DAMIANI WATCHES
Damiani is an Italian luxury jewelry corporate group that designs, manufactures, distributes and sells jewelry and luxury watches.
The Damiani Group was founded in Valenza in 1924, at the heart of an area considered as a global centre of excellence for jewellery production. Founder Enrico Grassi Damiani soon became the favourite jeweller for the most important Italian and international families as a result of his exceptional crafts skills, and he made principally one-off pieces, true masterpieces of exquisite craftsmanship.
In the decades from the 1960s to the 1990s, Damiano Grassi Damiani, Enrico’s son, implemented a process of industrialization and commercial expansion by promoting advances both in design and in technology, two factors that would leave a profound mark on future collections. In addition, a daring distribution policy brought the Damiani brand into the finest jewellery stores of the world.
Products bearing the Damiani trademark became increasingly famous on the haute joaillerie market in Italy and abroad, by virtue of a carefully calibrated combination of tradition and innovation that hallmarked both the visual quality of the jewellery, and its production, which was performed entirely in Italy.
From the late 1990s on, the Damiani Group continued the development process that enabled it to accelerate in the transition from a family-run business to a complex enterprise, by means of the acquisition of outstanding executives for the key roles in company management.
2007 saw the arrival of a new challenge for the Group: its listing on the Italian Stock Exchange. This was an important step in the process of growth and success of Damiani as one of the most important companies on the international haute joaillerie market. This project makes Damiani one of the very few Groups in the sector to have attained this ambitious objective.
Creativity, design and enterprise initiative are the factors that hallmark the Damiani family’s professional approach, along with their enthusiasm for a profession that has been handed down from one generation to the next, and that has been adopted by the third generation of the family, currently leading the Group. The development process is thus continuing still today, with a constant aspiration to progress based on tradition.
Behind the production of jewels, Damiani has entered few years ago the jewel-watch segment inspired by Damiani brand iconic collections like Belle Epoque and San Lorenzo.
Brands
Over the course of the years, other prestigious brands have been added to Damiani. Salvini was created in 1986, while in the late 1990s, the Group acquired Alfieri & St. John (1998), a brand that had been filed in Italy since 1977. In 2000, the brand Bliss was created and launched, marketed by means of a company founded specially for this purpose, New Mood S.p.A., controlled by the Damiani Group. In 2006, the Group acquired Calderoni, a historic Milan haute joaillerie brand. In September 2008, the Group acquired complete control of the top-range jewellery and watch chain Rocca, which became the Group’s first distribution brand.
Values
Every Damiani piece represents the highest expression of Italian-made haute joaillerie tradition. Its history, spanning almost a century, began in Valenza, at the heart of an area with a long-standing jewellery tradition, and the Damiani Group has always maintained powerful links with these geographical roots. Damiani jewels, entirely hand made with meticulous attention dedicated to detailing, express traditional values with the spirit of enterprise that has always hallmarked the Group’s identity.
Damiani works with a classicism that is always perfectly contemporary. This approach is founded on the quality of its jewellery, and on the precision and value of the crafting procedures. Damiani jewellery expresses an overall harmony that gives it eternal value throughout its range of collections.
Damiani have been Italian master jewellers since 1924. Every Damiani creation, from the most intricate through to pieces that appear to be relatively simple, is brought into existence through the painstaking and passionate skill of its craftsmen, who have a valuable heritage of specialist expertise and who possess a supreme ability in the enhancement of jewels’ intrinsic qualities. They forge pieces with pure lines and unique design to create timeless objects, which become objects that transmit emotion and embody the history and passion that underlies the construction of every individual piece.
All Damiani jewellery pieces are hallmarked by a very high design content. This is generated by the Group’s creative team, which is capable of optimally combining the mastery of its craftsmen, a spirit of innovation, and aesthetic taste, making every creation unique and unmistakable.
All the suppliers selected by the Damiani Group belong to a restricted circle of accredited companies which, in accordance with the Kimberly Process, comply with UN regulations regarding the certification of diamonds’ origin, exclusively from legitimate sources that are not connected with the financing of conflicts. This approach reflects the company’s absolute commitment to an ethical stance, as regards labour, the market, and above all, individual people.
International Recognition
Over the years, the Group has won many Italian and international prizes and awards, both for its product design, and for its communications and enterprise. In 1976, the Group won its first Diamonds International Award, the worldwide Oscars awards for jewellery. This is the most prestigious series of prizes in the sector, assigned to the best design and the best diamond jewellery creations amongst thousands of entries from all over the world. Receiving just one of these awards is the highest accolade for any jewellery designer, and Damiani is the only company to have won as many as 18 of these awards, an unbroken record. To these can be added the 4 world Oscar awards won by Calderoni.
Licensing
The Group began to work in the fashion sector from 2008, manufacturing for third-party brand names. In June 2008, an agreement of cooperation was announced between Damiani and Maison Martin Margiela, part of the Only the Brave Group led by Renzo Rosso. This was followed by analogous agreements with Jil Sander and Gianfranco Ferrè. From 2009, the development of Damiani’s licensing business has led to important agreements with prestigious automobile and motorcycle brands like Ferrari, Maserati, and Ducati.
The Distribution Network
The Damiani Group’s distribution structure is based principally on two channels – the retail channel, consisting of 37 points of sale, own-brand and multi-brand, managed directly by the Group.
From 1996 on, following the launch of the boutique in Florence, which was followed by the own-brand store in Milan in 1997, the Group has launched the construction of an international network of flagship stores and own-brand stores in order to enhance and consolidate the image of its brands. These stores are hallmarked by carefully-designed stylistic characteristics, which are wholly coherent with the Group’s brand and communications styles.
The wholesale channel comprises 45 own-brand franchise boutiques, as well as independent multi-brand distributors and jewellers, jewellery chains and department stores. Overall, the Group distributes its products through over 2,500 retailers worldwide.
Today, the Group has more than 80 points of sale worldwide, located in the major Italian and international shopping streets. These include boutiques in Milan (Via Montenapoleone), Rome (Via Condotti), Paris (Place Vendôme), New York (Madison Avenue), Tokyo (Ginza), Los Angeles (Rodeo Drive) and St. Moritz.
Damiani Worldwide
With the objective of reinforcing the Group’s presence on international markets, many international company branches were created, such as Damiani International in Switzerland, Damiani Japan, based in Tokyo, and Damiani U.S.A. with head office in New York.
Official website: http://www.damiani.com/
