We started to notice some unusual construction going on around us here at Diamondthrills a couple of months ago, and a couple of weeks ago the mystery of the SE1 pavement works was finally solved.
Boris has had the builders in, installing bike stands for London’s new cycle hire scheme which launched at the end of July..
For those that don’t know, the idea is that you can borrow a bike for a quick trip across town and then leave it in one of around 400 docking stations.
So the scheme offers riders convenience (you can pick up and drop off bikes almost anywhere in central London), security (you don’t have to worry about it being stolen once it’s in a docking station), and affordability (for regular short journeys it costs almost nothing).
Plus of course you get a warm fuzzy glow because it’s an environmentally friendly way to get around and it’s good for you physically (apart from the traffic fumes, perhaps, and the constant menace of London’s van & truck drivers).
But what have Boris’ bikes got to do with diamonds?
Well, the scheme caught our eye because it’s pioneering a new way of enjoying a fairly traditional experience: riding a bike.
And we like to think that we’re doing the same thing with diamonds.
Just like Boris’ bikes, we offer convenience because you can pick and choose what to wear and when to wear it on a pay-as-you-go basis.
In addition to convenience we offer flexibility: you can select a piece from our jewellery collection to suit a particular outfit or event (note that Boris’ bikes can’t do that: all the bikes are the same model!).
And in a way we offer the comfort of security because you only have to look after our jewellery for a very short period of time, whereas if you own the jewellery you need to make sure it’s secure all of the time, perhaps by keeping it in a safe, and of course it’s going to pump up your insurance premium year after year…
Lastly: affordability. Perhaps you can actually afford to go out and spend many thousands, or even tens of thousands, of pounds on fabulous diamond jewellery. But why should you have to? If you just want to dazzle with diamonds on special occasions, then why not simply pay a modest amount to borrow what you need when you need some dazzling adornment?
But don’t just take our word for it. Here’s some feedback received from a customer just yesterday, “Thank you so much for the use of the diamonds at such a reasonable price, there would have been no necklace in any jewellery shop which would have sparkled so beautifully at that price!”. Quite.
So bravo Boris! We like your cycle hire scheme for London, and we applaud the fact that it’s spreading the convenience and flexibility of the pay-as-you-go model.
It’s been called rentalism, and we’ve looked at other examples in the past.
It fits in with other trends such as fractional ownership, and although it’s a phenomenon that’s probably been accelerated by the recession over the last couple of years, we think it’s a way of experiencing diamond jewellery (and bicycles) which will outlast the recession and become steadfastly mainstream.
So Londoners: if you’ve got a special occasion coming up you might or might not choose to get there by borrowed bike, but we invite you to be adorned by borrowed bling.
Read the Diamondthrills blog and original post here
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