Free Glide

From pocket watch to a fashion accessory. What was once, in the earliest years of portable watches, considered to be unsuitable for gentlemen and only for women, has developed nowadays into a fashion utensil that everybody has. In the meantime, the wristwatch is no longer just a tool to tell which time it is. It is a designer piece and can indicate much more than the time.

A great deal of mechanics in a small housing

The first confirmable portable timepiece was made in 1500. This was not a wristwatch, but more of a pocket watch. Through technical progress, which made it possible for people to house mechanics in an increasingly smaller space, the needed parts of the clockworks were able to be brought into a manageable form. In this way, the first pocket watch was born, which at the time was still the size of an egg.

The computerized wristwatch from Japan

A entirely new wristwatch came onto the market in the 1970’s from Japan, which had developed its own watch industry. The new wrist watch from Japan was no more set on a mechanical basis, but on a computerized control. This wristwatch extended its range of capacity quickly. The watch no more just showed the time. The small timepiece on the wrist now also knew the date, the day of the week and even knew whether a leap year was involved.

The wristwatch as jewelry

Nowadays, the wristwatch is no longer just a watch. The wrist watch has become a fashion accessory. Wristwatches come in all colouration and shapes imaginable. One can also purchase harmonious watches from every fashion collection. The current watches are dominated by the correct fashion trends. Despite these different trends, there is something for every taste. The tiny watches, which require eyeglasses to tell the time, and the extravagant giant watches, which make it difficult to walk upright. In any case, one thing is clear: science is still likely to make so much advance – that the wrist watch will be found on the wrists of people for a long time, to respond to the question as to what time it is.

Either you are buying it as a gift or for yourself, there are many reasons why titanium jewelry can be a better choice than jewelry made in traditional precious metals like gold, silver and platinum.

Firstly, titanium is highly corrosion resistant and therefore does not tarnish easily. Especially for high-polish finished jewelry like gold and silver wedding band rings, it is expected that the jewelry will lose its color and shine over time. Even if they are stored properly in jewelry boxes or safe, the oxygen in the air reacts with the metals and turns the color. This process is of course accelerated if the jewelry is worn daily because the sweat combined with body temperature, acts as catalysts to the chemical process.

Also, titanium is hypoallergenic, which means that very few people have skin that is sensitive to it. People who are allergic to gold, silver or, more commonly, nickel, which is found in most gold and silver jewelry, don’t have to worry about outbreak when wearing jewelry made from titanium and its alloys.

A widely known property about titanium is its durability. It is this attribute that makes it perfect for active individuals who frequently engage in outdoor activities, even water sports. It is not uncommon that people find their gold or silver jewelry damaged, or even lost, after a day of exciting outdoor events. These disappointments can easily be avoided if titanium jewelry is worn instead. In addition, titanium has a high strength to weight ratio. In other words, although it is much stronger than gold and silver jewelry, even steel, it is much lighter and hence more comfortable to wear.

Finally, it is fashionable and trendy to wear titanium jewelry. The metal is relatively new in the fashion industry with many new ideas being applied on it. Titanium is so versatile that it not only can be combined with gemstones, gold and silver, engraved and finished like traditional jewelry; it can also be anodized to create eye-catching colored titanium jewelry.

Common titanium jewelry includes wedding band ring, men’s titanium rings and men’s titanium bracelets. There is every reason to explore the vast possibilities and express your personality in a whole different way.

Scott Murff got his MBA from MIT business school and currently is the marketing manager in Titanium Kay that specializes in men’s titanium wedding rings and tungsten rings.

Costume jewelry adds style and beauty to you and your ensemble. Costume jewelry is a wearers delight, as it further highlights your personality with the look it adds to your costume. Costume jewelry is more about defining your fashion statement. So whether it’s classic or stylish it is your choice.

Costume jewelry is made out of a variety of materials, which can be pure silver, glass beads, kundan, semi-precious stones, metal, etc. The value of the metal used in it makes a difference between cheap costume jewelry and fine costume jewelry. So the price mainly depends on the material used. Also, as per the style you want to portray you can choose that kind of jewelry. As per your requirements, there is cheap costume jewelry as well as fine costume jewelry.

