‘I didn’t spend as much’: Sales of lab-grown diamonds soar as couples buy engagement rings
Love will be in the air this weekend as many shoppers will be out looking at diamonds.
Valentine’s Day is next week.
More of those shoppers will make the same decision as Diana Cross and Matt Stover of West Roxbury when it comes to buying an engagement ring.
They chose a lab-grown diamond over a mined diamond.
“I really like the idea that the diamonds could be ethical, and you knew where it was sourced, where it was coming from,” said Cross.
“You really couldn’t tell the difference,” added Stover. “I didn’t spend as much money which I think is a really good thing.”
Lab-grown diamonds are just that. They’re grown in a controlled setting over a couple of weeks.
From a geological perspective, they’re the same as a gem that comes out of the ground.
“They mimic in the lab how to create a stone out of carbon that has the same characteristics as a diamond, the same light reflection and look of a diamond”, said Antoine Abeddy, Managing Partner of Date & Time in Sudbury.
Lab-grown sales couldn’t be brighter. According to www.paulziminsky.com, the market in 2016 for these diamonds was $1 billion.
By 2022 that number jumped to $12 billion.
About 1/5 of diamonds sold today are now lab-generated.
Abeddy showed us two different stones that were very similar in color and clarity.
The lab-generated diamond cost $1,100 while the mined diamond sold for about $25,000.
Abeddy believes shoppers need to think about how they will use the diamond over time.
He says that if a person is looking to have a big glitzy look for an event then a lab-grown diamond might be a good solution, “but if you’re looking for a precious diamond to have for years, and from an investment point of view, then, yes, go for the natural diamond, definitely.”
Abeddy says mined diamonds appreciate in value over time, while lab-grown stones have little resale value.
“They’re producing them without any limitations. It’s just mainly in China and India that they produce these grown diamonds, and there’s no limit to what they’re doing, and that’s why the price keeps going down.”
We did a test with Abeddy to see if we could tell the difference between each diamond and failed.
But Diana Cross and Matt Stover think they’re winners.
For them, the purchase is really about what the ring represents.
“I think for us it was that perspective of what’s the meaning behind it, versus thinking about the value down the line,” added Cross.
Abeddy said prices of lab-generated diamonds are coming down so fast that some jewelers are now offering a new type of deal. They’re actually giving shoppers a free lab-generated diamond as long as they buy the setting from them.
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