Just like most industries the jewelry business is changing.
For example, a few years ago a wide screen TV was priced in the thousands of dollars. Now Costco has 50 inch plus TVs for a few hundred dollars. That phenomena only increased the sales of wide screen TVs.
For the most part we seldom mention technology to promote diamond sales but things are changing. Pure diamonds are now being grown in laboratories.
Does that remove romance from the presentation of a diamond?
That was a topic of debate in Cleveland.
For generations jewelers trained “under the influence” of the DeBeers Conglomerate promoted the uniqueness of earth grown diamonds. So how do we compare an earth grown diamond to an above earth grown diamond? Both are diamonds: same chemical structure, same specific gravity, same hardness (10), same beautiful appearance when cut properly.
To detect the difference an expensive instrument is required. This device detects nitrogen in lab grown diamonds that is not present in earth mined diamonds.
Just last week the Federal Trade Commission released a ruling that the term “natural” diamond cannot be used to compare earth mined diamonds to lab grown diamonds. Furthermore, the word synthetic is not to be used to describe a lab grown diamond. Therefore the terminology being used: “earth mined” vs “lab grown” describes a genuine diamond.
Yes, you can have both! The same emotion can be generated by the beauty of a brilliant cut diamond, earth grown or lab grown.
William R Thigpen
Master Jeweler, IJO