Diamonds are a chemists best friend?

[kenny]

http://www.isa.org/Content/ContentGroups/News/20051/May28/Diamonds_are_a_chemists_best_friend.htm


New article about new technology for makng synthetics.

I am on another forum which has nothing to do with gems and the consensus is, right or wrong, the general public is being led to believe that the price of natural diamonds will fall when synthetics get good enough. They say even DeBeers is not powerful enough to stop relentless advancement of technology.

Interesting that I saw this article just as I am about to buy a natural 1ct diamond.
Clearly I am not worried about the threat of synthetics.

I think there will always be a market for the naturals.
Now if the synthetics get so good that they cannot be distinguished from naturals then I will still be pleased I bought mine back when I knew it was real.

I will always know that mine is natural.

 

[Detox]

Real diamonds carry with them some monetary value because "we" give it a value.

I don''t see a market of manufactured diamonds changing the market for real diamonds. Many consumers purchase diamonds, diamond jewellery for matters of the heart (engangement, anniversary etc.) Until diamond mines can''t produce any more, people will continue to buy real diamonds because people will always be asked "is that real" and they do not want to say "no" and also don''t want to feel guiltyu by lying and saying "yes" when they really are fake.

This market might fill some void in the fashion industry, teenager markets, etc. But in my opinion the real diamond is here to stay.

 

[Garry H (Cut Nut)]

Moisonite already offers more fire than diamond and is hard enough for it not to matter. But I have not heard of a single instance of Mosianite stealing a diamond sale (except the very very pretty 20 year old girl who bought us the necklace with a dozen +1ct moisanites to check the ''true love'' of her (dirty) older boyfriend).

 

[Michael_E]

I think that the area in which colorless synthetics will have their greatest initial impact is in the small sizes where checking for natural origin costs as much as the stone itself. Once these things get colorless enough and inexpensive enough I think that it will drive the prices of mellee down. This in turn could make many mines uneconomic,(if a good percentage of their production is in small stones), forcing them to close. This could, in turn, reduce the supply of larger goods causing their prices to go up. Bigger natural goods could become MUCH more valuable as this plays out.

 

[kenny]

I think Garry hit the nail on the head.

The selection between natural and fake will always be thought of as an indication of the sincerity of love.

This is a matter of the heart, not the mind.

 

[antigoon]

I disagree that true love = diamond from the earth, or that cultured diamonds won't success. The whole notion that diamond = love is purely marketing. It's been such a brilliantly successful marketing campaign that people assume that engagements rings have been exclusively diamond for ever rather than the generation or two that is really the case.

One of the big reasons that CZ, moissonite, etc. have not succeeded has nothing to do with their physical properties, it's simply that they're not *diamonds*. And a girl will think "he bought me a knock-off of a diamond".
But a "cultured diamond", like a cultured pearl, is still a diamond. It's still a girl's best friend. And we as a society who have mostly succumbed to the marketing campaigns of the diamond industry will be just as receptive to
cultured diamonds as to the real thing.
Yes, some romantic types will care if their diamonds were created deep within the earth as opposed to in a lab. But other more pragmatic types will think that as long as the 4Cs are satisfied, it doesn't matter where the diamond comes from. (And remember, a cultured diamond is never a blood diamond!)

I admit that I'm about to make a broad sexual generalization here that is absolutely not true in all cases but... Most women, upon being given a genuine diamond engagement ring will not want to examine the cert, look at the Sarin results, the brilliantscope images, or the ISeee2 scores. Similarly, they won't care about the provenance. Some socially conscious women will care if the diamond is a "blood diamond" and will want to see the certification that it's Australian, Canadian, or whatever, but that's about it. And when the cultured diamonds come, women probably won't want to see the cert to look at it's manufacture either.

Think about it, once the manufacture of diamonds gets good, all cultured diamonds will be a single, internally flawless (Fl clarity) carbon crystal. They will be as perfect as only the very very best natural diamonds.

Right now, the natural diamond industry has to decide whether it's going to compete on price or if it's going to keep higher prices but rely on marketing like "A love so strong that it takes a symbol one hundred million years in the bowels of the earth to express" to distinguish itself from artificial diamonds and justify higher prices. If it does the latter, a tremendous market in passing off artificial diamonds as natural ones will emerge. The natural diamond industry had better start figuring out now (before it's too late) how it can guarantee that individual diamonds are tracked from the mine to the finished product at the grading labs. And how the unforgeable certificates can be guaranteed to match to these diamonds (e.g. gemscan etc.).


My 2c,
Steve

 

[perry]

I Largly agree with Antigoon on this one. People will want to buy diamonds. Period. Especially the younger generation. It will be very cost effective to run add campangs for diamond jewelry that is much less costly than for natural diamonds.

Larger natural diamonds may still have a place; but anything smaller than 1/2 carat will - I think - almost certainly be filled by the natural market rather fast.

Perry

 

[kenny]

You think if the market splinters the market for smaller stones will be dominated by naturals?

I disagree.

I would guess that the people who go for larger stones will be more likely to insist on naturals.
They have more money, education and higher expectations.
Phrased a less polite way, more snobery.

I think the couple struggling to afford a 0.25 ct. e-ring will see how much more stone they can get in a synthetic and go for it.