Taiwanese jewellery brand comes to town

WHILE other boys played with toys growing up, John Yu was messing around with diamonds.

And that’s just what happens when your family is in the diamond wholesale business in Taiwan, he says, laughing. A gemologist by training, he says it was his friend’s request for help in buying an engagement ring that made him realise how clueless men are about buying rings.

In 2005, he set up the Aluxe jewellery brand – a name derived from the phrase “a luxury moment”. Today, some 90 per cent of the brand’s collections comprise wedding rings. The company, which sells over 30,000 engagement or wedding rings annually, has cornered a fifth of this market segment in Taiwan.