All good things start with extraordinary stories and here no less. Two diamond dealers were, as is often seen dealing on the street, a stone fell and was lost and with these few grams, the idea of a facility that was to become legendary was born. The stone was later found in the turn-up of the trousers of one of those dealers but it had done its job. Two lawyers together with Philip Horowitz founded the club with $50 following the initiative of Europe. By the end of the year which was 1931, the DDC had 53 members and growth continued steadily until World War II when the diamond industry took off in New York. Following the European Holocaust, immigrant diamond dealers expanded the DDC’s membership rolls and with the accompanying economic boom established a diamond trade in New York that exceeded that of Western Europe both in quantity and in diversity, as immigration created a varied group of nationalities and cultures.
The growth in the number of members demanded larger premises and the DDC moved uptown to 47th Street. This in effect established New York’s iconic Diamond District and the centre for the diamond and jewelry business in the city and in reality the rest of the United States. The Diamond Dealers Club has evolved to keep pace with expanding foreign markets and rapid technological advancements. It organized selling trips for members to Asia, installed highly sophisticated communications and security systems, and provided a vast array of services necessary for members of the industry to participate and compete in the contemporary world market. In the early 1980’s the club moved its offices and trading platform to 580 Fifth Avenue. The DDC also was intensively involved in the representation and administration of the international diamond trade, being a founder member of the World Federation of Diamond Bourses when in was created in 1947. With the advent of the Internet, the DDC in 2003 launched its website at nyddc.com.
In 2011 the DDC become the first official diamond exchange to launch a first fully functional online diamond trading floor and by doing so, it extended trading privileges to a new category of electronic members, who are able to do business daily even though they are not resident in the New York. All transactions on the DD online trading platform are secured, with the site acting as a guarantor to the seller for prompt payment of his merchandise and to the buyer for the exact specifications of the stone. As members of the DDC, both buyers and suppliers know that they are protected by the Club’s stringent membership requirements, by-laws, and a proven system of arbitration, in which disagreements can be promptly resolved by a neutral dispute resolution mechanism whose decisions are upheld by the New York State Supreme Court.
The Club today boasts 2,000 members and is one of leading diamond exchanges in the world and those two dealers on the street would be truly amazed at what has been achieved by a falling stone.
The mission of the Diamond Dealers Club is an example to the diamond industry as a whole of the integrity promoted within the trade as can be seen from its mission statement. In the main by establishing trade principles; standards of disclosure; disseminating accurate and reliable information; the provision of arbitration; abiding by the World Federation of Diamond Bourses; co-operation with official bodies for the improvement of ethical and economic conditions and all in accordance with the laws of the State of New York and of the United States of America.
Address: 580 5th Ave #10, New York, NY 10036, United States
Phone:+1 212-790-3600
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