![]() ![]() ![]() What will be next? Is this a concern only for the US and not affecting Asia (yet)? Will the LG machine turn diamonds into a truly generic product category and then affect the luxury allure of natural diamonds? If so, would it not be better if they sell them per gram or kilogram and not per carat? Will this become a threat for the African diamond producing countries which stand for more than 2/3 of the world's production? Will the demand for natural diamonds in the short term shrink? Is that the reason De Beers stepped into the lab-grown engagement ring category in June? Are we in a stepping stone scenario? How long before LGs reach 65%, 80%, 95%, 99%…? In the US there is ongoing declining demand for (natural) engagement rings (50/50 as per Tenoris/Edahn Golan in April of this year). The June Vegas Show seems to have attracted herds of buyers to the LG halls confronting the industry with an inevitable 'moment of truth'. In a couple of years - maybe sooner even - there will be equal to more LG than natural per year of production. The price of LG production is dropping fast a 4-carat costs not even USD2,000 wholesale. Today on the market one cannot ignore anymore this normalizing/legitimizing/cannibalizing - please choose what fits - the ongoing replacement at retail level of rare and unique, high-value large natural diamonds coming from middle earth with cheap man-made lab-grown equivalents. ![]() Kudos to the DMCC for having thrown a cobblestone in the natural diamond pond. The inaugural LG symposium on 10 July in Dubai was the first formal acknowledgement of the future role of the LG flood replacing the "real thing". Pandora's box was of course opened with Lightbox, although the disruptive nature of technology would have caused it anyway. Many questions and nobody knows the answers. Will the onus for this problem only be on the big brands reinventing their products and making them very recognizable and at the same time come with truly unique designs with larger diamonds so that the buyer would get the "distinction" he/she always used to get when buying natural stones? What will happen with the 75% of diamonds that go into non-branded jewellery? Will you still be asking your female friend: "Have you seen my diamond ring?" Or instead ask: "have you seen my Tiffany, my Cartier, my Bvlgari, my Graff, my Chopard, my Harry Winston, my De Beers?" Will there still be enough consumers wanting to buy/wear a pair of 2x2-ct earrings costing USD100,000 when an identical pair is there all around you in shops and online for USD2,000, if you neither optically nor physically can distinct them? With the generalization and acceptance of LGs in the world market, we really need to talk about lab-grown diamonds, not from the perspective of the symposium on how to sustain the LG business ( where have we heard that before?) but from the broader impact it may/will have on the natural diamond luxury segment. If you can afford wearing 4-carat earrings, then you distinguish yourself if you were a man as if you drive a Ferrari 2 carats then are like an expensive Tesla o r a Porsche. They also represent lasting value and because for the receiver they demonstrate distinction. Therefore, the market for LGs is to be found in larger goods.ĭiamonds are not only bought because they represent a unique emotion of love. In small diamonds below 0.20 points the production cost is equal between natural and lab-grown diamonds. As women are the ones who by and large wear diamonds, I am going to put on my female glasses. There is a French saying: "what women want, God wants". The question however is: is it for better o r for worse? It was a trendsetting event and like with so many previous initiatives, that is to be applauded. Undoubtedly, the first DMCC LG symposium was a tremendous success.
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