RobertWan

	Kichimatsu Mikimoto was the first to begin the conquest of cultured pearl farming in Japan. After many unsuccessful tries, he harvested his first pearl in 1905 and filed the patent for his invention in 1908. Cultured pearl farming had begun. There were many persons in Tahiti who toyed with the dream of cultivating pearls using the Japanese method. The first grafting experiments took place in Tahiti in 1961, but it wasn't until 1966 that the number of adventurous pearl farmers began to multiply. Today pearl farming, along with tourism, is one of the driving forces of the economy in Tahiti's outer islands, making French polynesia the world's second biggest cultured pearl exporter.

	The Tahitian Cultured pearl has enjoyed a growing success since the 1980s. The fancy among Japanese buyers in particular for Tahiti's gem created a real market, which today is highlighted by a supply that cannot meet the demand for very top quality pearls. The main means of exporting Tahitian Cultured pearls is trough regular auctions. Robert Wan holds his own auction in Hong Kong and Kobe (Japan), where his Tahitian gems encounter wholesalers and the representatives of fine jewellers, both groups of potential buyers looking for the most beautiful pearls.

	Robert Wan discovered pearl farming in 1973. That experience and the semi-setback of some of his predecessors stimulated his taste for adventure and encouraged him to invest his capital in French polynesia. Mikimoto confided to Robert Wan that he would always be a buyer if Robert Wan could successfully produce quality cultured pearls. Three years later, Mikimoto bought every pearl in Robert Wan's first harvest. He became Robert Wan's first client, beginning a partnership that continues today. Robert Wan operates several pearl farms. In the Tuamotu Archipelago there are farms on the atolls of Fakarava, Nengo Nengo and Marutea Sud. And on the Gambier Islands there are the Aukena farms on the island of Mangareva. The cultivation of large, quality pearl requires water without the slightest trace of pollution, on private atolls acquired by Robert Wan. On the pearl farm atolls the lives of the workers are governed by two exciting periods - the grafting period and the harvesting one - which demonstrates the success of their labour. Robert Wan's credibility Robert Wan is not content with being known as Tahiti’s « pearl emperor ». To make the little Poe Rava (black pearl, in Tahitian) crédible, Robert Wan had to prove there could be a constant production as well as constant quality. He had to produce enough beautiful Tahitian Cultured pearls that approached perfection in order to create stocks that would assure the gem’s credibility. The Gemmological Institute of America (GIA) had already given to the Tahitian Cultured pearls, its pedigree by recognizing it as a bona fide gem. Such a recongnition allows Robert Wan’s Tahiti Cultured pearl to enter the closed world of very fine jewellery or haute joaillerie.