Lab engagement ring

[waffle]

I’m not getting engaged soon, but I have seen some gorgeous settings with lab diamonds for a great buy. I was wondering if you would feel authentic showing off your large diamond without people knowing it’s lab grown. Would you be as excited to get a lab grown, as a mined diamond? Would love to hear your input.

 

[FL_runner]

If you love your engagement ring and think it's beautiful, show it off! Who cares if it's a mined or lab diamond, or moissanite, or a sapphire, or a plain band.

I also wouldn't mind answering questions about it and would not "pass it off" as anything other than it's true origin. But I think it's gauche to grill someone about their jewelry in a social setting, unless you know they're a jewelry enthusiast like us folks here on Pricescope and want to talk stats.

I think there are pros and cons to lab versus mined stones, as long as you are educated and confident in your decision I can't imagine being less excited to show off a lab stone.

 

[DejaWiz]

My wife and I have no problem showing off her ring or telling anyone that it's a lab grown, because the usual reaction is that their mind is blown in amazement.

The Fire Thread!

 

[Jax172]

I have a mined diamond engagement ring but I have never once been asked 1.) What stone it is or 2.) The origin

Nor have I been asked what it cost or how many carats/color/clarity (outside of here of course).

And if lab diamonds existed back when I got engaged I would have opted for one. I was overjoyed to be engaged. I love my diamond but man it was expensive. I would have loved to have saved thousands. I would have been just as thrilled and proud to wear it.

It’s not anyone’s business where your ring came from. Share what you want. Enjoy it for the symbol of love that it is.

 

[aisa901]

I chose to have a lab grown diamond set as my future engagement ring. It's been set since December 2020, not engaged yet, but I love it so much I secretly wear it around the house, when I'm working out of town, or to run errands when I know I won't bump into anyone I know. My only regret is getting natural melee side stones rather than lab grown melee since my lab grown diamond has undisclosed blue nuance and at times it reflects light differently than the natural mined melee... eventually, I think I'll either get the melee switched out or reset the stone as a solitaire and repurpose the natural mined melee.

My limited experience so far with strangers is that they usually sneak a quick glance when they initially notice it, and that's about it.

Where I'm from, no one really gawks at anyone else's e-rings, friends + family usually take a quick glance at your ring when you first get engaged followed by "it's so pretty", "he did so well", "it really suits you", etc. and these comments are mostly directed at the setting, not the diamond. You might exchange more details with certain friends, but I don't think anyone would directly quiz you, especially since most people have a limited knowledge about lab grown diamonds still. I think if the ring wearer volunteers detailed information, then that might get the conversation going and people might ask more questions.

Based on my own observations now that I notice other people's e-rings, the first thing I notice/analyze is the cleanliness of the ring/diamond, and then whether I like their setting or not. Even though I know lab diamonds are a thing, it's not my first instinct to think of the origin of someone else's diamond, and if I did suspect it a lab grown diamond, I think it would be rude/tacky to ask anyway.

 

[Daisys and Diamonds]

I know a couple of people who would be snide enough to ask
And that is nothing short of bad manners
But only two people's opinion really matter
I would be more than happy with a lab grown


Mind you i would be happy with a chip if glass as after 20 plus years it aint happening, so not sure if my opinion counts

 

[anangel]

I really don’t think anyone in my circle would care. One of my best friends has a big moissanite in a super high end setting and people notice the setting more than her center stone. I have another friend with a petite but earth mined pear diamond and she loves it because she’s a science teacher and thinks that the Earth making something like that is amazing. I have a 2+ carat lab diamond and frankly, I don’t think anyone cares what it’s made of, where it was made, etc. I think it’s important to buy jewelry that you appreciate and that’s it. There is jewelry I don’t understand (like the salt and pepper diamond trend) but if I see a lady wearing it and makes her happy, gosh darn it, I’m just going to chose to be happy for her!

 

[Wink]

As a bit of a geezer I wonder if the younger generations are feeling different about lab grown than some of my contemporaries?

Carroll Chatham created his first emerald crystals in the early 1930's. Many in the gem industry worried that this might cause the collapse of the natural gem markets. They worried that many jewelers would not be able to tell the difference between the emeralds that Carroll Chatham was making and natural emeralds. Mr. Chatham intentionally used a formula that allowed the Chatham Created Emerald to fluoresce a reddish color that is not seen in natural crystals.

