Lab-grown diamonds; what can the past tell us about the future?

Everyone in the jewellery trade has an opinion on the future for lab-grown diamonds, with many quite understandably hedging their bets or waiting to see where and when the market price settles.

But taking a historical perspective, this has happened before, and I believe that we can learn from this.

Enter synthetic sapphires...

Verneuil sapphires refer to synthetic sapphires created using the Verneuil process, developed by Auguste Verneuil in 1902. This method involves melting aluminum oxide (corundum) powder and allowing it to crystallize into a boule, mimicking the natural formation of sapphire. 

Verneuil sapphires closely resemble fine quality natural stones, and this invention truly set the cat among the pigeons, with the average customer - or anyone without close investigation - being unable to discern the synthetic from the natural.

Ringing any bells?

Yet over the coming decades, customers became savvy as to the difference. The features of the natural stones and the rarity of a perfect, natural stone. And these values triumphed, and today the prices of blue sapphires are at an all time high. Synthetic sapphire and ruby retails for mere dollars a carat.

Now these are not apples and apples, and there are many reasons for choosing a lab diamond over a natural; ethical, financial and aesthetic. But what does seem familiar is that the market value for synthetic diamonds has not yet been realised, with many currently being retailed with extremely high margins.

I would predict that the mined-diamond industry is heavily invested in popularising affordable means of identifying natural from synthetic stones will do so, and - to an extent we are already seeing this - these machines will be available and accessible to any high street jeweller. And too, one would hope, the re-sale market.

So were I currently purchasing a diamond and it had to be newly-mined or lab-grown, I would choose a newly-mined stone. Ideally a fully traceable one at that. Because (and remember that I'm not selling new diamonds of any sort - there's no hidden agenda here) I believe the trajectory for lab-grown will mirror that of synthetic sapphires.

Nothing left to do but wait to see what happens...