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PR Newswire
29-05-2018, 07:51 PM
De Beers to Sell Diamonds Made in a Lab
May 29, 2018
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/...e-diamonds
Some excerpts from the article:
'The move is a historic shift for the world’s biggest diamond miner, which vowed for years that it wouldn’t sell stones created in laboratories. The diamonds will be marketed in the U.S. under the name Lightbox, a fashion jewelry brand, and sell for a fraction of the price of mined gems.'
'“Lightbox will transform the lab-grown diamond sector by offering consumers a lab-grown product they have told us they want but aren’t getting: affordable fashion jewelry that may not be forever, but is perfect for right now,” said Bruce Cleaver, chief executive officer of De Beers.'
'There’s been increasing concern in the industry that expensive diamonds aren’t appealing to millennial consumers, who are often more likely to spend on high-priced electronics or vacations. Diamonds have also come under fire for environmental and human-rights concerns related to mining in poor communities in Africa.'
'Unlike imitation gems such as cubic zirconia, diamonds grown in labs have the same physical characteristics and chemical makeup as mined stones. They’re made from a carbon seed placed in a microwave chamber and superheated into a glowing plasma ball. The process creates particles that can eventually crystallize into diamonds in 10 weeks. The technology is so advanced that experts need a machine to distinguish between synthesized and mined gems.'
...
If it requires a machine to tell a real from a fake, you can be sure that most will go for the fake which costs only a tenth of the real. There's no way your dinner guests can claim that you're wearing a fake -- except perhaps it looks like something (a ridiculously huge diamond) you can barely afford -- so there's no worry of embarrassment.
There'll still be purists. But these are likely to be people with money overflowing from their closets.
May 29, 2018
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/...e-diamonds
Some excerpts from the article:
'The move is a historic shift for the world’s biggest diamond miner, which vowed for years that it wouldn’t sell stones created in laboratories. The diamonds will be marketed in the U.S. under the name Lightbox, a fashion jewelry brand, and sell for a fraction of the price of mined gems.'
'“Lightbox will transform the lab-grown diamond sector by offering consumers a lab-grown product they have told us they want but aren’t getting: affordable fashion jewelry that may not be forever, but is perfect for right now,” said Bruce Cleaver, chief executive officer of De Beers.'
'There’s been increasing concern in the industry that expensive diamonds aren’t appealing to millennial consumers, who are often more likely to spend on high-priced electronics or vacations. Diamonds have also come under fire for environmental and human-rights concerns related to mining in poor communities in Africa.'
'Unlike imitation gems such as cubic zirconia, diamonds grown in labs have the same physical characteristics and chemical makeup as mined stones. They’re made from a carbon seed placed in a microwave chamber and superheated into a glowing plasma ball. The process creates particles that can eventually crystallize into diamonds in 10 weeks. The technology is so advanced that experts need a machine to distinguish between synthesized and mined gems.'
...
If it requires a machine to tell a real from a fake, you can be sure that most will go for the fake which costs only a tenth of the real. There's no way your dinner guests can claim that you're wearing a fake -- except perhaps it looks like something (a ridiculously huge diamond) you can barely afford -- so there's no worry of embarrassment.
There'll still be purists. But these are likely to be people with money overflowing from their closets.