JB Insights
VICENZAORO JANUARY 2024
IEG’s trade show is the global jewellery industry’s choice
Attendance +3% more than 2023 on the 70th anniversary, 141 countries of origin. The United States, Turkey and Spain on the podium. Enhanced hosted buyer programme thanks to ITA – Italian trade Agency
More than 1,300 exhibiting brands
Technologies: T.Gold, showcase of top products for the supply chain. In 2025, the first edition of “The Vicenza Symposium”, a global scientific event
Watchmaking segment consolidated with TIME for B2B. Visitors to VO Vintage up 13%
More than 490 students at the 20 events in the city’s VIOFF programme
Work to start on the new 22,000-square-metre hall: an investment of about Euro 60mn
Vicenzaoro January 2024 exceeds all the most optimistic prior expectations of the Vicenza – Italy gold and jewellery exhibition’s 70-year anniversary. Italian Exhibition Group’s «boutique show» closed today with a 3% increase in attendance at the Vicenza Expo Centre, surpassing last January’s record edition. Moreover, at this edition, six out of ten visitors came from abroad: the global jewellery industry has chosen, Vicenza will be a market hub for the next 70 years. IEG responds with the start of work on the new 22,000-square-meter hall.
THE VICENZAORO JANUARY 2024 NUMBERS
Foreign attendance has been confirmed at 60% of the total, arriving from 141 countries around the world, up from 136 in 2023: with Europe counting 53%, the Middle East 9.3%, Asia 10.5%, Turkey 8%, North America 7.2%, Latin America 5.1% and Africa 4.9%.
Among the most represented individual countries overall: the United States and Turkey; from Europe Spain, Germany, France, Greece and the UK; from the Middle East the United Arab Emirates, while standing out from Asia are India, China, Japan, Thailand and Hong Kong. The largest increases are for China (+188%), Japan (+44%), Colombia (+38%), Brazil (+36%) and France (+25%). Among the new entries at Vicenzaoro: Tanzania, El Salvador and Honduras. Veneto, Lombardy, Tuscany and Piedmont confirm an extremely positive trend for Italian attendance, which saw an overall increase of 3.2% compared to 2023.
T.GOLD ON THE RISE
At this edition, T.Gold, the leading international innovation showcase featuring the most advanced machinery for goldsmithing and the latest processes applied to gold and jewellery, organized in partnership with A.F.E.M.O., saw a 4.7% increase in attendance.
TIMEPIECES.
In the timepiece segment, VO Vintage consolidated its success with exhibitors up 22% for vintage watches and jewellery open to the B2C public, with collectors, experts and watch lovers from Italy and around the world also up +13%.
INDUSTRY AND TRAINING, PASSION MAKES A COMEBACK
Gold and jewellery see restored generational turnover in the labour market. Industry and education meet at Vicenzaoro: 23 schools at the Show, mostly from Italy and from France, Germany and the UK for a total of about 750 students and escorts, all involved in the many initiatives. In the VIOFF programme of city events, Vicenzaoro’s off-show, more than 490 students took part in the 20 events on the calendar.
THE EXPO CENTRE CHANGES FACE, 2024 IS THE YEAR OF WORK ON THE NEW HALL
The close of Vicenzaoro January 2024 will mark the opening of the building site that will return a new layout to the Vicenza Expo Centre for the September 2026 edition. The new 22,000-square-meter hall will replace Hall 2, the historic “snail” built in 1971, and Hall 5, to provide more space for exhibitors and better “navigability” for visitors inside the building. The investment of about 60 million euros is fully financed by IEG.
“THE VICENZA SYMPOSIUM”, THE NEW EVENT ON IEG’S JEWELLERY AGENDA
Italian Exhibition Group’s Jewellery Agenda will be further enriched as of 2025 with a new international event, “The Vicenza Symposium” scheduled to take place from 2 – 4 September. Vicenza will therefore inherit the scientific legacy of the “Santa Fe Symposium” which closed in 2022. A biennial event with a problem-solving approach for companies, the Symposium is the result of IEG’s collaboration with two leading companies in the T.Gold world: Legor and Xolutions.
