Can’t afford a diamond? Then develop one in a lab

Would the boss of the world’s finest identified diamond firm contemplate shopping for his spouse a sparkler that had been grown in a lab?

‘Not if I wished to remain married,’ guffaws Al Cook, the chief govt of De Beers – an organization that may declare to have endowed the gems with a lot of their costly mystique.

Lab-grown diamonds are, nonetheless, turning into more and more common. Experts say 2023 was a pivotal 12 months with gross sales of lab-grown gems making up 17 per cent of the general diamond market in contrast with simply 2 per cent 5 years earlier.

Sales are anticipated to proceed booming. Lab-grown diamonds are as a lot as 90 per cent cheaper and are being lauded as the way forward for jewelry by retailers together with Pandora, marketed by Pamela Anderson.

But for traditionalists like Cook, there’s a restrict on how far diamonds could be democratised with out dropping their cachet. De Beers bought diamonds price £300million final month regardless of a tricky financial backdrop which has left many main luxurious manufacturers struggling.

Cachet: Lab-grown diamonds are as a lot as 90 per cent cheaper and are being lauded as the way forward for jewelry by retailers together with Pandora, marketed by Pamela Anderson (pictured)

The firm’s ‘A diamond is eternally’ slogan, dreamed up within the Forties, is credited with inventing the trendy idea of an engagement ring. The entire level of diamonds just isn’t that anybody can have them, however that they’re aspirational, alluring and considered as one in every of life’s final luxuries.

An iconic cinema second options Marilyn Monroe in a pink robe singing Diamonds are a Girl’s Best Friend within the 1953 traditional movie Gentlemen Prefer Blondes.

Richard Duffy, the boss of London-listed miner Petra Diamonds, is sceptical about how significant man-made stones are. ‘I’ve three daughters,’ he says. ‘I’m unsure if one in every of them was getting married and confirmed me a five-carat lab-grown diamond that I might suppose very extremely of her new husband.’

However, extra younger males are shopping for their fiancees lab-grown engagement rings than ever earlier than – and the development is upsetting conventional mining giants. According to price-tracker and knowledgeable Paul Zimnisky affordability is the decider for most individuals mulling the acquisition of an engagement ring.

For one-carat stones – which function in lots of engagement rings – the associated fee is now $5,035 (£4,000) for a mined stone, whereas the man-made equal prices simply $1,325.

Fan: Leonardo DiCaprio has invested in a San Francisco-based lab-grown jewelry start-up

Some {couples} choose to save lots of on the ring. Younger consumers are additionally attracted by lab-grown’s inexperienced credentials and the truth that there aren’t any uncomfortable questions on whether or not they have been mined by youngsters or whether or not the proceeds of gross sales finance warlords.

Celebrities comparable to Taylor Swift and Emma Watson are followers. Actor Leonardo DiCaprio, who has invested in a San Francisco-based lab-grown jewelry start-up, sarcastically starred within the movie Blood Diamond.

One analyst stated: ‘With lab-grown diamonds you may get one thing that’s exceptionally prime quality for a dramatically lower cost. The youthful era simply does not care if they’re grown in a lab.’

But it’s not all the time the case that lab-grown is greener, with manufacturing requiring enormous quantities of power that’s not all the time from inexperienced sources.

The diamond business is combating again in opposition to the binary notion that mining is dangerous and lab-grown is nice. Petra Diamonds and De Beers – which even has its personal lab-grown division referred to as Lightbox – are engaged on their very own applied sciences that may enable clients to hint the origin of stones from their mines. ‘We stay in a world the place folks wish to know the place their cheese is from and their espresso is from,’ Cook provides. ‘They wish to know the place their diamonds are from.’

The business is clearly going by way of upheaval however – for now no less than – actual diamonds stay a lady’s finest buddy.