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What do cars and diamonds have in common?
What do cars and have in common? diamonds
Most cars, and most diamonds, are not genuinely ‘high performance’. However, both Porsche cars and Holloway Diamonds meet this exacting standard.
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Garry Holloway, founder of Holloway Diamonds, is globally renowned for his contribution to improving the performance of every rough diamond. His inventions and tools are employed by diamond cutters and dealers the world over. He employs this unrivalled expertise in his two outlets, located in Brighton and Canterbury. Yet the ambitions of Garry, one of Melbourne’s defining jewellers, extend far further, ‘I have a strange suggestion – I’m really two people,’ he ventures. ‘I’m a businessman, but also an inventor. As well as running two jewellery stores, I hold several patents for diamond cutting and cut quality appraisal.’ To unravel this mystery, let’s cycle back several decades to where it all began. Before entering the jewellery trade, Garry spent his after-school life pursuing adventure. ‘After graduating from Geology, I backpacked to London “overland” via India, Sri Lanka, and Afghanistan, purchasing jewels along the way. The plan was to reach London and sell them!’
Things didn’t quite pan out that way. ‘There seemed to be an invisible forcefield at the front door of jewellery stores, which I could not enter to sell my gems! Instead, I bought the tools from London’s jewellery district, and taught myself to set them into jewellery.’ On his return to Australia, Garry established his first store in Canterbury (then called Precious Metals). Later, the opportunity arose to open in the heart of Brighton’s Church Street. This is where the other facet of Garry’s personality comes in. g
‘For me, the science and research component of diamonds sits alongside the business component,’ Garry says. ‘While I’m sitting here now in Holloway Diamonds wearing cufflinks, white shirt, jacket, I spend most of my time on research projects improving the tools and techniques to get the most sparkle and brilliance out of diamonds.
‘As a geologist who’s extensively studied the physics of light passing through diamonds, I’ve harnessed this knowledge to design tools like the Ideal-Scope, Holloway Cut Adviser (HCA), and ASET for cut-grading diamonds. Those tools are used around the world every day to cut, grade, buy and sell millions of dollars’ worth of diamonds.’ After completing his Gemology diploma at the GAA in 1984, Garry completed a thesis on diamond cutting in 1985 and became the diamond course’s National Convenor. That thesis led to the invention of the diamond-grading tool called the Ideal-Scope. ‘I kept the Ideal-Scope secret until 2000, when I decided I really had to do something to improve the way diamonds sparkle,’ Garry reveals. ‘We now run a global online business selling Ideal-Scopes and other tools worldwide upstairs from our Canterbury store.’ The same year, Garry launched and was granted a US patent for the world’s first digital diamond cut grading system, Holloway Cut Adviser. ‘Ever since, I’ve been doing whatever I can to achieve perfection in diamonds globally,’ Garry says. ‘HCA, for example, is used to grade more than a billion dollars’ worth of diamonds every year.’ Garry’s technical mastery gives him a unique edge. ‘When Holloway Diamonds advertises in magazines, we justifiably title our rocks “HighPerformance Diamonds” due to the unmatched cut quality. Simply put, our diamonds look better than others.’
This comprehensive scientific background has given Garry an ideal footing to launch his other persona – an educator informing the public about diamond-cutting techniques … often quite irreverently. ‘As a long-time armchair physicist, I’ve developed an online personality called the “Cut Nut”,’ he says. ‘Wearing an Einstein wig and moustache, I’ve made a series of videos educating and explaining my craft to the public.’ So, why the ‘Cut Nut’? ‘That name was given to me by Martin Rappaport, collator of the Diamond Industry Price Guide, which is I guess the equivalent of the RedBook for
cars,’ says Garry. ‘When I first met Martin 25 years ago, he challenged my diamond cut expertise. He gave me a few diamonds and asked me to tell him the crown and pavilion angles as well as the table size using only a loupe. ‘Thereafter Martin came to call me the “Cut Nut”. The YouTube videos of that name, which we started nine months ago when Covid shut down everything, demonstrate different technical aspects of the trade the way I hope Einstein and my childhood mentor Julius Sumner-Miller would simplify complex aspects of physics.’ Garry’s collaborations include other widespread technologies. ‘I’m listed on several inventions pertaining to displaying the position of inclusions (characteristics occurring inside the stone) so they can be avoided during the cutting of diamonds,’ he says. ‘The software is used by companies like GRAFF, the jeweller who cuts and sells the world’s largest diamonds.’ Garry’s long-standing commitment to precision in all its forms makes his enthusiasm for Porsche a natural fit. ‘The Macan, which I purchased last year, was my first Porsche,’ he says. ‘My wife, though, drove a Porsche 928 with a whopping V8, which was a lot of fun. That’s when I first glimpsed Porsche’s secret sauce! ‘Porsche has always been impressively far ahead of the field in engineering and technology. For example, I believe the Porsche 928 had the first radio antenna that was built into the rear windscreen, as part of the heater element. Many Porsche innovations – including those that can’t be easily detected from outside – took the rest of the world decades to catch up to.’ Garry instinctively respects the company’s consistent dedication to excellence. ‘I haven’t used a tenth of the tech in my car,’ he says. ‘For me, the appeal is all about the marque’s combination of innovation and precision – the benefits, rather than the overt features. Life’s greatest innovations are often subtle and you don’t know exactly what you’re getting, but when you drive that rental the penny drops.’ Porsche’s philosophy, then, ties in closely with Garry’s own. ‘Porsche engineers design innovative components with high precision, and the entire driving experience flows from that commitment,’ he notes. It’s a perfect fit for a man who’s spent decades extracting every extra sparkle from rough diamonds that look like pebbles. •
