World's first authenticable pearls - preview

The right audience and the right price. Probably a difficult formula to get just right.
 
What info, exactly, is this special info going to tell us?

Seems like we already have pearls with easily authenticated provenance, accessible information regarding the farms' care of the oysters, waters, environment; a few that come to mind are:

1. Kamoka Pearls
2. Sea of Cortez Pearls
3. Japanese Kasumi Pearls
4. Lagoon Island Pearls
5. J. Hunter Pearls
6. Torres Pearls
7. .Jewelmer
8. Paspaley

Plus Jeremy @ Pearl Paradise has brought in top quality Akoya sourced from specific farms.
 
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I'm certainly not terribly familiar with the twists and turns of the pearl industry. But as Pattye has pointed out, there are already 'branded' pearls that one buys directly from the supplier that should eliminate any doubts about provinence. I suppose that once you move away from the direct buy there is always a chance for deception. (check out all the Kasumi pearls on the market)

So I can see a use for some people who produce a very expensive product (Kasumi,Edison, SS, SoC) , I assume that's where this is going... most farms wouldn't bother. But this would allow a jewellery store to scan an item in front of the customer and prove that they are Edisons and not Mings .. or Kasumi and not Chinese look alikes.. Paspaley etc
 
Wong is claiming the water quality near Hongg Kongis now OK for growing akoyas. I wonder how the weather is for growing akoyas?

And what happens to the less than memorable pearls that were grown with inserted chips? How does one keep those from selling at the same prices as the good ones once they have been sold the first time? If the chip info can be changed to reflect a lesser quality, once it is grown, then it is susceptible to being changed to AAA quality by anyone with the technology.

At what point are micro-chipped pearls no longer worthy of their brand? If there are AAA pearls, then there are sure to be AA and A qualities as well. What would be the cut off point and what would happen to the less than perfect pearls?

I can see that some form of this technology could be used by brand name companies and probably will be in a couple more iterations - and we heard about it here, first. Which was actually a year ago or so, but second time around, it is making more of an impression.

I hope someone goes to Wong's lecture. This is a story worth keeping track of. Someone is going to perfect this technique, or one similar, and the world of cultured pearls will begin to offer them in the near future, even if it is just Wong's HK akoyas. Be interesting to see how the akoyas grow- what proportions of top quality will emerge.
 
Caitlin, you bring up very interesting points that need to be addressed. :)
 
Caitlin made excellent points where does it stop? What controls are in place preventing fraud? Technology is so easily hacked, a pearl finger print in theory is cool, but I am afraid I don't quite see how this is controllable? What say you Pearl_Researcher? Although Jeremy guessed correctly, where exactly were you going with this thread, I think I am a bit lost yet I remain intensely curious.

Btw that first pic does look like Hello Kitty, is she now expanding her billion dollar industry with trade marked pearl Hello Kitty heads :)? Pearls that send and receive messages (which I firmly believe has Big Brother GPS technology implanted…just kidding), pearls that are scannable like a bag of chips…I think the next Bond movie will have spy cam pearls :) which opens the industry to a whole new market.

Pearl branding swiftly moves into the future of an increasingly tech reliant world, the industry rushes to keep up…and questions remain.
 
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