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Hong Kong’s September jewellery fair drew 57,632 buyers, its highest turnout since the pandemic

Jewellery & Gem WORLD Hong Kong, held from 14 to 20 September 2026 across two venues, welcomed 57,632 unique buyers from 149 countries and regions, up 4.5% on 2025 and its best attendance since the pandemic, organiser Informa Markets said after the fair closed. Exhibitors reported steady orders for fancy-shaped diamonds, strong interest in spinel and Paraíba tourmaline, and buyers looking for stock they can sell quickly despite high gold prices.

By David Nataf, GIA Graduate Gemologist (GG) · Published 26 September 2026, 22:30 CEST · Updated 26 September 2026, 22:30 CEST

Two venues, one week

JGW, the fair long known as the September Hong Kong Jewellery & Gem Fair, is split in two. From 14 to 18 September, three fairs at AsiaWorld-Expo, near the airport, covered precious materials: Gemstones, Diamonds & Fine Gems, and Pearls+. From 16 to 20 September, three more at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre (HKCEC) in Wan Chai showed finished jewellery, packaging, tools and technology, according to the fair’s website. When the 2025 edition closed, Informa had announced 15 to 21 September for 2026 (JNA, October 2025); the dates were then moved back to what the organiser calls the fair’s original schedule (JGW).

A post-pandemic high, not an all-time record

In its post-show statement, Informa Markets reported 57,632 unique buyers, “shattering post-pandemic records”, from 149 countries and regions, and around 3,000 exhibitors from 46 countries and regions (JNA, Gem Spectrum). A year earlier, the fair drew 55,176 buyers from 141 countries and regions and more than 3,000 exhibitors from 44 (JNA).

The organiser does not claim an all-time record, and older figures show why. The 2016 edition reported 55,768 unique buyers and 3,615 exhibitors (UBM Asia release); the 2018 edition 54,142 unique visitors and 3,730 exhibitors from 54 countries and regions, its highest exhibitor count at the time (UBM Asia release). For 2019 we found no final figure: Informa said visitor turnout was down, with the biggest drop among mainland Chinese buyers, as the fair coincided with the Hong Kong protests and the US-China trade war (Informa, 22 September 2019; South China Morning Post). The 2026 total is therefore above the published 2016 and 2018 figures, with fewer exhibitors: around 3,000, against 3,615 and 3,730.

Who came

Attendance split roughly into thirds between Hong Kong, mainland China and international buyers. Growth came from North America (+24.2%), Europe (+13.4%), Central Asia (+42.2%) and mainland China (+4.5%), where Guangdong, Shanghai and Beijing supplied most visitors and Shaanxi, Jilin, Hebei and Hunan grew fastest (JNA). “The uptick in North American buyers signals a new normal,” said Celine Lau, director of Jewellery Fairs at Informa. Allen Xiang, its general manager for Jewellery, said suppliers were meeting customers “they have not seen in five or six years”.

The picture shifted during the week. On 19 September, the fair’s show daily quoted Lau as saying that, over the first four days, buyers from Italy, Germany and Austria were each up by more than 20% and Russian visitors by more than 30%, while numbers from India, the Philippines and mainland China had declined (JNA Show Daily). The final statement reports mainland China up 4.5%. The organiser published no figure for the Middle East, but a Hong Kong manufacturer told JNA it saw more Middle Eastern clients and many buyers from Africa, and Bahraini brands were at the fair sourcing coloured stones and fancy-colour diamonds (JNA, JNA Show Daily).

Diamonds: fancy shapes and colours move, top whites wait

At AsiaWorld-Expo, dealers described a steady recovery. Buyers mainly ordered 2- to 4-carat pears and ovals in E to G colour, VS and good SI clarity, one Hong Kong dealer told JNA; another said stones “between 20 pointers and 2 carats are selling” while top-quality whites “may take some time to recover”. A third reported strong demand for yellow, pink and blue fancy colours, slow business in D to F whites of 10 carats and up, and steady sales of 2- to 3-carat VS and SI stones at about US$15,000 to US$30,000 each (JNA). A natural-diamond exhibitor said sentiment had improved over the past three to four months (JNA Show Daily).

