The popularity of synthetic stones has sent the market for natural diamonds crashing. With consumers confused about how to tell the difference, how can a market leader like De Beers regain its sparkle?
Do you care where a diamond comes from? Historically, consumers didn’t have a choice. Natural diamonds were formed billions of years ago, deep beneath the earth’s surface, and were then thrust hundreds of kilometers to its crust by volcanic eruptions before eventually being extracted from mines in South Africa, Russia and elsewhere.
Companies like De Beers convinced the world that a diamond is forever, made the stones synonymous with engagement rings and encouraged people to spend at least three months’ salary on a rock when they wed. But in recent years, the natural diamond industry has been upended by laboratory-grown diamonds, which are virtually identical in chemical composition to their natural counterparts (at least to the naked eye).
They can be grown in almost any size or color and cost anywhere from a 20th to a quarter of the price of natural stones. As shoppers look for ever bigger and blingier sparkles, synthetic diamonds have become increasingly popular — especially in the United States, the world’s largest market for diamond jewelry.
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