The Black in Jewelry Coalition (BIJC) is pleased to open nominations for the 2026 BIJC Rock the Jewels Awards, celebrating individuals, companies, and organizations making a meaningful impact within the jewelry and watch industry and the BIJC community.
The awards will be presented at Rock the Jewels, BIJC’s annual celebration during NYC Jewelry Week.
We invite BIJC members and members of the broader jewelry and watch industry to nominate deserving individuals and organizations for the award categories below. Please consider each nominee’s contributions, impact, leadership, and alignment with the spirit of the award when submitting your nomination.
BIJC Lifetime Achievement Award:
This award recognizes an established industry leader with more than 20 years of experience whose career reflects significant and lasting contributions to the jewelry and watch industry. Nominees should demonstrate a legacy of leadership, influence, service, mentorship, innovation, or advocacy, as well as meaningful support of BIJC and its mission.
Rising Star Award:
Recognizes an up-and-coming jewelry designer who is making waves in the industry and demonstrating creativity, a distinctive point of view, and strong potential for continued growth and impact.
Shining Together Award:
Recognizes an individual or organization that has demonstrated a meaningful commitment to diversity, equity, inclusion, and advancement within the jewelry industry, helping create opportunities and support for underrepresented communities.
Nomination Guidelines:
To help ensure a fair and thoughtful nomination process, each nominator may register and submit nominations one time only. Through your single registration, you may nominate individuals or organizations in multiple award categories.
Please do not register multiple times for the same nominee or encourage duplicate nominations on someone’s behalf. The number of nominations a person, company, or organization receives does not determine award selection. Nominees will be considered based on the strength of their contributions, impact, and alignment with the award criteria. Duplicate registrations from the same nominator may be disregarded.
For each nomination, please provide as much information as possible about why the nominee should be considered for the selected award category, including relevant contributions, accomplishments, impact, or leadership.
We also strongly encourage you to include an Instagram or other social profile, professional website, company bio, or other relevant online link for each nominee. This helps the review team accurately identify nominees and learn more about individuals or organizations they may not already be familiar with.
Providing complete and thoughtful information helps ensure each nominee can be fully and fairly considered during the review process.
