Forget the depths of the mines where a diamond in the rough shines in the dark. Now diamonds are increasingly the children of anonymous machines, complex procedures and digitized calculations. In short, there are more and more artificial diamonds, created in the factory. And it is even more impressive to know that one of the companies that pushes the most on lab-grown diamonds is the best known brand for selling natural gems: De Beers.
It was an advertising campaign by De Beers, in 1947, that invented the claim “a diamond is forever”. Today, perhaps, it could propose another slogan: “a diamond is for everyone”. In fact, the company is pushing hard on artificial diamonds with the Lightbox brand. Years ago he set up the first laboratory-made diamond factory in Ascot, Great Britain. And today it doubles with the $ 94 million manufacturing facility in Gresham, Oregon. The factory has already started work and once fully operational, it will produce around 200,000 carats of lab-grown diamonds each year.
In addition to the Lightbox brand, the diamonds will be sold with online jewelry retailer Blue Nile, in an exclusive jewelry collection. No wonder: research from MVI Marketing sponsored by the International Grown Diamond Association indicates that in ten years, lab-grown diamonds have gone from zero to becoming the fastest growing category in the jewelry market.
Factory created diamonds have not been marred by criticism from those who believe natural diamonds are the only precious gems. Also because artificial stones have a price per carat that is about 30% lower than those extracted from the earth. And, from a chemical point of view, they are perfectly alike. Indeed, man-made diamonds are artificially perfect. In addition, they are increasingly popular with consumers, at least American ones. Result: in addition to De Beers, other brands, such as Swarovski and Richline, also use synthetic diamonds. In short, even for jewels technology wins.