That optimism sits alongside soft prices. The IDEX price report of 3 September found decreases outnumbering increases, with broader weakness in rounds from 0.70 to 1.99 carats. The fair lists laboratory-grown diamonds and gemstones among its product categories (JGW), but the organiser’s statement gives no figures for them and we found no sourced report on how they traded at the show.

Coloured gems and pearls

In coloured stones, “buyers were on the lookout for spinel and Paraíba tourmaline,” a Dubai-based dealer told JNA; the few mainland Chinese buyers he met asked for rubies and Paraíba. A Japan-based dealer said prices of Brazilian Paraíba were stable, red and hot pink spinel remained best sellers, and Chinese and Russian buyers were actively sourcing as prices kept strengthening (JNA). At the Pearls+ halls, Japanese exhibitors showed white and golden South Sea, Tahitian and Akoya pearls (JNA Show Daily), and a Malaysian retail chain came looking for pearls and coloured stones for bespoke orders (JNA). A first Mandarin-language master class for content creators, run with IGI, AIGS, SSEF and Gübelin, covered identification, origin and treatment (JNA).

Gold: lighter pieces and other metals

Gold weighed on the finished-jewellery halls. Lau cited “geopolitical tensions, tariff pressures and high gold prices” (JNA). Spot gold was trading at US$4,378.97 an ounce on the morning of 18 September (GMT) (Reuters), below its record of US$5,589.38 set on 28 January 2026 (CBS News) but far above earlier years. A Philippine retailer said manufacturers were offering gold jewellery that keeps a bigger look at lighter weight, and a Malaysian chain planned to order 22-karat jewellery from Turkish and Italian suppliers and 24-karat “hard pure gold” from Chinese makers (JNA). One gem jeweller presented titanium necklaces because “metal prices have gone up significantly” (JNA Show Daily).

What it means for buyers

• Attendance is not sales. The figures count people, not transactions, as CIJ points out, and Informa published no sales data. Read “record” as “more buyers than at any edition since the pandemic began”.
• White diamonds: room to negotiate. With asking prices of rounds under pressure and dealers describing top whites as slow, retail buyers of classic white diamonds are in a comparatively strong position. Pears and ovals of 2 to 4 carats and fancy colours are in demand in the trade, so expect firmer prices there.
• Natural or laboratory-grown: ask for a report. Both are sold at the fair and look the same to the eye. For any significant stone, ask for an independent laboratory report that states whether it is natural or laboratory-grown, and check its number on the laboratory’s own website.
• Spinel and Paraíba: firm prices. Dealers describe strong demand and rising prices for these stones. For both, origin and treatment affect value: ask for a report from a recognised laboratory stating them, and for Paraíba, one that confirms the copper content behind the name.
• Gold jewellery: check weight and fineness. High gold prices push makers towards lighter, hollower pieces, lower karats and alternative metals such as titanium. Compare the stated gold weight and the hallmark or karat stamp, not just the look.
• Timing. Much of what was ordered in Hong Kong is year-end stock: exhibitors linked the busy week to restocking before Christmas, so new pieces reach shop windows from the fourth quarter.

Our view

In our view, the clearest signal from this edition is less the headline total than its mix: buyers from the United States and Europe returning after years away, and a sharp split between categories that sell, fancy-shaped diamonds, fancy colours, spinel and Paraíba, and those that wait, such as large top-colour whites. The figures come from the organiser; the trends come from exhibitors quoted in the trade press, including JNA, which is published by Informa Markets Jewellery, the organiser itself.

David Nataf is a GIA Graduate Gemologist (GG) and gem dealer. This article is based on the organiser’s figures and on trade press reports.