It was not until 1959 that the FTC introduced rules as to what the products produced by Mr. Chatham and other companies could be called other than synthetic. Created was the big win for producers of the Lab Created Gems. This was still a bone of contention for many jewelers in the 1970's when I joined the trade. I had the pleasure of meeting Carroll Chatham's son Tom Chatham at a JCK show in Tucson and he was quick to set me straight when I told him how much I loved his synthetic emeralds and how much I admired his father for letting them be so easily distinguished from the natural emeralds.

Many of my then contemporaries still do not like to call them anything other than synthetics.

I suspect the younger generations are now learning so many things from the internet and are no longer being unduly influenced by those jewelers who do not like, "Those (expletive deleted) fakes."

Since they are learning about Lab Grown diamonds from the internet and not from potentially disgruntled jewelers, they may not have the aversion to purchasing a Lab Grown for their engagement rings.

Personally, I think this is fantastic. I like seeing young couples able to easily enter the diamond world at reasonable prices and look forward to assisting them when they are willing and able to step up to the plate in the natural world as well.

It is my belief, that natural diamonds, like natural gems are only going to become more and more expensive as the supply peters out over the next few decades. Long experience in the natural gem world has shown that the creation of great looking laboratory grown gems has strengthened the demand for the natural gems that are being so ably replicated. The creation of the star sapphire and star rubies in the laboratories turned these unusual and mostly unsellable gems into highly sought after and vastly more expensive treasures.

These are indeed interesting times, and I am glad to be part of them.

Wink

 

[oncrutchesrightnow]

As a bit of a geezer I wonder if the younger generations are feeling different about lab grown than some of my contemporaries?

Carroll Chatham created his first emerald crystals in the early 1930's. Many in the gem industry worried that this might cause the collapse of the natural gem markets. They worried that many jewelers would not be able to tell the difference between the emeralds that Carroll Chatham was making and natural emeralds. Mr. Chatham intentionally used a formula that allowed the Chatham Created Emerald to fluoresce a reddish color that is not seen in natural crystals.

It was not until 1959 that the FTC introduced rules as to what the products produced by Mr. Chatham and other companies could be called other than synthetic. Created was the big win for producers of the Lab Created Gems. This was still a bone of contention for many jewelers in the 1970's when I joined the trade. I had the pleasure of meeting Carroll Chatham's son Tom Chatham at a JCK show in Tucson and he was quick to set me straight when I told him how much I loved his synthetic emeralds and how much I admired his father for letting them be so easily distinguished from the natural emeralds.

Many of my then contemporaries still do not like to call them anything other than synthetics.

I suspect the younger generations are now learning so many things from the internet and are no longer being unduly influenced by those jewelers who do not like, "Those (expletive deleted) fakes."

Since they are learning about Lab Grown diamonds from the internet and not from potentially disgruntled jewelers, they may not have the aversion to purchasing a Lab Grown for their engagement rings.

Personally, I think this is fantastic. I like seeing young couples able to easily enter the diamond world at reasonable prices and look forward to assisting them when they are willing and able to step up to the plate in the natural world as well.

It is my belief, that natural diamonds, like natural gems are only going to become more and more expensive as the supply peters out over the next few decades. Long experience in the natural gem world has shown that the creation of great looking laboratory grown gems has strengthened the demand for the natural gems that are being so ably replicated. The creation of the star sapphire and star rubies in the laboratories turned these unusual and mostly unsellable gems into highly sought after and vastly more expensive treasures.

These are indeed interesting times, and I am glad to be part of them.

Wink

I know zero non-jewelers in real life who would question in their own mind whether someone else’s sapphire or emerald or ruby was lab grown versus ancient. Whether the stone is plastic, yes, but not whether it is lab grown versus ancient. In fact I bet most people in my social circle don’t even know that a lot of ancient colored stones are treated.

Fast forward eighty years and the same dynamic might exist with diamonds. So long as the stone is not plastic, many people will not care.

 

[HerefortheBling]

I just traded in my mined diamond for a lab grown one, and I have no regrets. I'm happy to be able to get a larger stone without draining my bank account. It feels just as authentic to me as the mined one I wore for 20 years.