Gem Genève Marks 10 Years as Geneva’s High-Jewelry Trade Hub

Gem Genève opened its 10th edition at Palexpo in Geneva with 249 listed exhibitors, a scale that shows how quickly the fair has moved from a new gathering to a fixed point on the high-jewelry calendar. Founded in 2018 by Thomas Faerber and Ronny Totah, the event has leaned on Geneva’s deep bench of gem dealers, family houses, and specialist traders, while keeping room for design-led makers and collectors who want to see where the market is heading.

That mix is part of the appeal. GemGenève describes itself as a trade show organised by industry insiders and a hub of creativity, and the programming matches that pitch with lectures, seminars, round tables, and Touch & Feel workshops. The fair is open to professionals, but also to connoisseurs and private buyers, a structure that gives it a broader life than a closed industry market. In one hall, that means heritage pieces with old-world sourcing histories; in another, contemporary jewels built to attract both wearers and buyers thinking about future value.

The 2025 edition gave the fair its clearest proof of momentum. It set a record with 4,970 visitors and 7,259 total admissions including the preview, while hosting 253 exhibitors, among them 209 dealers. More than 100 nationalities were represented, a useful measure of Geneva’s continued pull as a crossroads for stones, signed jewels, and serious buying. Visitor traffic was up 34% year on year, a leap that matters in a sector where private appointments and specialist trust still drive much of the business.

Totah’s own biography helps explain the fair’s feel. Born in Egypt, he moved with his family to Paris in 1962 and then to Geneva in 1968, before joining the family gem-and-jewelry business. That path mirrors the fair’s own logic: mobile, multilingual, and rooted in the old routes that still shape where important stones change hands. Geneva Tourism lists the 7 to 10 May 2026 edition as an international jewelry fair at Palexpo, and the exhibitor archive’s 249 names underline a simple fact. Ten years after launch, Gem Genève has become less a newcomer than a working hub, where commerce, education, and collecting now meet in the same rooms.