Recently Martin Katz came on a first visit to Japan. He brought to exhibit in Tokyo a collection of diamond jewelry valued at 10 billion yen. The collection included many pieces worn by Hollywood stars at the red-carpeted award ceremonies of the Oscars. Martin is widely known as the jeweler to whom Hollywood's top-flight celebrities turn when they want the most shimmering necklaces, the most sparkling rings, the most glittering bracelets to wear at the Academy Awards, Golden Globes and Emmy award shows. He is appreciative of the luster given him as jeweler to the stars, but the value to him is in the advertisement. For the shows, the stars borrow his jewelry. His clients are the very rich. "The celebrities and models are my showcase," he said. "I would like to be known as jeweler to the industrial rich."
For a man still in his 40s, smart, self-made and living a life of glamour, Martin in person is remarkably low-key and unassuming. The fourth of five children born to a father in the business of industrial dry cleaning, Martin grew up in Indiana. He said: "My mother loved jewelry. We used to visit my aunt who worked in a jeweler's shop in Chicago. My sister pointed out a showcased diamond there and hissed at me, 'Look, that's 4 carats.' I had no idea what she meant, but I was mesmerized. I was 10."
He certainly knew what he was about when he entered Indiana University in Bloomington, as he chose fittingly to study psychology and business. "When I was a sophomore I wanted something I could sell to female students in their dorms," he said. "I thought of silver trinkets with turquoise, about $4 each."