The art of beauty and craftsmanship

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The Early Days Of Chow Tai Fook Jewellery

In 1929, Chow Chi-Yuen founded the first Chow Tai Fook gold jewellery store on Hongde Road in the provincial capital, Guangzhou, Mainland China, which specialised in gold jewellery. Inspired by a traditional Chinese couplet used by people to wish one another happiness and good fortune during the Lunar New Year, Chow deftly named his store “Chow Tai Fook” to invoke luck, class, and prosperity, which are the mainstays of festive greetings.

The vicissitudes of the 1930s led Chow to expand his business from Guangzhou to Macau, China, where he opened the first Chow Tai Fook gold jewellery store in the Hong Kong and Macau market in 1938. It was located on Rua das Estalagens in Macau’s historic downtown.

Within only a year, Chow Tai Fook’s business grew to become one of the top gold jewellery stores in the territory. In 1939, Chow Chi-Yuen expanded to Hong Kong, China, and opened a branch store on 148 Queen’s Road Central, at the heart of Hong Kong.

In the early 1940s, Cheng Yu-Tung started working at Chow Tai Fook’s Macau store. In 1943, he was promoted to the rank of manager and tasked with overseeing day-to-day operations. In the same year, he married Chow Tsui-Ying, the daughter of the founder Chow Chi-Yuen.

As the Second World War came to an end in 1945, the 20-year-old Cheng Yu-Tung moved to the Hong Kong store to rebuild Chow Tai Fook in the postwar years. Chow Tai Fook continually developed in the 1950s: two new stores, one in Kowloon and one in Causeway Bay, opened to serve the wider community. Chow Tai Fook also shifted its focus from Macau to the larger Hong Kong retail market. As a result, the Queen’s Road Central store was turned into the flagship store in Hong Kong and Cheng also began devising business strategies and managing operations out of the Hong Kong headquarters.

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A Heritage In Bloom

Twenty-four D-colour internally flawless (DIF) diamonds crafted from the Cullinan Heritage, an exceptionally rare 507.55 carat Type IIA rough diamond, are reunited once again in a delicate masterpiece, A Heritage in Bloom, created by world-renowned jewellery artist Wallace Chan. Traditional Chinese motifs such as butterflies and bats are incorporated in the piece to showcase the unparalleled sophistication, cultural significance, and poetic beauty that are nothing short of extraordinary in this uniquely modular piece that can be worn in 27 different styles. Taking the team of veteran jewellers over 47,000 hours of intricate work, A Heritage in Bloom features a 104-carat brilliant round diamond with the highest possible cut grade of 3-Excellent, which is one of the largest of its kind ever made.

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Pioneering The “Fixed Price” Policy

In the 1990s, the jewellery industry, along with Hong Kong’s economy, enjoyed a period of spectacular growth. Unfortunately, customer experience in the jewellery retail market was marred by the lack of transparent pricing. Merchants inflated the retail price before giving customers seemingly “generous” discounts. On the surface, customers appeared to get some good deals, but in reality, customers might not always be the winner at the bargaining table.

In 1990, Chow Tai Fook was first in the industry to improve customer experience by adopting the “Fixed Price” Policy, making haggling a thing of the past. The price shown on tags was the final price customers would pay for the products. This policy made pricing fair and transparent, while offering customers more protection. The “Fixed Price” policy was widely embraced by the public, changing the way jewellery retailers did business, and even transforming Hong Kong’s consumer culture in the luxury goods market.

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Expanding Our Footprint On Mainland China

Chow Tai Fook was founded in Guangzhou, Mainland China in 1929, and relocated its business to Hong Kong, China and Macau, China in wartime during the 1930s. Yet, in the 1990s, times have changed, and Mainland China’s “Open Door” Policy ushered in unprecedented economic reforms. Chow Tai Fook took this opportunity to return to the Mainland China market and opened the first store in 1998 in Beijing’s Jianguomen neighbourhood. Before the year 2000, Chow Tai Fook’s retail locations concentrated in Beijing, Mainland China. In the new millennium, Mainland China’s economic reforms continued to deepen. Chow Tai Fook expanded into provincial cities throughout Mainland China, being the first Hong Kong-based jewellery group to do so. Chow Tai Fook saw a period of remarkable growth on the mainland. In 2010, Chow Tai Fook opened its 1,000th retail location in Beijing. In short four years later, in 2014, the Group’s retail locations had doubled and opened the 2000th store in Wuhan, the most populous city in Central China. The Wuhan location is also the first-ever experiential store to offer a brand new customer experience with cutting-edge technologies.

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CHOW TAI FOOK’S LOGO OVER THE YEARS

A bold work of calligraphy spelling out the store’s name “Chow Tai Fook” dominates Chow Tai Fook’s first generation logo. It symbolises the proud history of Chow Tai Fook gold jewellery store and the value of hard work espoused by the people who built this brand. In the centre of the star shaped medallion, the characters “Tai” and “Fook” represent hope and prosperity for the nation and its people, as well as Chow Tai Fook’s best wishes for the people and community it serves.

Building on the foundation of the logo of the previous generation, the second generation logo becomes more streamlined to attest to the growth of Chow Tai Fook. Chow Tai Fook was among the first gold jewellery store to incorporate as a limited company, and began selling gem-set jewellery. While industry competition was still fierce at that time, customers became more sophisticated when it came to purchasing and appreciating jewellery.

Chow Tai Fook’s third generation logo is composed of two stylised letter Cs, offering a contemporary feel and a sleek look. The logo not only catches up with the ever-changing world around it, but also suggests a bright future of Chow Tai Fook as a leading jeweller in China. The dynamic double-C design of the new visual identity also underscores innovation, industry, and energy of the Chow Tai Fook team, as well as the unique characteristics of the jewellery business.

The fourth generation logo consists of two boxes, with Chow Tai Fook’s name written in Chinese on the left, and in English on the right. The bilingualism alludes to the link between the East and the West, as Chow Tai Fook embarks on the internationalisation strategy. The burgundy red background symbolises Chow Tai Fook’s ever-growing reputation and immense brand value, as well as the trust the Group has earned from its customers. The white foreground is combined with an elegant and clean typeface, which highlights Chow Tai Fook’s leadership in the luxury goods market.

Drawing on minimalist aesthetics, the fifth generation logo is further streamlined to reflect the meanings of “sincerity and eternity” behind the Chow Tai Fook brand. Chow Tai Fook uses “China Red” as its logo’s primary colour, as a sign of continuing the Chinese traditions and culture, and harnessing its corporate strength to forge ahead. Written in two languages, Chow Tai Fook’s brand name is enclosed with a clean and graceful rectangular design, which suggests a trusted brand built on decades of professionalism, dedication, and integrity.