They sparkle and have something mystical about them: diamonds that will be formed in the earth in billions of years.
It's also cheaper, in a few weeks in the laboratory.
Synthetic diamonds are increasingly in demand.
Pforzheim - When Marilyn Monroe praised her passion for jewelery brilliants in a film in 1953, the matter was still clear: "Diamonds are a girl's best friend" - the allegedly "best friends" of the girls came from deep inside the earth.
Today things look different: diamonds can now be produced in the laboratory in jewelery quality that are in no way inferior to the originals in terms of sparkling.
While the production of natural diamonds is declining, the market for laboratory gemstones is booming, with double-digit growth rates per year.
Valuable diamonds are often given away for engagement as a symbol of eternal loyalty.
In many cases, the promise does not keep - is the precious stone now losing its value too?
Synthetic diamonds are on average 40 percent cheaper than those that come from the earth.
Gateway for deception?
"Synthetic diamonds - a huge topic for us," says Guido Grohmann, General Manager of the Federal Association of Jewelry and Watches, of the German Press Agency.
"This market has been conquered here for nine months, suppliers pop up like mushrooms in autumn," he says.
"There is real money in the market and it is not always advertised with fair methods."
"I am very worried that the door will be opened to consumer deception," says the managing director of the jeweler Fridrich in Munich, Stephan Lindner.
“It's like pearls: there is the natural product that grows in an oyster or shell, and the cultured pearl.
You have to clearly mark that. "
Sigurd Greb sees the matter quite relaxed. He is the managing director of the Diamant Agentur company in Oberursel, which trades in real and synthetic diamonds and makes jewelry. The demand for synthetic diamonds is growing. "In the laboratory you can make colored diamonds that are very rare," he says. "Otherwise they would be unaffordable for average consumers."
Diamonds are created over billions of years under immense pressure and temperatures of over 1000 degrees in the earth's interior.
They are extracted in mines.
Synthetic variants have been used in industry for decades.
But it has only been possible to produce jewelry quality for a few years now.
For this purpose, crystals are produced in machines, which are attached to diamond fragments and allow them to grow into large gemstones.
Both types can only be differentiated with special equipment.
Big changes in the market
The prices for rough diamonds have been falling - with fluctuations - since 2011. In 2019 they fell by seven percent, in 2020 by eleven percent, as the management consultancy Bain & Company writes. Production has decreased from 152 to 111 million carats last year since the peak in 2017. In contrast, laboratory diamonds have seen double-digit growth rates since 2018, to six to seven million carats last year. The largest producers are China with around three million carats and the USA with one million carats.
The real jewelry manufacturers do not have a problem with competition, asserts Grohmann. But the marketing worries him: “Consumers are being suggested that they are buying something of value.” Unlike natural diamonds, however, laboratory diamonds are infinitely reproducible. "The person who chooses a synthetic diamond walks out of the store and has a stone with zero resale value."
Jewelers get annoyed when laboratory diamonds are brought to men and women as socially acceptable, sustainable and clean.
An example: "High quality, environmentally friendly, conflict-free, inexpensive" is how a provider advertises online.
They pollute neither the environment nor nature and are free from political and economic conflicts.
The diamond image was also scratched by the 2006 US thriller "Blood Diamond".
It deals with the longstanding problem that armed militias in Africa finance their dirty wars by exploiting diamond mines.
The problem has been solved, diamonds are traded with a certificate of origin, says Grohmann.
Which diamonds are more environmentally friendly?
And when it comes to environmental compatibility: “Nonsense when you consider how much energy is needed to produce synthetic diamonds.” The Natural Diamond Council, whose seven members represent 75 percent of rough diamond production, claims to have found that natural diamonds are per carat greenhouse gas emissions are three times lower than in the production of laboratory diamonds.
But there is no independent analysis.
Sigurd Greb, who sells pieces of jewelry with laboratory diamonds, says: “You cannot compare a diamond that has grown over billions of years with a stone that was grown in the laboratory in four to eight weeks.” There is demand for both.
“They're just completely different products,” he says.
"Both natural and laboratory-grown diamonds have a legitimate place in the market," says Stephen Morisseau of the US Gemological Institute (GIA). It has developed the criteria by which gemstones are judged: Carat (weight), Color (color), Clarity (purity), Cut (cut quality). However, the origin of the diamonds must be revealed. That is in the interest of the precious jewelry industry, which wants to differentiate itself from cheap competition.
Juwelier Fridrich in Munich only sells synthetic diamonds when customers ask for them, and "provided I can clearly explain the differences to them," says Lindner. “In terms of our clientele, we rely on tradition and classical music, and we wouldn't advertise synthetic diamonds.” After all, there is something mystical about a diamond that has been in the earth for billions of years. dpa
