In 1916, at the age of 19, he started his own company, The Premier Diamond Company, located at 535 Fifth Avenue. With $2,000 saved from his California enterprises, Harry began to operate entirely on his own, buying and selling in the New York Diamond Exchange, which required sound, quick decisions and the boldness of a gambler. He dropped out of high school at the age of 15 and went to work for his father to devote himself full-time to the store as well as to visit boomtown saloons, where he sold gems to oil prospectors who struck it rich.Īt the age of 18, Harry moved back to New York with his father, who opened another Manhattan jewelry store, which he would operate until just before his death in 1929.

He bought the ring for 25 cents and resold it two days later for $800. His mother died when Harry was seven, and a year later he and his father, who suffered from asthma, moved to the West Coast for health reasons and opened a jewelry store in the center of the Los Angeles business district at a time when the film industry was just beginning to establish itself in the area.Īccording to lore, Harry early on demonstrated an ability to recognize valuable stones when at the age of 12 he noticed a two-carat emerald ring on a tray of junk jewelry in a pawnshop window. His father, a Ukrainian immigrant named Jacob Winston, had opened a jewelry retail and repair shop in Manhattan ’s upper west side in 1890. When Harry Winston established his business in 1932, he already had many years of experience in the jewelry business. Harry Winston and the Birth of His Company: 1890s-1930s Approximately one-fifth of the company ’s income is generated by less expensive jewelry manufactured in Rhode Island and Hong Kong and sold to mass-market retailers, who are forbidden to reveal the source of the merchandise in order to preserve Harry Winston ’s reputation for exclusivity. In addition, Harry Winston salons are found in Paris, Geneva, Tokyo, and Osaka. Harry Winston also owns a salon in Los Angeles, where it tends close ties to Hollywood and is spotlighted during each year ’s Academy Awards, when famous actresses borrow multimillion-dollar jewelry for the evening.

The worldwide operation is run from a Fifth Avenue location in New York City, where the company not only maintains a salon open to a select clientele, but also operates workshops that design jewelry and cut, polish, and set gems. is the corporate name of The House of Harry Winston, one of the world ’s most prestigious luxury jewelers.

Private Company Incorporated: 1932 Employees: 200 Sales: $85 million (2001) NAIC: 448300 Jewelry, Luggage, and Leather Goods Stores 718 Fifth Avenue New York, New York 10010 U.S.A.

Harry winston jewelry