What do you think about lab-grown diamonds?

Are there benefits to lab-created diamonds?

Lab-made diamonds do not disturb any ground surfaces. Additionally, lab-grown diamonds do not produce any mineral waste.

Ethically sourced – Lab created diamonds are conflict free. Diamond miners are never harmed or exploited during the production of lab-grown diamonds. Thus, there are never any problems with you buying a “blood diamond”. On the other hand, you can say that there are millions of people who make a living working in the diamond industry in a completely ethically defensible way, and if you only start buying lab-made diamonds, they will loose their jobs.

Competitive Prices – Lab-grown diamonds typically cost 80% less than mined diamonds due to a shorter supply chain.

Disadvantages of lab-created diamonds

While lab-made diamonds are technically diamonds, they have disadvantages compared to natural diamonds.

Rarity – Because lab-created diamonds are manufactured, they can be mass-produced. Thus, your diamond will not be a “one-of-a-kind”, as is the case with the diamonds mined from the earth.

Value – Man-made diamonds are relatively new to the jewelry industry. But since every diamond producer in India with a reasonably large company, has a production of laboratory made diamonds, and they produce more and more, the value will drop dramatically.
While naturally mined diamonds typically increase in value over time, the lab-created diamond you buy today may be worthless in a few years.

The uncertainty of the value of lab-grown diamonds makes their resale value highly questionable. There is actually no resale. So your lab made diamond is worth nothing. Whereas the value of naturally mined diamonds remains fairly consistent or increases and is therefore a more stable investment.

What do consumers think about lab-grown diamonds?

In a report compiled by Baine illustrating the responses of about 1,500 consumers to the question “What do you think of when you think of lab-grown diamonds?” most answered “artificial” and “fake”.

But the report also says that “the lab-grown segment is developing rapidly due to technological advances and increasing acceptance across the value chain.” The value chain Bain refers to is largely in the fashion jewelry segment, where lab-grown is more “accessible to a wider range of price-sensitive consumers.”

The whole point is that natural diamonds are unique and rare. Diamonds are becoming rarer every day because no new significant deposits have been discovered for about 30 years, where lab-grown diamonds can be produced in potentially unlimited quantities equivalent to any manufactured product, so they are not unique and cannot be considered rare.
“Natural diamonds derive their value from their scarcity as a natural, billion-year-old gemstone and have been shown over the decades to increase in value as they become rarer.”

As De Beers says: “Lab grown diamonds are for the “masses”, where natural diamonds are for the “classes”