to cables released by WikiLeaks  and reported by United Press International (UPI), sources in Zimbabwe told the United States that Gideon Gono, head of Zimbabwe’s central bank, made thousands of dollars a month selling diamonds from Marange and funneled the money to Robert Mugabe, his wife, his sister and top members of the Zanu-PF party. Diamond panners in the area were attacked with dogs and gunned down from helicopters, with a 2008 cable released by WikiLeaks titled, “Regime Elites Looting Deadly Diamond Fields.”

A cable also stated that, “In a country filled with corrupt schemes, the diamond business in Zimbabwe is one of the dirtiest.”

Trade in rough diamonds from the Marange fields technically remains suspended as the Zimbabwean government and members of the Kimberley Process (KP), the body charged with stemming the flow of “blood” or “conflict” diamonds into the industry, try to hammer out an agreement for trade from the area to resume. 

Australian Julian Assange launched WikiLeaks, a non-profit media organization, in 2007. Since late November, the site has been publishing thousands of confidential U.S. diplomatic cables that have embarrassed U.S. officials and led to a government crackdown on the site.

Site founder Assange is in police custody in Britain after Sweden issued a warrant for his arrest in connection with sex crimes in that country. He has denied the allegations.

On Monday, Reuters reported that Assange’s former deputy, Daniel Domscheit-Berg, was starting another WikiLeaks rival site called OpenLeaks.org. The site is not yet operational.

An office memorandum sent to India’s Customs Department and the Gem & Jewellery Export Promotion Council (GJEPC) by the Commerce Department of India’s Ministry of Commerce and Industry, notes that Hirsch has requested participant countries to be vigilant and to notify him or the KP’s Working Group on Monitoring (WGM) if any “irregular” shipments of  Marange diamonds are received. 

The diamond industry continues to scrutinize Mugabe’s intentions for his countries natural resource, while wholesaler and retailers, globally, watch prices rise and supply wither in the diamond industry.