Swarovski Celebrates Launch of ‘Swarovski Created Diamonds’

Swarovski celebrated the launch of Swarovski Created Diamonds with an event held at the new Chadstone store in Melbourne, Victoria. VIP guests and friends of the House includingMaria Thatill, Maxine Wylde, Jessie Murphy, Charlene Davies and Tayla Broad enjoyed a day filled with joyful extravagance which included a Swarovski Created Diamonds styling session.

The Swarovski Created Diamonds collection includes ‘Galaxy’, the latest range by Global Creative Director Giovanna Engelbert, which takes its inspiration from the birth of the cosmos. The 19-piece collection includes necklaces, rings, earrings, and bracelets in a dazzling array of diamond cuts, expertly crafted to capture and transform the light. For its launch in the Chadstone store, Galaxy Collection showpieces shone in a special display, reflecting Engelbert’s cosmic inspiration.

Giovanna Engelbert commented: “The confluence of diamonds, Swarovski’s heritage, and my creative vision has culminated in a collection that embraces the birth of new dimensions for the universe of Swarovski. The endeavor of meticulously creating diamonds to reflect light in mesmerising ways was remarkable, and what truly excites me is the accessibility to this beauty, thereby elevating the possibilities of customers’ creativity in their self-expression.”

Crafted with Swarovski’s exquisitely cut laboratory grown diamonds, which are identical to mined diamonds in every way but origin, Swarovski Created Diamonds fine jewellery collections showcase the brand’s mastery of light and savoir-faire. They are created with 100% renewable energy and recycled gold and silver, and only diamonds of the highest quality are used, with each stone certified by the International Gemological Institute (IGI) according to the 4Cs of diamond quality – cut, colour, clarity, and carat weight.

With its long heritage of precision cutting, innovation, and artistry since 1895, entry into the fine jewellery market is a natural evolution for the 129-year-old luxury brand. Swarovski Created Diamonds collections will be rolled out in flagship stores and key markets globally.

Source: Newshub

Fraudster Switches $2,000 Lab Grown for $545,000 Natural Diamond

Police in Surat, India, are investigating an alleged switch, in which a “buyer” replaced a 10.08-carat natural diamond, valued at $545,000, with a near-worthless lab grown replica.

The “buyer” examined the heart-shaped D / VVS2 stone and its GIA certificate, agreed terms and put down a $12,000 down payment to secure the purchase.

He left, saying he needed to withdraw money – and has not been seen since.

The owner of the diamond soon realized he’d been left with a lab grown replica of identical shape, color and weight, but worth less than $2,000.

Police say they are pursuing the “buyer” and at least two accomplices, according to a report in the Economic Times.

Source: IDEX

Why lab-grown diamond success could end up helping natural diamonds – Paul Zimnisky

Declining profits for lab grown diamonds could push retailers into a natural diamond pivot, said Paul Zimnisky, an independent diamond industry analyst.

Last week Zimnisky spoke to Kitco Mining.

The diamond market has been in a tough spot due to declining sales. In September Petra Diamonds reported full-year revenue declined 44%. In February Lucara Diamond announced full year revenue was down 16%, adding that the diamond market is a “volatile environment with market challenges coming from multiple areas.” Storied diamond company De Beers is being sold off by parent Anglo American, which is restructuring after rebuffing a takeover by BHP.

Demographics and growing market share by lab grown diamonds are part of the challenge, said Zimnisky, but exclusivity and rarity of natural diamonds could end up helping. Innovations in production have led jewelers to cut the costs of lab grown diamonds. That may lead jewelers to pivot and prioritize selling natural diamonds over lab grown, said Zimnisky.

“The catalyst could be declining profitability of selling lab grown diamonds, ” said Z. “[That] could incentivize retailers to really push natural diamonds again. That has the potential to be a very positive development for natural diamond industry.”

