In This Episode
In this edition of The Jewelry District you’ll hear JCK editor-in-chief Victoria Gomelsky and news director Rob Bates talk about their recent publications, LVMH and Tiffany, and social commerce. You’ll also hear another installment of Weird Story of the Week, and this one involves a Real Housewives star.

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Show Notes
00:30 Rob gives a sneak peek of his new novel A Murder Is Forever.
03:15 Victoria’s new piece for the New York Times details the history of wristwatches.
09:35 The LVMH/Tiffany schism comes as no surprise to Rob.
14:23 Victoria will host a webinar on Wednesday that covers holiday 2020, and she discusses the importance of social commerce.
17:55 Kyle Richards of The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills gets wrapped up in the Weird Story of the Week.

Episode Credits
Hosts: Rob Bates and Victoria Gomelsky
Editor: Olivia Briley
Producer and engineer: Natalie Chomet
Plugs: jckonline.com, @jckmagazine

Show Recap

‘A Murder Is Forever’
A Murder Is Forever is Rob’s first novel, a mystery that’s set in New York City’s Diamond District. You’ll hear a little about the plot of the first book, which is available in paperback and e-book format on Tuesday.

The Wristwatch At 100
Victoria has a piece in Tuesday’s in the New York Times, “The Wristwatch at 100.” It’s a cover story for an international watch section, and she reflects on the past 100 years of wristwatches going back to World War I veterans popularizing the style. Rob and Victoria also spend some time talking about watches of the ’80s.

LVMH-Tiffany Breakup
Last year, Tiffany finally succumbed to the advances of LVMH, the biggest luxury conglomerate in the world, after it received an offer of $16 billion. In the past two months, LVMH has called off the deal after receiving a letter from the French government advising the company to back out. Rob explains why he didn’t think the deal was a very good one in the first place. Both companies have filed lawsuits, so we’ll just have to wait and see what happens come January.

2020 Holiday Season Retail
Victoria will be hosting a webinar on Wednesday at 3 p.m. ET for JCK: “7 Ways the 2020 Holiday Season Will Be Different and What Jewelry Retailers Should Do About It,” in which she’ll explain the importance of Zoom consultations. In preparation for JCK’s webinar, she sat in on a webinar about social commerce, in which the presenters described how commerce isn’t developed for shopping; it’s developed for transactions. The shopping experience is hard to re-create, and Victoria explains how social commerce can help.

Weird Story of the Week
Rob tells a story about Kyle Richards, The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills star. On the “Secret Revealed” episode of Real Housewives, Richards leaked a new twist in her investigation of a 2017 robbery, in which she lost more than a million dollars of personal items. You’ll have to listen in to hear the incredibly strange way she ended up finding one of her lost pieces of jewelry.

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