From a Goldsmith's Hammer to 19Karat

The journey of 19Karat

About Us
19Karat Diamond Jewelry — More Than 50 Years of a Goldsmith Family in Ubon Ratchathani

Where It Began — 1972
In 1972, a young goldsmith left Bangkok in search of a new opportunity in the northeastern province of Ubon Ratchathani. He arrived with little more than the craft he had trained his hands to do, and the determination to build a life of his own.

It was here that he met the woman who would become his wife and lifelong partner. They married, started a family, and together opened a small gold workshop — crafting traditional Thai gold ornaments and supplying them to jewelry shops across the province.

Those two people are my father and my mother. That workshop was the first seed of what is known today as 19Karat.

The Rose-Cut Era — 1982 to 1995
When the market for rose-cut diamonds (phet sik) began to flourish, my father saw the opportunity and had the courage to step into it. He combined rose-cut diamonds with gold to create necklaces, rings, bangles, and brooches — then travelled the length of the country selling them himself.

Those years on the road were never just about selling. They were an education in the market, in people, and in the craft of jewelry — the kind of understanding no textbook can teach.

Entering the World of Faceted Diamonds
Times changed, and so did taste. Precision-faceted diamonds began to capture the public's imagination, and our shop shifted direction to follow them — working with beautifully cut stones such as the Russian cut and the Belgian cut, set into designs that reflected the era.

Gold was still affordable in those days, so goldsmiths like my father favoured 90% gold for their settings: easy to work with, yet strong enough to hold a stone securely.

And it was in this period that we made the leap from a workshop to a full diamond jewelry store.

Why “19 Karat”?
When the time came to open our own storefront, we wanted a name that was distinctive, easy to remember, and carried meaning within it.

The number 1 stands for the beginning.

The number 9 stands for moving forward — and in Thai culture it is an auspicious number meaning progress.

Karat is the measure of gold purity — and 19K sits above the 18K standard most people know.

Best of all, when spoken aloud, Karat sounds like Carat, the unit by which diamonds are weighed. One name holding both gold and diamond at once.

So 19Karat is not simply a shop name. It is a promise: to begin, and to keep moving forward.

A Road That Was Never Smooth
We have never pretended this journey was an easy one.

Across five decades we have seen the good years and the hard ones. We were deceived by people we trusted. We lived through the 1997 Tom Yum Kung financial crisis that swept away countless businesses around us. There were stretches when the way forward was almost impossible to see.

We came through it bruised — but we came through.

And it was precisely those difficult years that taught us the most important lesson of this trade: trust is the most valuable asset a diamond store can own — worth more than any stone in the case.

The Second Generation
I grew up watching all of it with my own eyes. The good days, and the days when my parents were worn down to almost nothing. That concern for them shaped my decision early: I would carry this business forward.

After graduating in business administration, I came straight home to learn the trade and gather experience.

But I understood something clearly. In the diamond and jewelry business, credibility is everything — and a young graduate with no track record had none. Nobody had any reason to trust me yet.

So I chose to work behind the scenes. I learned from what my parents had built, supported them quietly from behind, and at the same time went out to start businesses of my own — because I wanted to understand business without my parents' help. I wanted to think for myself, act for myself, and answer for the outcome myself.

I wanted to prove who I was. I wanted my parents to accept me for my own ability — not simply because I was their son.

I made many mistakes. I failed more than once. But I never diminished myself over it, because every fall returned something to me — and that experience has become the most valuable thing I own.

The Day I Had to Step Forward
And then that day arrived.

My parents were growing older while the world spun faster than ever. Customer behaviour changed. The channels of trade changed. And slowly, they could no longer keep pace.

My older sister had helped run the shop for a time, but fate led her to meet an Englishman, marry, and build her life in the United Kingdom.

That left me alone.

It became a fight I could not avoid — and one I willingly took on.

Everything I had studied, together with every lesson learned through my own trial and error, was finally put to work in the diamond store my parents had built with their own hands.

Today, and the Road Ahead
Built on that experience — and on a habit of never stopping learning — 19Karat Diamond Jewelry has arrived where it stands today.

Obstacles remain, and more will come. But we will push through them. Not for my own sake, but for what my father and mother gave their lives to build, and for our family.

Our Promise
We are makers of jewelry, created for the happiness of those who wear it.

And we hope that everyone who comes to us will come to understand what jewelry truly means —

value that outlasts time.

19Karat Diamond Jewelry
No. 3 Nakhonban Road, Nai Mueang Sub-district, Mueang Ubon Ratchathani District, Ubon Ratchathani, Thailand