Partners in extraordinary jewelry
The oldest jewelry house in Europe entered into an exclusive partnership with one of the youngest jewelry brands in the world. The Belgian jewelry house Heursel and the Dutch brand PietrAverde.
Two passionate entrepreneurs from two different nationalities, two pioneers in each their fields, two completely different companies in the diamond world but one strong vision for the future and joined forces when it comes to a new generation of exclusive diamond jewelry.
Who are these pioneers and what is their common vision?
With our knowledge, most sophisticated techniques and unique materials we are able to approach challenges from a completely different angle.
This combination will lead to the most successful developments and give us the possibility to design a new generation of extraordinary jewelry.
Eric De Waele
Ton Janssen
With over 35 years of experience in the exclusive jewelry industry, a true expert. In 1745 jewelry store Heursel opens its doors in Ghent (Belgium). It was the beginning of a successful ‘Heursel’ era. For 275 years and eight generations, we have surprised our customers with a fine selection of jewelry and watches and our own creations.
I started my career as a goldsmith in Brussels after which I entered the Antwerp diamond sector to learn the trade from a top diamond dealer. I was trained to sort diamonds and analyze them properly. In a later stage I was trained as a gemmologist at the HRD Antwerp (Diamond High Council) The next step was a training at one of the well-known Swiss watch manufacturers where I learned all aspects of watch making, from parts manufacturing to assembly.
Then I moved to Lausanne (Switzerland) to follow an international training at Centre de Formation Horlogère that would provide me with the necessary knowledge to run a business in the sale of watches and jewelry.
In 1989 I took over the company Heursel from my parents, which was further expanded with the sale, maintenance and repair of the most exclusive top brands in the field of watches and jewelry. Later on, the business was expanded with our own jewelry and watch workshop.
The beautiful profession of jeweler has been carried out in the same way for centuries, but times are changing. Consumer’s buying behavior changed and the sales strategy of top brands also changed, not always in favor of the retailers. As a passionate jeweler and businessman I had to respond to this. So why shouldn’t I be able to adapt my way of working? With an atelier, but without a shop. A new challenge, one with more freedom and intense collaboration with the customer.
With this in mind, we finally decided to close our dream home in Ghent in March 2020 and opened a new watch and jewelry repair workshop in Destelbergen ( Belgium ) where we also design our new creations. From our beautiful sales rooms, you can watch our jewelry and watch making artists at work. (www.heursel.be)
With about 40 years of experience in diamond industry, another expert.
In the early eighties I started in a development department of a company that recently made the switch from cutting ornamental diamonds to developing diamond products for high-tech applications. This change required a lot of adjustment from the existing diamond cutters, but also equipment and tooling for new products were not available. As an instrument maker, I was responsible for the production of tools, manufacturing prototypes for a new generation diamond products and general support to other R&D departments. Later on, I became manager of this department and I was in charge of a team that consisted of 15-20 precision instrument makers and electronic engineers. This technical support department could be described as a small company within a big diamond company in which 300 people were employed at these days.
At the end of the eighties, we started growing diamonds in Cuijk on a modest scale. During the nineties, our company was gradually taken over by the technical part of DeBeers. The growing of diamonds was further developed by them and in Cuijk the focus was on developing new products. From the year 2000, the quality of lab-grown diamond continued to improve and a steady supply started. Within a few years, our traditional diamond sawery evolved into a high-tech laser cutting department. It was the second transition of our company in which I was actively involved in supporting the introduction of a new generation of diamond products.
In all those years at this company I have followed many courses and gained unique experiences. With this knowledge I left the company in 2006 and started as a consultant to help companies with technical issues for which they had no expertise in-house.
In 2008 I founded DD Technologies together with a Swiss partner. Again, the aim was to develop a new generation of high-tech diamond products made from lab-grown diamonds.
With a passionate team, in our modern facility in Cuijk (The Netherlands), we manufacture diamond products that are sold worldwide. (www.dd-technologies.com)
Partners in extraordinary jewelry
The oldest jewelery house in Europe enters into an exclusive partnership with one of the youngest jewelry brands in the world. The Belgian jewelry house Heursel and the Dutch brand PietrAverde.
Two passionate entrepreneurs from two different nationalities, two pioneers in each their fields, two completely different companies in the diamond world but one strong vision for the future and joined forces when it comes to a new generation of exclusive diamond jewelry.
Who are these pioneers?
Eric De Waele
With over 35 years of experience in the exclusive jewelry industry, a true expert. In 1745 jewelry store Heursel opens its doors in Ghent (Belgium). It was the beginning of a successful ‘Heursel’ era. For 275 years and eight generations, we have surprised our customers with a fine selection of jewelry and watches and our own creations.
I started my career as a goldsmith in Brussels after which I entered the Antwerp diamond sector to learn the trade from a top diamond dealer. I was trained to sort diamonds and analyze them properly. In a later stage I was trained as a gemologist at the High Council of Diamonds in Antwerp. The next step was a training at one of the well-known Swiss watch manufacturers where I learned all aspects of watch making, from parts manufacturing to assembly.
Then I moved to La Chaux Fonds (Switzerland) to follow an international training at Center de Formation Horlogere that would provide me with the necessary knowledge to run a business in the sale of watches and jewelry.
In 1989 I took over the company Heursel from my parents, which was further expanded with the sale, maintenance and repair of the most exclusive top brands in the field of watches and jewelry. Later on, the business was expanded with our own jewelry and watch workshop.
The beautiful profession of jeweler has been carried out in the same way for centuries, but times are changing. Consumer’s buying behavior changed and the sales strategy of top brands also changed, not always in favor of the retailers. As a passionate jeweler and businessman I had to respond to this. So why shouldn’t I be able to adapt my way of working? With a studio, but without a shop. A new challenge, one with more freedom and intense collaboration with the customer. With this in mind, we finally decided to close our dream home in Ghent in March 2020 and opened a new studio in Destelbergen (Belgium). From our beautiful sales rooms, you can watch our jewelry and watch making artists at work. (www.heursel.be)
Ton Janssen
With about 40 years of experience in diamond industry, another expert.
In the early eighties I started in a development department of a company that recently made the switch from cutting ornamental diamonds to developing diamond products for high-tech applications. This change required a lot of adjustment from the existing diamond cutters, but also equipment and tooling for new products were not available. As an instrument maker, I was responsible for the production of tools, manufacturing prototypes for a new generation diamond products and general support to other R&D departments. Later on, I became manager of this department and I was in charge of a team that consisted of 15-20 precision instrument makers and electronic engineers. This technical support department could be described as a small company within a big diamond company in which 300 people were employed at these days.
At the end of the eighties, we started growing diamonds in Cuijk on a modest scale. During the nineties, our company was gradually taken over by the technical part of DeBeers. The growing of diamonds was further developed by them and in Cuijk the focus was on developing new products. From the year 2000, the quality of lab-grown diamond continued to improve and a steady supply started. Within a few years, our traditional diamond sawery evolved into a high-tech laser cutting department. It was the second transition of our company in which I was actively involved in supporting the introduction of a new generation of diamond products.
In all those years at this company I have followed many courses and gained unique experiences. With this knowledge I left the company in 2006 and started as a consultant to help companies with technical issues for which they had no expertise in-house.
In 2008 I founded DD Technologies together with a Swiss partner. Again, the aim was to develop a new generation of high-tech diamond products made from lab-grown diamonds.
With a passionate team, in our modern facility in Cuijk (The Netherlands), we manufacture diamond products that are sold worldwide. (www.dd-technologies.com)