GLOBAL STAKEHOLDERS AND INSTITUTIONAL PARTNERS
Vicenzaoro January confirmed its role as an international reference point due to the presence of the entire institutional and association world. From Confindustria Federorafi, Confartigianato Orafi, Confcommercio Federpreziosi, CNA Orafi, Confimi Industria Categoria Orafa ed Argentiera to Assogemme, Assocoral and A.F.E.M.O. – Association of Jewellery Machinery Manufacturers and Exporters, CIBJO – World Jewellery Confederation, Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, ITA – Italian Trade Agency.
The community’s next appointment with Vicenzaoro will be from 6th to 10th September 2024.
JB Insights
The Silver Shift: India Navigates A Calibrated Transition To Mandatory Silver Hallmarking
Unlike The Mature Gold Compliance Culture, Silver Represents A Fragmented Landscape, Requiring A Highly Nuanced Regulatory Strategy.
India’s silver industry is undergoing a steady transformation toward a formalised and traceable ecosystem. Driven by the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS), the sector is transitioning toward mandatory silver hallmarking via a calibrated approach that balances regulatory goals with market realities. Unlike the mature gold compliance culture, silver represents a fragmented landscape, requiring a highly nuanced regulatory strategy.
The Scale of Adoption
The shift toward formal quality assurance is rapidly accelerating:
- Infrastructure: India now hosts nearly 2.22 lakh BIS-registered jewellers (with 23,000 registered for silver) supported by 286 dedicated Assaying and Hallmarking Centres (AHCs).
- Volume: During FY 2025–26, nearly 59.31 lakh silver articles were hallmarked.
- Traceability: Over 44 lakh silver pieces feature a six-digit Hallmark Unique Identification (HUID) code, bolstered by digital upgrades like automatic weight recording and photograph capture.
The Overlooked Heavyweights: Silverware and Temple Artefacts
While jewelry often dominates the conversation, industry experts emphasizes that silverware and religious artefacts represent a massive portion of India’s silver imports by tonnage, yet remain highly underrepresented in policy debates.
Despite the millions of pieces being hallmarked annually, thousands of tonnes of silver circulate uncertified in high-value categories:
- Market Diversity: Items like puja articles, temple silver, giftware, home décor, and corporate gifts are widely assumed by consumers to be of high purity, but fineness tests frequently reveal alarming variations.
- The Sensitivity of Testing: Large or highly intricate religious pieces—such as jhulas (cradles), maces, chhatris (canopies), and heavily ornamented temple decor—present unique hurdles. Applying destructive sampling methods to these items is not only logistically complex but emotionally and culturally sensitive.
To address this, experts advocates for an incremental rollout. This involves prioritizing easily testable silverware categories first, alongside establishing clear, practical sampling rules for oversized items. Furthermore, they emphasize the need for transparent retail pricing—where metal value, making charges, and wastage are clearly broken out—allowing consumers and temple trusts to make informed decisions and avoid under-purity controversies.
Standards and Operational Hurdles
At the core of this transition is IS 2112:2025, the updated technical standard governing silver purity grades (ranging from 800 to 999.9 purity). The standard mandates safer manufacturing practices, prohibiting cadmium and lead in solders while utilizing advanced XRF analysis for verification.
However, standardisation must be balanced so it does not suppress design innovation. Stakeholders note that popular oxidized and mixed-material pieces require highly tailored hallmarking approaches, alongside resolving existing bottlenecks like hallmarking capacity constraints, hallmark wear, and delicate traditional styles like bandhel and filigree.
A Consultative Future
Recognizing these friction points, BIS is avoiding abrupt disruption. Through national consultations and the BIS Care App, the regulator is actively gathering industry feedback to design a phased rollout. By factoring in specific exemptions based on weight or technical complexity, the framework aims to protect traditional craftsmanship and design innovation while establishing standards, traceability, and trust as the foundation for Indian silver’s global competitiveness.
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