Source: Michael McCrae Kitco

Lab Grown Diamonds Market Projected to Hit $59.5 Bn by 2032 with Strongest Growth in Asia Pacific Region

According to Vantage Market Research the Global Lab Grown Diamonds Market Size is expected to reach a value of USD 27.2 Billion in 2023. The Lab Grown Diamonds Market is projected to showcase a CAGR of 9.1% from 2024 to 2032 and is estimated to be valued at USD 59.5 Billion by 2032.

The lab-grown diamonds market has emerged as a formidable force within the diamond industry, captivating consumers with its ethical and sustainable approach to creating stunning gemstones. Unlike mined diamonds, which are extracted from the earth through an environmentally impactful process, lab-grown diamonds are meticulously crafted in controlled laboratory environments.

This innovative technology replicates the natural diamond formation process, resulting in stones with the same physical, chemical, and optical properties as their mined counterparts. The burgeoning lab-grown diamond market is fueled by a confluence of factors, including rising environmental consciousness, evolving consumer preferences, technological advancements, and increasing disposable incomes.

Read more: Einnews

Young Shoppers Take Shine to Lab-Grown Diamonds

Pandora’s abandonment of mined diamonds has apparently not hindered its standing with younger consumers.

Speaking to the Financial Times (FT) Tuesday (May 7), Alexander Lacik, CEO of the mass-market jeweler, said younger buyers helped fuel a boom in lab-grown stones that had led to a decline in sales of mined diamonds, and helped the company best its luxury rivals.

Lab-grown diamonds are opening up the industry to new consumers, he said, as these stones are usually about a third of the cost of the alternative.

“People are discovering that a diamond is a diamond. It’s a different value proposition, and people are voting with their wallets,” Lacik told the FT. “Older customers are more wedded to mined diamonds. Younger ones are more open to lab-grown.”

The report notes that Pandora became the first major jeweler to move to a lab-grown-diamond-only strategy in 2021 as it pushed to expand its offerings beyond the charm bracelets and necklaces for which it had been known.

The company nearly doubled its sales of lab-grown diamonds in the first quarter, increasing revenue by 87%, the FT said.

Gen Z’s embrace of lab-grown diamonds makes sense in light of PYMNTS Intelligence research showing that this age group — more so than other younger consumers — is most likely more likely to point to buying an expensive retail product as their main financial goal than to mention paying for an upcoming event or show.

“In fact, consumers in this group are seven times as likely to prioritize the former as the latter,” PYMNTS wrote last month.

By contrast, millennial and bridge millennial consumers were the most likely to list paying for an event or show as their top goal.

“By 2030, barely five years from now, Gen Z will represent a third of the workforce. Their disposable income is projected to increase by sevenfold and their spending by sixfold as their incomes rise and they begin to benefit from the $90 trillion transfer of wealth headed their way from parents and grandparents,” PYMNTS CEO Karen Webster wrote recently.

“For that reason, Gen Z is the generation that all businesses are courting — they are their future workers, customers, business partners and investors.”

At the same time, this age group is also struggling to make ends meet, with 59% of Gen Z consumers living paycheck to paycheck, despite half of them not paying rent or mortgage.

“With such a financial cushion, the question remains as to why these young adults struggle to live within their means,” PYMNTS wrote last month. “One answer: Gen Z consumers cite splurging on nonessential items as a top reason for their financial lifestyle.”

Source: pymnts.com

Brilliant Earth Reports Record Revenue for 2023

Brilliant Earth’s sales grew 4% year on year to $124.3 million in the fourth quarter amid a record number of orders.

The 18% increase in individual orders offset a 12% decline in the average value per sale during the three months that ended December 31, the retailer said last week. Net profit for the period fell 69% to $1.9 million.

Engagement rings were one of the top sellers for the company, with demand for those above $10,000 increasing year-on-year in the fourth quarter, Brilliant Earth CEO Beth Gerstein said last week in an earnings call, transcribed by Seeking Alpha. The average sales price for engagement rings was up 4% year-on-year during the three months.

