Episode 157: Rolliefest, Tariffs, De Beers

The Jewelry District

JCK

Business News, Fashion & Beauty, Business, Arts, News

4.9 • 50 Ratings

🗓️ 8 October 2025

⏱️ 24 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

In this latest episode, JCK editor-in-chief Victoria Gomelsky and news director Rob Bates cover a highly exclusive watch collector event called Rolliefest, where guests don’t even find out where they’re meeting until just before. There, Victoria met passionate watch collectors, admired their highly unique timepieces, and even shared some of her own. Rob is watching the tariff space as he reports on a new exemption that gives the jewelry industry a much-needed—if minor—break. The hosts also discuss the ongoing sale of Anglo American’s majority stake in De Beers, and the mechanics of Botswana making a play for ownership. Title Sponsor: Nivoda (nivoda.com) Sponsor: De Beers (adiamondisforever.com)

Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome to the Jewelry District, a podcast by J.C.K. brought to you by Novota. Today, Rob Bates and Victoria Gamalski talk about Raleigh Fest, tariff exemptions for gemstones,
0:22.6	and growing interest in acquiring a controlling stake into beers.
0:30.0	Hey, everyone. Welcome to the jewelry district. This is Victoria Gemalski, editor-in-chief of JCPay
0:36.3	and JCP Online.com, calling in from Los Angeles,
0:39.8	and I'm with.
0:40.7	Rob Bates, news director of JCPay and JCP online calling in from New York City.
0:46.5	How you doing?
0:47.4	I'm doing good.
0:48.5	I was just in your neck of the woods for like a very hot minute.
0:51.6	I came in on Thursday, the 25th, right in the midst of UN Week and Climate Week,
0:57.9	which is always a little bit of a challenging time to be in the city.
1:00.7	And then I left on Saturday morning and caught some really beautiful weather,
1:04.3	which always makes me happy.
1:06.1	Was it a New York Times thing or just a something else thing?
1:09.7	I was invited to a very exclusive gathering of very
1:14.3	connected in-the-no watch collectors called Raleigh Fest. Roli Fest is a biennial event. It started in
1:22.9	2019. It was founded by Jeff Hess, who's currently the global head of watches at Sotheby's in New York.
1:28.9	At the time, I believe he was at Phillips.
1:31.5	And prior to Phillips, he was at analog shift and another important vintage watch dealer in New York.
1:37.7	He founded this in 2019 purely as a passion project.
1:40.9	He knew a lot of collectors, a lot of vintage people.
1:43.3	The event kind of grew,
	...

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