Diamond Mike Watson

My Life as a Diamond Merchant

I remember my first day in the diamond business. I had just graduated with a business degree and I was ready for the world. I came to my job with a crisp new suit and a patriotic red, white and blue tie. I didn’t know much about this amazing gemstone that would transform my life in the next three decades.

I look back affectionately now, and I suppose I should have worn something a little more casual on that first work day, for I was being groomed for major training. I was told I was about to commence a very responsible job – weighing all the loose diamonds!  One by one, I carefully removed each gem from it’s paper parcel and plopped it into the metal weighing tray. As a weekly security check to make sure no stone may have been accidentally misplaced with another diamond, I checked to measure the carat weights on the mechanical scale to make sure the number on the small apparatus was precisely what was written on the diamond parcel paper.

The job was exciting for the first few minutes. I started with the quarter carats, .23 cts, .24 cts, .25 cts, then gradually worked up to the largest gem in the inventory, which was probably a 5-carat beauty.  What I didn’t realize, in my lonesome solitude, was that the task consumed my entire eight hours on the job.  Since I was the new kid on the block, I would have to do that job every Saturday.

Today I am thankful to have been given that opportunity.  How many people can say they have held millions of dollars of precious diamonds in their hands at 22 years old? How many people, at any age, can closely determine a diamond’s size and value simply by a quick glance?

Today, at 54, I still marvel at every diamond I examine in my tweezers. Diamonds are pure carbon, made from the remarkable forces of nature, and are virtually indestructible.  What has fueled my passion for diamonds is that if they are fine quality, they remain an eternal object of beauty that symbolizes some of our most cherished memories.

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