JCK Vegas wrapped Sunday after four days at the Venetian. Show operator RX Global put attendance at 17,500, a step up from last year, with about 1,900 exhibitors on the floor and roughly 17,000 vetted buyers walking the aisles from nearly 100 countries. Gold opened the show Thursday at $4,585 and traded down to $4,466 by Friday close, a $119 give-back that tracks with the seasonal pattern most of us watch every June. The post-Iran rally that put gold above $5,400 in January has cooled. The mood on the floor was cautiously good. Most of the trade I spoke with at the Venetian were writing orders, not just looking, which is a change from where we were in early March.

The single biggest piece of public news this week was Signet Q1 fiscal 2027, released June 2. Sales came in at $1.6 billion for the 13 weeks ending May 2, same-store sales up 1.8% against fiscal 2026 Q1, and EPS of $1.56 against a $1.37 consensus. The revenue print of $1.553 billion missed the $1.567 billion Street number by about $14 million, but the operating story was stronger than the headline. Adjusted gross profit landed at $589 million with the gross margin rate down approximately 1 point, driven specifically by a 70 basis point merchandise margin decline tied to higher gold costs. SG&A was down 3% year over year on restructuring and spend discipline through what management is now calling the Grow Brand Love model, and adjusted operating income rose 12%. The midpoint of fiscal 2027 guidance went higher. The full Signet read here walks through the margin math and how the closures and divestitures are showing up. Merchandise AUR was up roughly 5% year over year, which is the real signal on mix.

The Swiss number landed mid-week. April exports came in at 2.1 billion Swiss francs, down 16.6% against the same month last year, when shipments had been pulled forward ahead of US tariff implementation. US-bound shipments fell 56.4% on a year-over-year base, but the Federation Horlogère itself flagged the comparison as misleading and noted that April 2026 still ran 8.9% above April 2024. Year to date the cumulative number is off 3.9%. France was up 46.3% (the FH noted that figure does not reflect the real direction of the market), Singapore up 17.3%, China and Hong Kong both in the teens, and Japan, the UK, Germany and the UAE all softer. Precious-metal pieces took the worst of it on a value basis, contracting by roughly a quarter on the price-band breakdown. I broke down what April actually says about the underlying market here, since the headline number is a tariff base-effect more than a demand collapse. The secondary market continues to firm in parallel. Q1 saw Rolex up 1.7%, Patek up 3.0%, and Audemars Piguet up 2.0% on average secondary pricing. Royal Oak references are running roughly 25% above retail across the popular configurations.

On the diamond side, JCK and Luxury reported strong traffic on the natural counter. Ovals, pears and marquise shapes were moving on the floor. Rounds still held about 62% of sales on retailer feedback, with ovals running a close second. Retailers I talked to at the show, mostly the boutique-side US guys who run their own books, were telling me to lean into yellow gold and men jewelry this fall. The lab-grown side was quiet by comparison. Pandora reported its lab-grown revenue down 15% year over year in Q1 2026 and announced it will start including carbon footprint information on every lab-grown stone it sells, which is the first major brand to publish per-stone emissions data on the lab side. Lab-grown is still only 1% of Pandora total mix.

The Rapaport price action in April, which Rapaport released its press read on May 6, showed the RAPI for 1-carat goods down 1.4%, a small improvement from March 1.7% decline. The 0.30 and 0.50 indices were both up, 2.6% and 1.3% respectively, and the 3-carat number ticked up 0.3%. The small-stone rebound is the real story since that is where lab-grown competition is most direct, and the move suggests inventory at the cutter and wholesale level finally cleared.

De Beers Q1 totals also got more airtime this week with Anglo American repeating its commitment to the divestment process. Q1 rough sales were $648 million on 7.7 million carats from two Sights, with the consolidated average price down 19% to $101 per carat. Production was up 17% to 7.1 million carats, primarily on planned ore release from Gahcho Kué and higher volumes from Venetia underground. Anglo took another $2.3 billion writedown on the unit ahead of the sale. Botswana, which holds a 15% minority and hosts the flagship production, is signaling it wants to push for a majority position in whatever structure emerges. The CEO continues to indicate a consortium outcome is more likely than a single corporate buyer.

The branded retail side gave the trade two solid datapoints to anchor against this week. Richemont reported its fiscal year ending March with sales up 11% on a constant currency basis, ahead of the 9.78% sell-side consensus. The jewelry maisons segment, which carries Cartier, Van Cleef and Arpels, and Buccellati, was up 14% to 4.785 billion euros, and specialized watchmaking with Piaget and Panerai came in at 872 million euros on a 7% gain. LVMH for its comparable reporting period showed watches and jewelry up 3% overall with Tiffany and Bulgari carrying most of that. The Richemont jewelry print is the comp benchmark the trade is now reading Signet and Pandora against for the calendar year. Pandora Q1 came in at DKK 7.109 billion in sales, a step down from DKK 7.347 billion last year, with net income of DKK 942 million versus DKK 1.101 billion. The lab-grown component of Pandora was off 15% year over year and still sits at only 1% of total Pandora mix.

Gold for jewelers continues to be the operational question. The full gold piece here goes deeper on Q1 jewelry demand, which the World Gold Council put at 335 tonnes globally, off 24% quarter over quarter and 23% year over year. China was down 32%, India down 18%, and the Middle East off 23%. Metals Focus is calling for full-year 2026 jewelry demand to drop 2%, which is consistent with what most of the bullion desks I deal with were saying coming out of JCK. Central banks bought a net 19 tonnes in April after the Q1 total of 244 tonnes. Poland was again the largest single buyer at 31 tonnes added in Q1, lifting reserves to 582 tonnes. The PBoC added 7 tonnes for the quarter, more than double the previous quarter. Silver closed Friday near $73, with the gold-silver ratio compressed to 60.0 on Wednesday, the tightest reading in several weeks.

Auction week in New York starts Saturday June 13 with Phillips New York Watch Auction XIV. The catalog runs 156 lots with a $17.5 to $35 million total estimate, the widest range Phillips has brought to New York. The cover lot is the pink-gold Patek Philippe Ref. 1518 estimated at $1.2 to $2.4 million, a museum-quality, fresh-to-market piece. Eric Clapton Patek 5004 is in the same catalog along with 17 F.P. Journe lots and the usual sport-Rolex rotation, including the 6241 John Player Special, the 6239 Champagne, and the 6263 Panda. Sotheby's follows on June 15 with the New York leg of Shapes of Cartier, more than 300 vintage Cartier watches with an aggregate estimate above $15 million. The collective week across all three houses sits between $35 million and $60 million in lots, which is the heavier end of recent New York seasons.

What I am watching into next week: hammer prices at Phillips XIV against the F.P. Journe and Patek 1518 estimates, May FH numbers due late in the month, and whether Signet raised guidance gets validated by Pandora and Richemont commentary on the back of their respective full-year results. Richemont fiscal year ending in March came in at 11% constant-currency growth with jewelry up 14% to 4.785 billion euros, so the high-jewelry top end is intact. Gold seasonal weakness usually carries into July before the Asian wedding restock cycle picks up. The trade is calmer than it was in March, and that is its own piece of information worth paying attention to.