Diamonds are forever. This phrase became the epitome of the diamond industry when De Beers Company used it for marketing. Today these forever glittering stones are being challenged by their clones, the lab grown diamonds. Today the diamond market is facing a huge deficit. According to a report by the Bain & Company and Antwerp World Diamond Center in 2019, the sales of rough mined diamonds is expected to decline by 25% while the demand for polished diamonds is going to rise by 10%.
With the world moving towards sustainable growth, the choice for lab grown diamonds is particularly high among the millennials. According to MVI Marketing, 70% of the millennials are moving away from conventional diamonds and considering lab-grown alternatives. This is the reason why Bains & Company pegs the growth of the lab-grown diamond market to be between 15% and 20% with a promise of unprecedented growth.
It is this rise of lab-grown diamonds that has even forced the mammoths like De Beers to embrace them. The brand introduced its lab-grown Lightbox Jewelry collection in May 2018.
What are lab grown diamonds?
There is a lot of confusion, but know that a lab grown diamond is a diamond-physically, chemically and optically identical to mined diamonds. There is little differentiation between the lab grown and naturally occurring diamonds. While the natural occurring ones were formed 1 billion to 3 billion years ago, their lab-grown counterparts can materialize within 12 weeks.
Lab-grown diamonds are created using heat and extreme pressure inside a machine. The process starts with the ‘seed’ that’s a flat slither of another diamond. Traditional these lab-made stones are created using High-Pressure High Temperature (HPHT) systems where a pressure of 1.5 million pounds on pure graphite carbon under 1,500C temperature creates diamonds.
A more recent technology to grow diamonds is called Chemical Vapor Deposition (CVD). In this process, a sealed chamber is filled with carbon-rich gas and heated to 800C. The carbon atoms from gas stick to the seed creating diamonds atom by atom.
New Trends Diamond Industry
The lab-grown diamonds are not just restricted to be used in jewelry but also in other applications, from abrasives to medical, scientific and computational uses. For now, when most of the jewelry market still uses mined diamonds, the bread and butter for the lab-grown diamond depend on the alternative uses. But that is changing as millennials are shaping the industry.
According to the Gemological Institute of America, the annual sales of laboratory diamonds will be over $100 billion shortly.
According to experts, lab-grown diamonds can improve the human condition as the future diamond-based devices will reduce our carbon footprint by 10% or more. Also, these diamonds have high applications in the automotive industry as they have a lower coefficient of friction than metal. For orthopedic medical devices, the durability and biological inertness of diamonds make them ideal for joint replacement. The lab diamond spinal disk replacements are already under trial.
In the future, we will also see diamond replacing silicon in electronic and computer processors. According to studies, diamond-based computers are more efficient than silicon in handling high frequency and high voltage.
All these applications make the growth scope of lab-grown diamonds exponentially high. Future will see diamond search from all industries narrowing down to these lab-grown precious stones.
Whether you like it or not, millennials continue to shape the diamond industry. As they are making more financially conscious choices, more millennials are searching for lab-grown diamonds.
As the awareness for eco-friendly practices is on the rise, every business related to mining is going to witness a slump. New-age buyers look for eco-friendly products which is why they prefer to choose lab-grown diamonds due to their low impact on the environment. The perfection of lab-grown diamonds is such that only experienced jewelers can tell the difference.
Whether you are an industry observer or a savvy consumer, you need to be aware of the changing trend in the diamond industry. The era of lab-grown diamonds has started and it is going to get bigger rapidly.
One of the most renowned and trusted sources to buy quality lab grown and natural diamonds is Boston Diamond Studio. We have a very large selection of lab grown diamonds. We provide highest quality of lab grown and natural diamonds and diamond engagement rings at the most competitive prices.