Abaya's Market: Jewellery in Qatar

A Maserati pulls up outside the Shangri-La Hotel and a fellow journalist and I pile in Our seat belts are barely fastened when we slide down a slip road to a stop At this comically brief two-minute, two-block car journey, nobody bats an eyelid.

This is unremarkable in Qatar, especially when visiting the annual Doha Jewellery and Watches Exhibition. After 15 editions, the February show has become a blockbuster pit stop on the selling schedule of any and every luxury jeweller, but, inside, there’s an inescapably eerie aura In a recess between two stands, a man sits quietly playing a grand piano while someone films it on their phone A brand new Rolls-Royce stands starkly in the middle of the room.

Like Doha itself, with its empty pavements and wide multi-lane roads, there’s an enduring air of half-occupancy There is smart temporary architecture, cream-carpeted spaces and, in the case of Cartier, . Source