Costume jewelry has a wide array of styles and designs. You can have the traditional to the latest designs in costume jewelry. All types of costume jewelry are available in the market these days. Be it bracelets, earrings, bangles, anklets or belly-button rings it is all there.

There is an amount of charisma you can experiences in wearing costume jewelry. Fine costume jewelry adds elegance to your persona. There are a variety of contemporary items to serve your interest. Antique costume jewelry is also available for adding that royal touch. Many a type of earrings, bracelets and necklaces made in the antique style are all available with the jewelers.

In the fat Indian weddings a huge sum of money is spent in purchasing wedding costume jewelry. But you can’t be sure whether this jewelry will be of any use further. In that case, costume jewelry comes as the easy way out. You can go for antique costume jewelry, which comes at an affordable price. Antique costume jewelry is unique in style. It can be hand crafted as per the design. Indian costume jewelry is antique so it adds weight to your dressing. A beautiful range of Indian costume jewelry is available, which has antique as well as modern designs.

Amit Verma is with Neuronimbus Software Services Pvt. Ltd. and writes about Costume Jewelry Fashion Statement. You can collect more jewelry articles at http://www.jaipurjewelers.com.

Although it also applies to traditional brick and mortar jewelry retail stores, the surge of e-commerce through the advancing internet infrastructure and a significant decrease in overhead costs enable many entrepreneurs to start their own businesses online. Combined with the exponentially increasing number of web users, online retail has become an attractive opportunity for people who want something for their own.

The online retail sales grossed about $110 billion in 2005 and jewelry category accounted for 5% of the total. Other major categories include books, apparel, computer related, electronics and drugs. The reason why jewelry is particularly attractive to a lot of entrepreneurs is that the startup capital could be small and the logistics is easy to control. The reason is that the spectrum of jewelry range from costume jewelry to silver jewelry to diamond luxury items, which offers a flexible startup capital requirement. Also, due to the nature of jewelry, it does not require a large storage space in the beginning and is relatively easily to package and ship.

For someone who is already convinced that jewelry store is a feasible online business, the next question would obviously be where to get the merchandize. To answer this question, we have to state the characteristics that one should look for when selecting a vendor. I know some of you are thinking “prices”. Sure, different vendors have different prices for similar items, is the one with the lowest prices odd to be the one we should work with?

Granted, your vendor’s pricing is crucial to the success of your business, this is all about money after all. Nonetheless, in order to be competitive in the market, there are many other facts you might want to get from a wholesaler before any decision is made.

Firstly, especially in jewelry and apparel industry, the vendor has to have the sense to the changing fashion trends. New styles come out every day and popular styles are changing every season, it makes a huge difference between your vendor selling styles that were hot last summer rather than styles that just got exposed in a French fashion show. You should do your own research, of course, but a vendor with the good connections and senses propels your business and saves you a lot of time.

Secondly, if you decide to carry some unique styles that can rarely be found anywhere else, do make sure you get them from a vendor who guarantees the availability of the stock. By doing this, you can maximize your effort for processing each item. Typical pre-processing of an item are photo-taking, editing, copywriting and data entry. If the vendor runs out of stock for most of the items you purchased, and not being able to perform back-ordering, the effort for maintaining the inventory will be dramatically increased.

Also, the reputation for a vendor is very important. The authenticity of goods is vital to building a successfully business. Ask for reference if possible and get multiple of them for the same vendor. Selling counterfeit or fake jewelry not only will harm your business, it is illegal. Watch out for fake gemstones such as diamonds and sapphires, treated gemstones for enhancing colors, incorrect purity of metals such as 14k, 18k gold and 925 silver not having the amount of metal as claimed.

Finally, like any business relationships, vendors with good customer services can help your business in many ways. For instance, custom jewelry manufacturing, resizing and repairing are typically services that a jewelry wholesaler might provide.

Greg Peterson got his MBA from MIT business school and is now working as marketing manager for jewelry businesses featuring hip hop jewelry wholesale and sterling silver manufacturing.