Additionally, new campaigns featuring celebrities and influencers brought in consumers. The launch of Brilliant Earth’s Sol collection, in partnership with Emmy-nominated actress Camilla Morrone, proved popular, with productivity “far outpacing” that of prior collection launches, Gerstein explained. The company’s new lab-grown Capture collection, made with synthetic diamonds manufactured using 100% renewable energy, also “resonated strongly” with consumers, it said.

For the full-year, sales rose 1.5% to $446.4 million, while net profit dropped 75% to $4.7 million.

Brilliant Earth expects sales for the first quarter of 2024 to reach between $96.5 million and $98.5 million, ranging from a decrease of 1% to growth of 1%, chief financial officer Jeff Kuo noted on the earnings call. For the full year, net sales are anticipated to rise 2% to 5% to between $455 million and $469 million.

Source: rapaport

Are Lab-grown Diamonds Sustainable?

Human-made diamonds come with an appealing claim: Manufacturers say the stones are produced ethically using renewable energy. But many of the products do not meet that claim or their producers do not confirm the electricity sources they use. And, laboratory diamonds require a lot of electricity to produce.

In the United States, lab-grown diamond sales increased 16 percent in 2023 from 2022, says Edahn Golan, an industry expert. The stones cost much less than natural diamonds.

Bario Neal is a jewelry store in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It uses lab diamonds. All of the stones are either made with renewable energy or neutral use of energy through the carbon credit system. Credits pay for activities like planting trees, which capture carbon.

Social media posts show Millennials and Generation Zs proudly explaining the purchase of their lab-grown diamonds for sustainability and ethical reasons. But the sustainability of production is questionable. A high number of manufacturers are not transparent, or open, about their operations.

Many of the manufacturers are in India, where about 75 percent of electricity comes from burning coal. The companies use words like “sustainable” and “environmentally-friendly” on their websites. But they do not release reports on the environmental effects of their operations.

Cupid Diamonds, for example, says on its website that it produces diamonds in “an environmentally friendly manner.” But it did not answer questions about the sustainability of its operations.

Solar energy is quickly expanding in India and there are some companies, such as Greenlab Diamonds, that use renewables in their manufacturing processes.

China is the other major country producing laboratory diamonds. The largest makers did not return requests for comment. They also did not release details about their electricity source.

More than half of China’s electricity came from coal in 2023.

Paul Zimnisky is a diamond industry expert. He said few companies are honest about their supply chains and their use of renewable energy.

Zimnisky said a lot of companies claim to make an “environmentally-friendly product when they aren’t really doing anything that’s environmentally friendly.”

How it is made

Lab diamonds have been in production around seventy years. Producers treat carbon to high pressure and high temperature. The idea is to copy the natural conditions that form diamonds underground. But, nature spends at least one billion years to make a diamond. Lab diamonds are complete in a few weeks.

In the past, the stones were used mostly in industries like stone cutting, mining and dentistry tools.

Over time the laboratories, or foundries, have gotten better at making stones. Production costs have dropped as technology improves.

Companies now can manufacture as many stones as they want and choose their size and quality.

Diamonds, whether lab-grown or natural, are chemically identical and entirely made out of carbon. Experts can identify between the two using lasers to examine their atomic structures.

Marketing battle

The lab diamond is competing in the same market as natural stones. Worldwide, lab-grown diamonds are now 5 to 6 percent of that market. And, the public battle for customers has begun.

The natural diamond industry and some experts argue that lab-grown diamonds will not hold value over time.

Zimnisky predicts that natural diamonds will continue to sell in the thousands and tens of thousands of dollars for engagement rings.

And the human-made stone?

“Five to ten years into the future, I think there’s going to be very few customers that are willing to spend thousands of dollars for a lab diamond,” he said.

Page Neal said she co-founded Bario Neal in 2008 to “create jewelry of lasting value that would have a positive impact on people and the planet.”

She added: “We want to only work with materials that we feel like our clients would be proud to own.”

I’m Dan Novak.

