Lab Diamonds in the News: Snippets from around the world
The Washington Post:
See how lab-grown diamonds are made, step by step
"While lab-grown diamonds have been around since the 1950s, they have increased in popularity in the past five years and now make up an estimated nearly 20 percent of the global diamond jewelry market by value sold, according to diamond industry analyst Paul Zimnisky."
Source: The Washington Post, November 27, 2024
Vogue:
Shhh… I Sort of Regret Not Buying a Lab-Grown Engagement Ring
"Essentially: diamonds went from something your husband acquired with a sizable chunk of his salary to being an impulse purchase—something you can just stick on your face like a beauty mark for a night out. It’s a seismic shift in consumer behavior that’s shaken up the diamond industry in a big way.
Per the Wall Street Journal, “Natural-diamond jewelry sales in the U.S. declined 0.7% through November compared with a year earlier, while lab-grown diamond jewelry sales rose 12.5%.” And as for prices? They’re free-falling—due to a lower demand for mined diamonds and technology advances in the production of lab-grown diamonds which make them less expensive to create. There’s never been a better time to buy, especially when you consider the surprisingly long history of lab-grown diamonds."
“Spending less on a ring isn’t about cutting corners—it’s about rejecting an outdated notion that value is purely tied to scarcity.”
Source: Vogue, February 7, 2025
BBC:
Pandora says laboratory-made diamonds are forever
"The world's biggest jeweller, Pandora, says it will no longer sell mined diamonds and will switch to exclusively laboratory-made diamonds.
Concerns about the environment and working practices in the mining industry have led to growing demand for alternatives to mined diamonds."
Source: BBC, 4 May 2021
Fortune
"More than half of millennial and Gen Z couples pick engagement rings with a lab-grown diamond—and it means larger stones aren’t the status symbol they used to be"
More carats at a lower price sounds like a great deal. That’s why many couples are choosing lab-grown diamonds over natural mined diamonds for their engagement rings. Plus, there’s a perception lab-grown diamonds are better for the environment.
For the first time ever, more than half of couples reported their engagement ring features a lab-grown stone, according to The Knot’s 2025 Real Weddings Study released Feb. 26. Lab-grown diamonds have grown increasingly popular in the past several years, with 6% more couples buying them than last year and 40% more since 2019.
“The increasing popularity of lab-grown diamonds can be attributed to being conscious of budget, perceived value and ethical production practices,” Lauren Kay, executive editor at The Knot, told Fortune. They’re “a great and viable option for those unwilling to sacrifice stone size due to budget constraints.”
Since lab-grown stones are typically cheaper than natural diamonds and there’s been such a massive increase in the number of lab-grown diamonds purchased, engagement ring prices are down, according to The Knot, which found the current average price is $5,200, a 5.7% drop from 2023 and a more than 15% decline from 2021.
And in some cases, ring purchasers could expect to spend 1.5 times more on a natural diamond ring than a lab-grown one.
“Design is absolutely the most important aspect of your purchase decision on a product—and the second criterion is price,” Alexander Lacik, CEO of jewelry giant Pandora previously told Fortune’s Orianna Rosa Royle.
Younger generations, specifically, find it less important for the stone to be natural (22% for Gen Z, 28% for millennials), Kay said. "
Source: Fortune, 10 March 2025
NBC
More couples are choosing lab-grown diamonds over natural stones for engagement rings. Here's why
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In 2024, 52% of couples who were surveyed said their engagement ring featured a lab-grown diamond, according to the 2025 Real Weddings Study by The Knot.
- In the first quarter of 2025, an unbranded, round, 1-carat lab-grown diamond cost, on average, $845, according to Paul Zimnisky, a global diamond industry analyst. A similar natural diamond would cost about $3,895.
Here's what to know if you are shopping for an engagement ring.
More couples are saying "yes" to lab-grown diamonds.
In 2024, 52% of couples surveyed said their engagement ring featured a lab-grown diamond, according to the 2025 Real Weddings Study by The Knot. The popularity of lab-grown diamonds increased by 6% from last year and by 40% since 2019, the bridal site found.
Source: NBC, 10 March 2025
