Artificial Diamonds
Your wife would love receiving a diamond for her next birthday, but you are not sure if your wallet shares the same opinion? Maybe your problems are close to an end, as an article over the InnoBlog discusses.
The article, titled “Disruptive Diamonds,” illustrates how some companies are investing into a synthetic diamond manufacturing technology. Quoting the author:
“Several companies, including Florida-based Gemesis and Massachusetts-based Apollo Diamonds are betting that it will be. Over the past few years they’ve improved synthetic diamond technology to the point where they can now produce gem-quality colored and even colorless diamonds. And they can do it for substantially less than it would cost to process the approximately 250 tons of ore required to find a single, one-carat, natural diamond.
What remains to be seen is whether these synthetic, or “cultured” diamonds, as producers at Apollo and Gemesis prefer to call them, are good-enough for consumers. Diamond simulants such as cubic zirconia and Moissanite still beat synthetic diamonds along the dimension most important to low-end customers: price. Will mid-tier consumers be willing to accept the trade-offs these higher quality synthetics offer relative to the real thing, gaining performance along the dimension of price for some loss of authenticity? Or perhaps synthetics have an edge along another dimension: as environmentally friendly and conflict-free?”
Do you think synthetic diamonds could disrupt the market?
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Personally, I’m glad to see it, as the diamond market is artificially inflated and causes all sorts of problems that I’d rather not contribute to. So, let’s hope so!
Not a chance.
The most important branding attribute is authenticity, and the more second tier producers try to scam the real thing, the more highly valued “real” diamonds will become, even if they look identical. You only need look at the emphasis that a totally synthetic environment, the blogosphere, places on authenticity to see that the more automated and computerized our world becomes, the more we value “the real thing”.
No doubt the diamond market is inflated by controlled supply, and there may well be a market for fakes, but it will not negate the market for real diamonds, but may succeed in pushing their price even higher. Has a decades long ban on sale of new ivory reduced the value of ivory already in the market? No, of course not. But the premium for scarcity and reality has driven old ivory prices into the stratosphere.
It may also increase the premium for semi-precious stones, especially those not so easily faked, or where the ROI isn’t sufficient to warrant the R+D to try.
Besides, imagine the nightmare if your wife ever found out you economized by buying a fake. That fear alone will keep men from cheating to save a few dollars.
[…] Your wife would love receiving a diamond for her next birthday, but you are not sure if your wallet shares the same opinion? … prefer to call them, are good-enough for consumers. Diamond simulants such as cubic zirconia … , titled Disruptive Diamonds, illustrates how some companies are investing into a synthetic diamond source: Artificial Diamonds, Innovation Zen […]
I disagree. First of all both Apollo and Gemesis as well as Chatham Created Gems in San Francisco are not producing “FAKE” diamonds. These are diamonds that are identical to Natural stones. The only difference is that they are produced in a Laboratory. Possibly the “Fakes” that you are referring to are the cheap imitation stones that are diamond simulants and are called CZ or Cubic Zircon. Completely different than true “laboratory grown, man made, synthetic” diamonds. The problem is that consumers are being mislead by companies that do not fully disclose what the product is. If you are buying a “laboratory grown” diamond with a certification that it’s truly an Apollo, Gemesis, Chatham, ADIA diamond then rest assured you are buying the REAL thing. Most all the others can be considered “FAKES”. If the company you are considering buying a stone from can’t give you a 100% truthful answer then DON’T BUY IT unless you are willing to present “her” with a cheap fake.