It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, to be a diamond dealer...
Just under a year ago, a diamond dealer of excellent standing and well known to us came to our office. For the umpteenth time, we asked him why he was not dealing with laboratory diamonds. He was honest enough to admit he knew nothing about them, nor had he ever seen one. Two diamonds were placed in front of him, both similar in size, colour and clarity. When asked to decide which was which with complete confidence he chose one as being the lab diamond. He was wrong. The next day he started dealing with lab as well as mined diamonds and now lab diamonds are the larger part of his business.
We were among the first companies in Hatton Garden to start offering lab grown diamonds. We wrote a blog about them back in 2017 entitled A Tale of Two Diamonds, you can read it here. It is telling that the majority of our diamond sales last year were of the lab variety, particularly for clients under 40. That is not to say that mined diamonds are no longer popular or play their part. They have their magic and certainly we will continue to sing their praises! It is interesting that natural diamonds have held their value even in the face of lab grown diamonds taking an increasing share of the diamond market (it currently stands at 7-8% according to one analyst quoted here in the National Jeweler). This is of course reassuring for the owners of natural diamonds and for those who want the provenance and mystery that comes with a naturally occurring stone.
Early scepticism within the jewellery profession has given way to a much more positive attitude in the intervening 5 years. Now, the variety and quality of lab diamonds that we are able to supply has dramatically increased. The big certificating laboratories such as the GIA have begun to offer their grading services for larger stones. We can supply fancy diamond cuts, exotic ones you may never have heard of like trapezoids and tapered baguettes not to mention pear shapes and emerald cuts which are all excellent as supporting stones in a three-stone ring. These cuts can be very expensive in natural diamond due to the lossage incurred in the cutting process, as lab grown however, they open up new possibilities.
Finally, it is not a case of deciding one over the other, increasingly we find ourselves making pieces with a combination of natural and lab grown stones. For you then, the wearer of jewellery, it really is the best of times...