Those four little words have left their mark on history which has remained to this day, writes Robert McKenzie, director of growth at ethical jewellery brand Nightingale.

Today, we’re all too familiar with rising inflation and mounting world tensions. So, is 2022 the year for another seismic shift in the world of jewellery? This time fuelled by lab grown diamonds.

Lab grown diamond demand market share continues to rise

Predictions for the second half of 2022

By all measures and predictions the UK is heading towards a recession.

It’s very likely that we’ll see the average budget for engagement rings reduce due to lower disposable income and an increase in the cost of finance options due to rising interest rates.

We expect lab and mined diamond jewellery will see a similar budget squeeze because historically customers have chosen to simply buy larger lab diamonds, and not reduce the budget they were going to spend on a mined equivalent.

However, we predict more customers will consider lab grown diamonds than in previous years. As well as lab grown diamonds being normalised in recent years, the halo effect smaller jewellers are experiencing from the bigger brands will continue to grow.

Perhaps the most compelling development is the LVMH group investing heavily into an entirely solar powered lab diamond producer.

LVMH owns some of the world’s highest profile luxury brands including Tiffany, Bulgari, Marc Jacobs and Christian Dior. It certainly puts lab grown diamonds in the right company, firmly cementing their place as a luxury product.

At Nightingale we firmly believe that 2022 will be a transformative year for lab diamonds, and as the UK’s first jeweller to sell lab grown diamond engagement rings, we’re so happy to be part of what’s to come.

Source: Professional Jeweller

Natural Diamonds

The first use of natural diamonds being used in engagement rings dates back as far as 1447, however they did not gain popularity amongst the masses until the mid-1900s. With famous campaigns from the likes of Tiffany’s and De Beers, it’s hard to associate engagement rings with any other material but should you choose natural diamonds for your engagement ring? What are their pros and cons? To start with, diamonds are the strongest natural substance known to man so if you are looking for durability you will find it here. The flip side is that of course this durability and prestige doesn’t come without a price tag – diamonds remain one of the most expensive gemstones on the market and demand is unlikely to slow down.

The sparkle and clarity of diamonds is part of what makes us love them so much and this is something that can be hard to replicate and compare to when it comes to lab grown diamonds or other gemstones. However, a major pause for thought for many consumers is the potentially unethical way many diamonds are sourced and traded. The diamond industry has had a long and murky past and unless the supply chain transparency improves, this aspect alone may be enough to put some consumers off.

Lab Grown Diamonds

Although not as big as that for natural, the demand for lab grown diamonds is on the increase. Lab grown diamonds are created in high temperature settings and the result is a diamond that is as real as a naturally grown one as it contains the same composition and is just as strong. The look of lab grown diamonds also stands up well to the real deal as it is almost impossible to tell the difference between the two, making it clear why lab grown is just as good an option for engagement rings.

One of the major draws is the price point; lab grown diamonds can be as much as 30-50% the price of a natural diamond of the same carat so you may be able to afford a much more impressive ring than you expected. Lab grown diamonds have less of the ethical concerns associated with natural diamonds, however, there is some criticism surrounding the energy needed to produce them.

It seems that whether lab grown or natural, diamonds are here to stay when it comes to engagement rings. Lab grown diamond  is a budget-friendly option as you don’t have to compromise on the look or durability.

Source: Citypaper

Earlier this year, Frédéric Arnault, the lanky twentysomething head of LVMH’s Tag Heuer brand and potential heir to the Paris-based luxury empire, presented a novelty at the Watches and Wonders fair in Geneva that would have been previously unthinkable for a company dealing in the real and rare: a 350,000-Swiss-franc ($470,000) timepiece featuring diamonds grown in a laboratory.

The glitzy little number, named the Carrera Plasma, is the most expensive product in the 160-year history of Swiss-based Tag Heuer. It boasts a 44-millimetre sandblasted aluminum case set with 48 diamonds and a rhodium-plated brass base dial covered with a single block of polycrystalline diamond. Topping it off is a crown made from a 2.5-carat diamond at the side. And all these diamonds are lab grown – that is, produced by people in a factory through a controlled technological process, not created naturally by geology and pulled out of the earth.

