Lab-created diamonds remain one of the most passionately debated topics in the international jewelry industry, yet the future of the category remains as polarizing as ever.
According to research from PZ Diamond Analytics, global sales of lab-created diamonds will rise to $12 billion (AU$18.27 billion) in 2022, a 38 percent improvement on the previous year.
It’s a rapid rise in less than a decade. Sales of lab-created diamonds were less than $US1 billion in 2016 and now account for more than 17 per cent of the total diamond market, according to Tenoris’ research.
“People don’t buy them because they’re cheap, they buy them because it makes them feel good; it’s an emotional purchase, a financial sacrifice,” analyst Paul Zimnisky told CNBC.
“There are a lot of consumers who would love to buy diamond jewelry, but maybe can’t afford it at $1,000 price points, but can afford it at $100 price points.”
The lab-created diamond industry has benefited from several major brand endorsements this year.
Pandora unveiled its “Diamonds For All” campaign and launched three new collections in Australia, while Prada released its “Eternal Gold” collection and urged the industry to embrace the category.
Michael Hill International announced a renewed focus on lab-created diamonds, while discussions about the rise of ‘hybrid diamond jewelry’ changed expectations about the predicted split in the market.
Lightbox Jewelry, De Beers’ lab-created diamond brand, recently unveiled two new design collaborations designed to increase consumer interest in the category.
Lightbox has been a controversial figure in the industry since its inception in 2018, and questions have been raised about the brand’s “big picture” role in the diamond industry.
John Chapman, director of Gemetrix and a diamond expert, told ABC News that the strategy behind Lightbox’s launch remains unclear.
“There are some thoughts about what their strategy was there, because they were quite cheap, even for synthetics, they were at the lower end,” he said.
“There was some speculation that it was a strategy to undermine all the other manufacturers who would have to match their prices and probably go out of business as a result – and therefore it may have been a way to destroy the synthetic market.”
It hasn’t been all smooth sailing, however, with the October collapse of WD Lab Grown Diamonds – the second-largest producer of lab-grown diamonds in the U.S. – highlighting the severity of the manufacturing competition.
