What Lightbox Jewelry Means for Lab Created Diamonds
World’s largest diamond miner, De Beers, company mission has been protecting and promoting natural mined diamonds with the industry’s ‘real is rare’ campaign. Recently, they announced the launch of their new jewelry brand Lightbox Jewelry offering synthetic, lab created diamond jewelry at a fraction of the price of a normal mined diamond. The brand sources the diamonds exclusively from Element Six, located in the UK and known for being a world leader in the field of synthetic diamond manufacturing.
Mined diamonds vs. lab created diamonds has been a hot topic recently, and this new initiative only adds to the controversy. Not only is De Beers promoting lab created diamond jewelry, but their transparency and pricing is disrupting the entire industry. Lightbox Jewelry is being completely linear with their pricing—reasoning that they can make laboratory diamonds every day of the week, resulting in a modest $800 per carat retail. In contrast, the procurement of Natural Diamonds is quite expensive with DeBeers spending $2 billion to mine only 10 thousand diamonds over 1ct last year. Natural diamonds are rare and take millions of years to form, each one being as unique as a snowflake.
The real disruption Lightbox Jewelry is causing is not for natural diamonds, but for other lab created diamonds. Until now, the pricing of lab created diamonds has been around 30% less than natural diamonds meaning you can get a bigger diamond for your money. DeBeers feels that synthetic diamond prices should be in no way tied to the pricing of Natural Diamonds. These Lightbox Jewelry diamonds are shockingly priced less than half the price of other lab created diamonds—positioning them even further from natural diamonds.
So what does that mean if you own a lab diamond now?
The move from De Beers could absolutely influence the overall long-term value of lab diamonds, which was questionable to begin with and far, far less steady than natural mined diamonds. Though Lightbox Jewelry does not sell these $800/carat lab diamonds loose, there is a good possibility it will threaten the value of lab diamonds whether you own one now or were interested in buying one in the future.
Should I not spend my money on lab diamonds?
It truly depends on your unique situation and beliefs. If the long-term investment of the diamond is important to you, a natural mined diamond may be the right choice. But if you are restricted by budget and are looking to make a gesture such as a Valentine’s or bridesmaids gift, you may look towards buying a lab created diamond. Lightbox diamonds are not being marketed for engagement rings as most people in their study groups claimed they would want a Natural Diamond for such a profound occasion. The perception of synthetic diamond jewelry was that it was good as travel jewelry and giftable for life’s “lighter” moments.
If environmental and socio-economic impact is important to you, it is important to note that though lab diamonds are arguably the most impact-free route, many mined diamonds are responsibly sourced and actually do good for the economy where the mines are located. For example, for every acre that De Beers mines, they will offset that and devote five acres to conservation. There is also incredibly economic growth and opportunity in these mining regions such as Botswana, completely revitalizing their GDP, empowering women, and funding education and healthcare.
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