Dan Novak adapted this story for VOA Learning English based on reporting by The Associated Press.

US Lab Grown Giant Files for Bankruptcy

WD Lab Grown Diamonds, the second largest lab grown producer in the USA, has filed for bankruptcy.

The Washington DC-based company is the first major casualty of the plunge in lab grown prices.

It filed for Chapter 7 protection last Wednesday (11 October) in a Delaware bankruptcy court, with disclosed liabilities of $44m with assets of $3m.

WD pioneered chemical vapor deposition (CVD) diamonds since 2008 and had its own patented process.

In 2016 it produced its first 5 carat round brilliant diamond and in 2018, it set a record for the largest gem quality lab grown, at 9.04 carat.

In 2021 it acquired J2 Materials, and advanced materials and diamond crystal growth laboratory based in Chicago.

WD generated $33m of revenue last year, according to a Financial Times report. But the company has fallen victim to low prices and intense competition from China and India.

Source: IDEX

De Beers Ends Lab-Grown Engagement Diamonds Foray as Prices Drop

De Beers decided to call time on offering lab-grown diamonds for engagement rings even as the man-made alternatives continue to cannibalize demand in one of the company’s most important markets.

After vowing for years that it wouldn’t sell stones created in laboratories, in 2018 De Beers reversed that position and only this year started testing sales of the diamonds in the crucial engagement-ring sector.

The diamond industry leader said Wednesday that the trial showed that it wasn’t a sustainable market.


De Beers’ move comes as the kinds of stones that go into the cheaper one- or two-carat solitaire bridal rings popular in the US have experienced far sharper price drops than the rest of the market, with the lower-cost lab-grown competition seen behind the collapse.

De Beers has said the current weakness is a natural downswing in demand after the pandemic, with engagement rings particularly vulnerable. The company concedes that there has been some penetration into the category from synthetic stones, but doesn’t see it as a structural shift.

Lab-grown diamonds — physically identical stones that can be made in matter of weeks in a microwave chamber — have long been seen as an existential threat to the natural mining industry. Proponents say they can offer a cheaper alternative without many of the environmental or social downsides sometimes attached to mined diamonds.

While the price of some natural stones used in lower-quality engagement rings have plummeted in the past year, the fall in lab-grown prices has been even steeper. De Beers has said it expects lab-grown prices to continue to decline as more supply comes into the market

Retailers would need to double the number of lab-grown carats they sell every two years, just to maintain profits, De Beers said.

Source: dailymaverick.co.za

Agape Diamonds Receives Warning over Lab-Grown Disclosure

A US advertising watchdog has called on e-tailer Agape Diamonds to make the origins of its synthetic and simulated stones clearer.

The recommendation came from the National Advertising Division (NAD) of BBB National Programs — a nonprofit that helps businesses self-regulate — after the National Diamond Council (NDC) challenged Agape’s claims, the NAD reported last week.

Agape’s promotional material, including how it was presenting products for sale on its website, did not clearly and conspicuously disclose the origins of its stones, the NDC had argued, according to the NAD. As such, the council claimed, the online retailer and lab-grown manufacturer was violating the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) guidelines on jewelry marketing.

Agape changed its advertising across its website and social media in response to the NDC’s complaint, and the NAD declared the company’s modified disclosures effective and consistent with the FTC rules. However, other online advertising lacked “clear and conspicuous” origin disclosure, the watchdog said.

Race to the Bottom? Retailers’ Lab-Grown Doubts

The NAD urged Agape to rectify this by including words such as “simulated” or “lab-grown” immediately before the words “diamond” or “stone,” with “equal conspicuousness so as to clearly disclose the nature and origin of the product and the fact that it is not a mined gemstone.”

Agape and the NDC were unavailable for comment on Sunday. In its advertiser statement to the NAD, Agape said it was “committed to accurate and truthful advertising, as recommended by NAD and as codified in the federal regulations and enforced by the FTC.”

Source: Diamonds.net