Fascinating article in Wired - what do you experts think?

[Lpsl]

Lab-Grown Diamonds Are Everywhere. This Company Thinks It Has the Secret to Making Them High-End

Now that it’s possible to grow affordable gems in the time it takes to watch a movie, the race is on to save the value of the most precious stone.

www.wired.com

Link above to an article in Wired magazine - would love to hear the experts weigh in on this. Some here have been working with premium lab grown stones for some time (not noted in this piece).

Not sure whether this belongs in Rocky Talky (due to general diamond market content) or Lab Grown (the specific discussion of growing and polishing lab stones). Moderators, please locate as appropriate.

Very eager to hear perspectives within this community!

 

[Lisa Loves Shiny]

The article is behind a paywall. Here is the archived version.

https://archive.is/2hiNc

 

[Lpsl]

Ahh, thank you Lisa! I do not subscribe to Wired, but i do pay for Apple News, which must have included access.

 

[Karl_K]

Overall pretty good but does it take 150 min. or 2 weeks to grow??
The exact times are trade secrets but for gem grade e-ring sizes 150min is way off. 2 weeks for cvd without stops sounds too long.
Over supply is lowering prices to at or below cost in many cases. A lot of them are going to go under.

 

[Lpsl]

Overall pretty good but does it take 150 min. or 2 weeks to grow??
The exact times are trade secrets but for gem grade e-ring sizes 150min is way off. 2 weeks for cvd without stops sounds too long.
Over supply is lowering prices to at or below cost in many cases. A lot of them are going to go under.

Thank you for adding your thoughts!

 

[oncrutchesrightnow]

Just my thoughts based on people in general, not people on PS.

I think luxury settings might take the place of high quality natural diamonds as a way to signal wealth. I do not share the view that lab diamonds will become too cheap to be worthy of an engagement ring. Maybe at a very high price point. What that point is, I don’t know, but probably significantly higher than what the majority of people who care about such things used to spend on earth grown diamonds.

At the price point of what people used to spend on 2+ carat stones, somebody who wants everyone to know that they are wearing a ring worth $$$ can’t get that recognition based on a center stone anymore, because lab diamonds look identical. Whereas luxury settings are recognizable at a glance and low-quality knockoffs could be discernible to the naked eye with a closer look. As for pride of ownership of owning a $$$ diamond, IMHO visible beauty will win out in most consumers’ minds compared to pride in knowing that their diamond is natural. A person who compares their jewelry to others’ probably doesn’t want their diamond to look less pretty. People spend $$$ on shoes and bags and scarves to display their wealth, notwithstanding that there are knockoffs, but the $$$ items still have to look at least as good, if not better than the cheaper option. In fact, getting a less pretty natural stone compared to a prettier lab diamond might be seen as tacky.

For the middle class consumer who used to buy 1-2 carat earth grown center stones, IMHO the ones who care what others think are the ones who will go for brand names. The ones who don’t care what others think, but for personal reasons want an engagement ring to be a major purchase, might go for brand names, but those people could also go for less well-known but high quality settings; custom settings with unique personal features; or made-to-order diamonds in cool cuts and colors. I do not think people will sacrifice the significant difference in quality for a lab vs. earth grown 2 carat diamond, just to be able to think to themselves or to say to other people that their low color, low clarity center stone costs $10k. Especially since the other girl (or boy!) might also have a $10k ring, with the expense based on brand name or specialty diamond, that looks prettier.