Fine Jewelry

The Korean jewelry industry is rapidly expanding its share in the world jewelry market with its unique designs and price competitiveness. Around 300 Korean jewelry makers are shipping US$ 562.9million of their products to various countries such as the United States, the Middle East, Japan, Europe, the Central and South America, and other parts of the world.

Most popular among Korean products are cubic zirconiums set jewelry as well as mounting jewelry going without main stones. Starting from 2002, many Korean jewelers have diversified their product lines to jewelry designs adopting natural gemstones including diamonds. Especially, some leading jewelers have started to introduce a variety of colored items with unique designs featuring antique and oriental style as part of their efforts to compete in the world market.

Korean jewelers are renowned for their professional capability of satisfying varied tastes in the international market, supported by creative designers and skilled workers. Since 1977, Korea has won 10 gold medals in the World Skills Competition held every two years. And Korean designers have won recognition for design development as well. Thus, Korean made jewelry is selling well among buyers from the world over.

 

Watches and Clocks

The number of Korean watch and clock manufacturers has quadrupled to more than 400 companies from less than 100 companies in early 1980s. Actually, the Korean watch industry started to boom in the 1980s thanks to advanced producing facilities, development of new materials, ever-improving precision processing technology and production quality made possible by huge investments from conglomerates such as Samsung and Daewoo.

In the early 1990s, the Korean watch industry came to introduce high-end luxury wrist watches thanks to technological breakthrough in the fields of sapphire glass processing, titanium coloring and coating, metal powder injection molding, and adoption of new materials such as tungsten and ceramics.

However, the Korean watch industry suffered difficulties caused mainly by sudden wage increases and excessive competition among domestic companies in the 1990s. To overcome these difficulties, many Korean makers emphasized on creative design development and introduction of diversified function. They even started to solidify brand marketing. With these efforts, Korea's Watch and Clock export reached US$ 162.78 million in 2002.

 

Fashion Jewelry

Korea is now well recognized as a top fashion jewelry-producing nation thanks to its excellent production skills, experienced designers, and speedy production infrastructure. Korea’s competitiveness in fashion jewelry industry comes mainly from a constant supply of approximately 3,000 educated workers from a total of 42 colleges and universities.

In 2001, Korea’s export of fashion jewelry reached US $290 million, a share of 18.4 percent in the world market. The number of fashion jewelry manufacturers in Korea stands at 550 companies, 99 percent of which are located in Seoul and its vicinity areas. They are very competent in meeting small orders in varied designs. As the average life cycle of fashion jewelry is less than three months, Korean makers are focusing on developing new designs adopting new materials.