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Lab-grown diamond rings now make up over half of engagement sales for London jeweller
Post Date: 04 Jul 2022 Viewed: 279
A London-based jeweller has claimed that lab-grown diamond rings now account for more than half of its engagement ring sales.
The turnaround saw lab-grown diamond rings go from accounting for only 1% of engagement ring sales in 2019 to now making up 53% in 2022.
“Although there is still a huge demand for natural diamonds, the gap in demand for lab [versus] natural diamonds is closing,” the jeweller claimed in a press release.
The Hatton Garden-based Queensmith believes that there a number of factors in the rapidly rising popularity of lab-grown stones among consumers.
These include the lower price point and the added environmental benefits. “When looking at a 1-2ct diamond, lab diamonds can typically be up to 75-80% cheaper than natural diamonds,” the jeweller claimed.
This is particularly important to consumers during the current cost-of-living crisis.
On the topic of the product’s touted sustainability benefits, the jeweller added: “Far less land is used in lab diamond creation than in mining, and choosing a lab diamond diminishes the possibilities of choosing a blood diamond.
“Although lab diamonds take a lot of energy to create, this is something lab diamond creators are constantly working on, shortening the length of time and amount of resource needed to create each diamond.
“More and more lab diamonds on the market are being produced with renewable energy – such as solar power.
“Overall, lab diamonds are regarded as far more sustainable than mined diamonds. The extent of their sustainability is predicted to increase as technologies are perfected, to become more efficient and less consumptive.”
Only now, though, are customers beginning to learn that the two products are chemically identical, which the jeweller believes is behind the recent uptick in sales.
Laura Suttie, gemmologist and design expert at Queensmith, stated: “In 2019, engagement sales for lab-grown diamonds accounted for just 1% of our sales. In 2022 however, we’ve seen a huge spike in demand for lab-grown diamonds, which now account for 53% of our engagement ring sales.”
Source Professional Jeweller
