Does it shit you where a diamond comes from?
Historically, consumers had no choice. Natural diamonds were formed billions of years ago, deep under the earth’s surface, and then hundreds of miles were put to his crust by volcanic eruptions before they were finally removed from mines in South Africa, Russia and elsewhere. Companies like the beers convinced the world that A diamond is foreverMade the stones synonymous with engagement rings and encouraged people to spend at least three months of salary on a rock when they got married.
But in recent years the natural diamond industry in the laboratory has been grown diamonds, which are almost identical in chemical composition with their natural counterparts (at least to the naked eye). They can be grown in almost every size or color and cost everywhere from 20th to a quarter of the price of natural stones. As shoppers are looking for increasingly larger and blender sparkle, synthetic diamonds have become increasingly popular – especially in the United States, the world’s largest market for diamond jewelry.
Last year, according to A study among American consumers Due to the online wedding platform De Knoop van de Knoop, more than half of the respondents said that their engagement rings had a lab-cultivated diamond as a middle stone, an increase of 46 percent in 2023 and 12 percent in 2019. Walmart, who started in 2022 Lab-Grotted diamond jewels with 202223, said the sale in 202223.
“Imagine that Hermès introduced an AI technology that could produce a perfect Birkin bag with the same materials in the same studio, but in a fraction of the time,” Jessica Sailer from Lith, founder of the lab-cultivated line La Pietrasaid in a flowing Vogue article called “SHHH … I am a bit sorry that I did not buy a lab groaned engagement ring In February. “Would you like one?”
A rocky question
With a series of Buzzy Lab-Grown Diamonds such as Blue Nile, Adult Spraying and Dorsey and with settlement names such as Jennifer Fisher And Pandora Turning to stones that are made, are not mined, are the will of the beers – the world’s largest diamond mine worker, whose existence depends on the popularity of natural stones – confronted with an existential threat?
You would not think to look at Al Cook, the Jovial Chief Executive of the Beers, while he was in the company’s head office last week. After a flowering in spending during and immediately after the pandemic, the Natural Diamond market has had a difficult year. In addition to the acceptance of Lab cultivated diamonds, fewer marriages, diving demand in China, Russian sanctions and a volatile global economy all played a role.
Now De Beers, which has reduced his production and will go to public in the coming 12 months after his older Anglo American has offered it for sale, is in a stock of unsold diamonds of $ 2 billion. As part of its cost-saving measures, the company confirmed this week that the Lightbox would close, a fashion jewelry label that it introduced in 2018 to sell synthetic diamonds at a time when a synthetic price discount was only 10 percent of their natural counterparts.
The Gambit was pitched as a daring experiment to show consumers the difference between natural and lab-grown diamonds, which are lower than market prices in an attempt to protect the core activities of the Beers. But did it work?
“Kind,” said Mr. Cook. Lightbox, he said, was designed to sell diamonds made by man to value linked to what it costs to make them instead of statistics such as carat, cut, color and clarity that guide the price of natural stones. Due to the falling production costs, the wholesale price of Lab-grown stones has fallen by 90 percent since the unveiling of Lightbox, of which he said that it emphasized that golf even further.
“The fact that you can now buy an engagement ring of $ 299 at Walmart would be a victory in the eyes of my predecessors,” said Mr. Cook, adding that people did not consider that kind of purchase as an “heirloom” or investment. “And because some retailers still sell that ring for $ 3,000, we have to do work to distinguish and push the desirability of natural diamonds.”
If some consumers do not want a ‘luxury’ item that costs almost nothing, the theory – or great hope – is the attraction of natural stones could stay in place. But Paul Zimnisky, an independent analyst and consultant in the diamond industry, said it was increasingly clear that many consumers did not understand the difference and were not helped by retailers seduced by the prospect of margins to 80 to 90 percent on synthetic stones compared to 20 to 40 percent for natural diamonds.
“There is still a lot of confusion among potential buyers,” he said. “Consumers have always been told that the two products are exactly the same, when the reality is that they can be chemically distinguished from certainty.”
Lab-made diamonds basically have the same chemical makeup as natural and look the same, unless viewed by refined equipment that measure the characteristics of emitted light. To see the difference, you need a machine as the diamond proof of the Beers, designed to sit on the counter in a jewelry store, so that potential customers can verify a natural diamond purchase.
“Consumers are willing to spend ten times more for a natural diamond, but they must be guaranteed that what they buy is in fact a natural,” said Mr. Zimnisky.
What happens if the market is unable to create clearer definitions between the two types of stones? “Suicide industry,” he said.
Race to the bottom
Given a massive consumer power that is larger, it is certainly better, especially under the most important bridal market, the future for natural diamonds will amount to marketing-as it has always done. But the opportunities are stacking against his players.
The proposed rates of President Trump could cause industrial headache (although Mr. Cook said he thought that diamonds could get an exemption in the long term, and Mr. Zimnisky said that one bright spot could be a boost for the second -hand diamond market in the United States).
Another hot topic? Quote many buyers Ethical issues about natural diamonds And call synthetic stone conflict -free and sustainable alternatives. Natural proponents claim that the energy consumption between natural and man -made diamonds is about the same.
Last fall, the Beers and Signet Jewelers, the largest Diamond Jewelry Retailer in the United States, started a spectacular advertising campaign on natural diamonds with the slogan ‘Waarding’. De Beers is planning to spend more on marketing in 2025 than in a decade, including a focus on helping retail partners to train sales staff.
While Mr. Cook prepared to turn its back on his laboratory-grown jewelry deals with the Lightbox closing and at a time when the diamond prices for consumer-oriented diamonds have started to grow in the United States, because retailers respond to a possible trade war (stones have already been potential costs with regard to Tareves that are already baking?
“For 600 years, people love natural diamonds because they are beautiful and rare,” said Mr. Cook. “Synthetics are not rare, and they will certainly not be in 600 years. Natural diamonds will be even scarce than now.”
“Again,” he added with a tight smile, “no one of us will be really there to find out.”
