Nivoda Montana Sapphire Group
By David Brough
LONDON – Sapphires cemented their position as the definitive centre gemstone in sales by Nivoda in the second quarter (Q2) of 2026, accounting for nearly half of all the platform’s gemstone sales.
Within sapphires, blue remains the clear favourite, with green and teal tones continuing to hold a steady quarter of demand.
“Across cuts, oval remains firmly in the lead, but the standout move this quarter is cushion, which climbed from just over 6% to more than 9% of sales, alongside continued strength in emerald and octagon cuts,” Pia Tonna, Category Lead, Gemstones, Nivoda, told Jewellery Outlook.
“This points to jewellers broadening their cut mix beyond the classics.”
From a colour perspective, blue, green and red gemstones remain the pillars of demand, while pink continues to gain ground as retailers look for distinctive, design-led options, according to the latest data from Nivoda.
“By value, the 1-3 carat range remains the largest single segment, though its share eased slightly this quarter,” Pia Tonna said.
“The more telling shift is at the top end: gemstones in the 3-5 carat and 5-carat-plus bands both grew their share of sales value, together now accounting for more than a quarter of gemstone spend, up from around a fifth in Q1. This points to buyers trading up to larger, more statement-led centre gemstones.”
Overall, Q2 confirms the trends that began building in Q1: sapphire-led, colour-confident, and increasingly willing to invest in larger, higher-value gemstones.
Nivoda Jewellery and Sapphire Gemstone
According to Nivoda gemstone data, the best selling gemstones were sapphire 49.38% (most popular: blue 54.17%, green/teal 25%, pink 9.29%); emerald 13.23%; ruby 9.7%; tourmaline 6.35%; tanzanite 5.47%; aquamarine 4.94%; garnets 1.94%; spinel 1.12%; and opal (0.59%.)
The leading cuts in Nivoda sales in Q2 were oval, 39.62%, followed by octagon/emerald, 15.7%; round, 13.4%; pear, 11.52%; cushion, 9.35%; and marquise, 2.88%.
In terms of cuts and colours that are outperforming, oval leads (no change from Q1), while cushion is the standout mover, up to 9.35 percent in Q2, from 6.27% in Q1.
The most popular gemstone colours were blue (39.56%), green (25.34%), red (10.29%), pink (9.29%), teal (4.76%), and yellow (3.12%).
The most popular carat ranges (share of gemstone sales value) were 1-3 Cts (59.24%), down from 65.32% in Q1, followed by
3-5 Cts (16.1%), up from 11.82% in Q1; <1Ct (13.6%); and 5+Cts (11.06%), up from 8.43% in Q1.
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