“We thought, ‘We want to be the first to come with a true, ambitious, innovative vision using lab-grown diamonds,’” Mr. Arnault told an interviewer at the fair. “This is a showpiece of savoir-faire and technology.”

It was more than that, though. Whether he deliberately wanted to or not, Mr. Arnault and LVMH – the Paris-based multinational that owns a vast stable of high-end consumer brands, including Louis Vuitton, Christian Dior, Tiffany and Veuve Clicquot – almost instantly turned the traditional notion of luxury on its head. What’s more, it made the diamonds part of the watch’s function, not only the sparkly add-on of years past.

Source: The Glove & Mail

According to the 2021-2028 forecast report, the global lab-grown diamonds market is anticipated to grow with a CAGR of 8.74 percent. The report estimates that the market will garner revenue of about USD 32740 million in the year 2028. So, are lab diamonds here to stay? 

Millennial Purchases

Lab-grown diamonds are rapidly gaining popularity among millennials due to environmental concerns. An analyst with Morgan Stanley’s Europe, Middle East and Africa Metals & Mining research team shared, “many of today’s younger consumers aren’t only open to alternatives, they are willing to pay a premium for products with a low environmental impact or are socially responsible.”

Leading laboratories create the diamonds in a controlled environment under the same conditions of extreme heat and pressure found on planet Earth. When the raw lab diamond crystal is complete, it is cut into a finished diamond and ready to set into a piece of jewellery. No mining is involved in the creation process as lab-grown diamonds are sourced ethically, leaving a minimal environmental impact.

If you’re looking for a lab diamond engagement ring in Toronto, reach out to a jeweller with extensive experience in working with lab diamonds for the fine jewellery and have great attention to detail. Alexis Gallery was one of the first Toronto jewellers to offer lab diamonds in Canada, allowing them to have long-standing relationships with the most reputable makers of independently certified lab diamonds worldwide. 

Major Industry Investments

Consumer interest in ethical and sustainable products has solidified today’s lab diamond market. LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton (LVMH), a French-holding multinational corporation and conglomerate specializing in luxury goods, supports the lab-grown industry. The group’s venture arm, LVMH Luxury Ventures, has taken a stake in Israeli lab-grown diamond start-up Lusix as part of a $90 million funding round.

Significant industry investments in the lab diamond industry indicate that the market will continue to grow long-term. Technology plays a critical role in producing lab diamonds sustainably as it allows diamonds to grow in a controlled environment without affecting the environment. 

Environmentalism Awareness

Many environmentally-conscious couples choose lab-grown diamonds as the manufacturing process doesn’t require any environmental disruption. As more people seek ways to promote environmentalism, lab diamonds seem to remain the top choice when choosing jewellery to celebrate special occasions. 

Environmentalism seeks to improve and protect the quality of the natural environment that may occur due to human activities, such as diamond mining.

Inflation Surges

Inflation is a general increase in the prices of goods and services in an economy, and it can affect a consumer’s ability to purchase diamonds if inflation surges. Canada’s inflation rate skyrocketed to 7.7 percent in May, leading to increased costs of goods and services. 

This inflation surge can also impact one’s ability to purchase mined diamond rings. However, as lab-grown diamonds are created in the lab with advanced technology, they will likely remain more affordable during the inflation surge. 

Lab diamonds have continuously proved their worth as a valuable centre stone for unique jewellery. Several factors indicate that lab diamonds are here to stay and allow consumers to flaunt their jewellery without harming the environment. 

Source: Theseker.ca

There, the diamonds would remain, nestled in the kimberlite volcanoes that delivered them from their fiery home, until humans evolved, learned of their existence, and began to dig them up.

The epic origin of Earth’s diamonds has helped fuel a powerful marketing mythology around them: that they are objects of otherworldly strength and beauty; fitting symbols of eternal love. But while “diamonds are forever” may be the catchiest advertising slogan ever to bear some geologic truth, the supply of these stones in the Earth’s crust, in places we can readily reach them, is far from everlasting. And the scars we’ve inflicted on the land and ourselves in order to mine diamonds has cast a shadow that still lingers over the industry.

