PRESS INFORMATION NIESSING MILESTONES

PRESS INFORMATION
NIESSING MILESTONES
For almost 140 years, people have been conceiving, creating, and producing
jewelry at Niessing in Vreden. Niessing was originally founded as a workshop for
devotional objects, with wedding rings also being produced beside ecclesiastical
ornaments. Today, Niessing is one of the top manufacturers of premium, contemporary German jewelry design.
Milestones in the Company‘s History
1873 Hermann Niessing starts a jewelry manufactory in the Westphalian town of
Vreden, Germany, near the Dutch border. Until today, Niessing‘s head office
remains in Vreden.
1904 The seamless wedding ring is invented.
1928 Niessing develops a machine for engraving wedding rings and has it patented.
1930 Niessing builds a ring resizing machine that continues to be produced until this
day.
1950 Niessing joins the ranks of leading German wedding ring manufacturers.
1967 Niessing for the first time uses diamonds for its wedding rings.
1970 Ursula Exner, daughter to Bernhardine and Franz Niessing, and the professor for
architecture Max von Hausen together lay the foundation for the Niessing philosophy. Contemporary design now becomes the definite focus, and external designers
are increasingly involved.
1974 Niessing Setario – the name is created from „set“ and „variation“ – is introduced to
the market. This is the first jewelry line by the Vreden manufactory. Softly curved
rings offer ever new possibilities for different combinations. Niessing has retained
its creative and playful approach to jewelry down to the present day.
1975 Platinum is newly introduced as a jewelry metal in Germany. Niessing discovers
the synthesis of platinum and fine gold, thereby leveraging the breakthrough of
platinum in the German market for jewelry.
1979 Together with the graphic and photo designer from Düsseldorf, H. P. Hoffmann,
Niessing develops a modern, contemporary brand presence. New photographic
perspectives characterize these advertising campaigns, which attract great
attention. H.P. Hoffmann and Niessing work together on long-term communication concepts.
1979 The Vreden artist Walter Wittek develops the Niessing Tension Ring®. A diamond
seems to float freely, without a setting, only held by the tension of the ring.
1980 Niessing introduces Niessing Mutatio, its first kinetic jewelry. Ring and bracelet are
formed from eight movable circle segments each.
1980 With its jewelry line Niessing Pressed, Niessing makes the manufacturing process
of jewelry visible: Deformations of the material become a recognizable design
element and are left visible as such.
1982 The jewelry collection Niessing S is introduced. Niessing develops its own,
patented techniques for joining fine gold and platinum in an insoluble combination. The first two-dimensional Niessing jewelry is a milestone in terms of the
manufactory‘s form language.
PRESS INFORMATION
1984 The designer Matthias Mönnich develops Iris: A jewelry collection with a color
gradient flowing smoothly from cool silver to warm fine gold.
1985 For Niessing Terrazzo, fine gold and platinum are elaborately forged by hand and
crafted with slightly different heights that form a delicately textured surface. The
platinum is just perceptibly raised above the gold, creating a special, tactile appeal.
1986 The Niessing Coil, shaped as a flexible circle, provides the market with a modern
update for necklaces. Today, the Niessing Coil is made from various different
materials and it comes in different diameters and lengths.
1987 Niessing Hollow & Groove offers extraordinary insights: The interior of a ring or
bangle becomes visible through a crack running along the band.
1993 Niessing Radius 9, the manufactory‘s first watch, is introduced.
1994 Delicate porcelain is used for manufacturing jewelry: The Belgian designer Pieter
Stockmans and Niessing create a form language that lives up to this exceptional
material.
1997 The Niessing Wedding Ring System is introduced. It consists of two boxes that the
partner jeweler can use to present rings with different profiles, widths, alloys, and
surfaces, thus allowing couples to design their individual dream rings.
1998 The Niessing Braided Line picks up on the ancient technique of braiding and
realizes it in an aesthetically reduced form. Very fine bands of gold or platinum are
used for this line.
1999 The first Niessing Shop opens in the »Stilwerk« in Berlin. The unusually clear and
transparent presentation enables the customer to interact with the jewelry in
completely new ways.
2000
Niessing Abacus is introduced on the occasion of the EXPO World Exhibition 2000
in Hannover. Made of stainless steel with three moving spheres, over 65,000 of
these official EXPO-Rings were sold worldwide just in the first year.
2001 The Niessing Tension Ring® is protected by copyright in its form as developed by
Walter Wittek.
2006 Kashikey, Niessing‘s sales partner in Japan, opens the first Japanese-based Niessing
Shop in Tokyo.
2009 The partners Klaus Kaufhold, Johanna Lenz-Kaufhold, and Günter Henrich set up
business with the new Niessing Manufaktur GmbH & Co. KG. They continue to
lead the company according to the original philosophy. The management thereby
builds in equal measure on the independent, award-winning Niessing form
language and on the highly qualified, professionally and emotionally committed
employees.
2009 The first Niessing Shop in China opens in Beijng.
2010 Together with the architecture office Dreiform in Cologne, Niessing redesigns the
German shops along a new concept. Under the umbrella of the Niessing Schmuck
Kooperation GmbH & Co. KG, the shops now also present jewelry by such renowned designers as Henrich & Denzel, André Ribeiro, Georg Spreng, and Carl Dau.
PRESS INFORMATION
2010 Niessing aura® is introduced, a masterpiece developed by Niessing‘s design manager Timo Küchler: Different hues of gold transform continuously from an intensive
red to a mellow grey. Today, Niessing manufactures Niessing aura® tension rings
and wedding rings, bangles, and spheres for the Niessing Coil.
2011 The Niessing Wedding Ring System is followed up by the Niessing Wedding Ring
System White. The system gives the customer a well-structured display of the
most popular shapes, alloys, and surface textures for wedding rings made of gold
or platinum..
2011 The Vreden-based manufactory publishes its first book entitled »Niessing – From
idea to identity«. On 160 pages, the elaborately designed and illustrated book
traces the manufactory‘s history through almost 140 years to becoming one of the
leading contemporary jewelry designers.
2012 The sixth German-based Niessing Shop opens in Constance. The medieval building
in the old town forms a very special contrastive setting for modern jewelry.
NIESSING MANUFAKTUR GMBH & CO. KG
Karina Wilde PO Box 1255 48685 Vreden Germany
phone +49 (2564) 30 03 21 fax +49 (2564) 30 01 00
[email protected] www.niessing.com/presse