Some diamond seekers, however, say we don’t need to scour the Earth any longer, because science now offers an alternative: diamonds grown in labs. These gems aren’t simulants or synthetic substitutes; they are optically, chemically, and physically identical to their Earth-mined counterparts. They’re also cheaper, and in theory, limitless. The arrival of lab-grown diamonds has rocked the jewelry world to its core and prompted fierce pushback from diamond miners. Claims abound on both sides.

Growers often say that their diamonds are sustainable and ethical; miners and their industry allies counter that only gems plucked from the Earth can be considered “real” or “precious.” Some of these assertions are subjective, others are supported only by sparse, self-reported, or industry-backed data. But that’s not stopping everyone from making them.

This is a fight over image, and when it comes to diamonds, image is everything.

Same, but different 

The dream of lab-grown diamond dates back over a century. In 1911, science fiction author H.G. Wells described what would essentially become one of the key methods for making diamond—recreating the conditions inside Earth’s mantle on its surface—in his short story The Diamond Maker. As the Gemological Institute of America (GIA) notes, there were a handful of dubious attempts to create diamonds in labs in the late 19th and early 20th century, but the first commercial diamond production wouldn’t emerge until the mid-1950s, when scientists with General Electric worked out a method for creating small, brown stones. Others, including De Beers, soon developed their own methods for synthesizing the gems, and use of the lab-created diamond in industrial applications, from cutting tools to high power electronics, took off.

According to the GIA’s James Shigley, the first experimental production of gem-quality diamond occurred in 1970. Yet by the early 2000s, gem-quality stones were still small, and often tinted yellow with impurities. It was only in the last five or so years that methods for growing diamonds advanced to the point that producers began churning out large, colorless stones consistently. That’s when the jewelry sector began to take a real interest.

Today, that sector is taking off. The International Grown Diamond Association (IGDA), a trade group formed in 2016 by a dozen lab diamond growers and sellers, now has about 50 members, according to IGDA secretary general Dick Garard. When the IGDA first formed, lab-grown diamonds were estimated to represent about 1 percent of a $14 billion rough diamond market. This year, industry analyst Paul Zimnisky estimates they account for 2-3 percent of the market.

He expects that share will only continue to grow as factories in China that already produce millions of carats a year for industrial purposes start to see an opportunity in jewelry.

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Fit for the team’s ambassador, the coat, which was reportedly crafted from jersey sourced from a French mill by Toronto’s Garrison Bespoke, features the OVO logo embellished with diamonds placed alongside the Raptor’s slashed basketball emblem. Additionally, the diamonds supplied by Diamond Foundry are lab-grown and carbon-neutral. “This is truly a 1 of 1 piece,” Michael Nguyen, the clothier behind the jacket, told The Star. “Both the jersey inside, which Drake himself helped design, and this very special piece of cloth. And the diamonds, of course.”

The Raptors shared the special moment via Twitter with the caption, “You don’t worry ‘bout fittin’ in when you custom made. #WeTheNorth.” Check it out below.

The Toronto Raptors went on to defeat the Milwaukee Bucks 120-102, now tying the series 2-2. Game 5 kicks off on Friday.

A six-year review of its guidelines largely followed Diamond Foundry’s input that certain key guidelines dating from 1956 no longer make sense in today’s world. According to the FTC, the term ‘synthetic’ is no longer relevant given “the term is often interpreted as being ‘artificial’ when in fact man-made diamonds are not artificial.” Lab-grown diamonds may now be called gemstones, and diamond growers are allowed to market their diamonds using terms like “aboveground” and “cultured.”

Since advancements in technology have made it possible to re-create the earth’s conditions and create diamonds atomically identical to mined diamonds, the use of the words such as  “synthetic” can mislead consumers as they can mistake it with “artificial.” Man-made diamonds are not synthetic.

We welcome the U.S. government taking action to ensure transparent and fair marketing.

Read more at:

Diamond World: FTC Declares Man-Made Diamonds as Diamonds

Idex: Lab-Grown Diamond Makers Seen As Winners In New FTC Guidelines