Cultured diamonds are coming
This article at Wired about the emergence of “cultured diamonds” is cool not only in the “this is gonna revolutionize computing as we know it!” sense, but also in the “chock full of conspiratorial undertones” sense. Interesting reading.
bret:
so ladies, would you accept a cultured diamond over a “real” one?
August 15, 2003, 1:07 amGM Tarkin:
Remember girls, his love isn’t real unless he’s giving you a “conflict” diamond that a 4 year old girl’s hands have been chopped off for!
- Brought to you by the DeBeer’s Diamond Consortium
August 16, 2003, 12:31 pmGM Tarkin:
On a less offensive note, perhaps this will lead to a more sensible situtation where an engagement offering is the downpayment on a house mortgage or investment as well as a soon-to-be-affordable ring.
August 16, 2003, 12:35 pmfu:
This is quite an interesting article. Techinically speaking, a diamond is a diamond. But the ramifications of how inexpensive diamonds will get, and the laws of supply and demand… *shudder*
De Beers, currently owners of the greatest advertising campaign in history, will be usurped by one that will be even greater! “Fake” rocks will rule! How ironic!
Think about it; we pay lots of money for the bling-bling. As a girl, I’d have to say, the shinier the better. I don’t care whether it’s been baking in the earth or vaporizing in a can. It serves as a symbolic gesture and nothing more.
But with the imminent collapse of the shiny rock industry, please make my engagement a supercomputer of the future! I’d bet all my diamonds on Moore’s law will prevail.
August 18, 2003, 2:01 pmV:
Innnttteeerreeessttiinngg……BUT in a few years, diamonds will be the cheapest stone out there. They are over priced as is, but thats b/c of the marketing strategy.
But diamonds are always a girls bestfriend eh? Whether it is cultured or not. Diamonds are forever…De Beers will always run the Diamonds….they are cruel!!!! heheh…..ok, i need some sleep…
August 18, 2003, 2:13 pmNick Gisburne:
For De Beers, the real crash in their markets will begin when the patented processes for making cultured diamonds expire. Then EVERYONE will be able to make diamonds. Just as the clock is ticking on Viagra for Pfizer, the same time limits are on these and all patents. In 20 years time expect to be able to buy a machine to make your OWN diamonds - already the article explains that the existing machines cost just over $50,000. In 20 years time diamonds will be mass-produced and have little value, and that is the reality facing De Beers.
August 27, 2003, 3:40 pmdondoe:
De Beers should be closed and the execs placed in prison. One thing is certain, perfect synthetics over time will dilute the market and accomplish the former.
September 3, 2003, 1:53 pmdeath to debeer:
Debeers BLOOD diamonds soon won’t be worth a thing!!!
GO CULTURED!
September 5, 2003, 12:04 amSusanna Sakolsk:
Has anyone realized WHY cultured diamonds have come of “age”? Perhaps with millions of these positive charge electromagnetic multifaceted stones available, the vibrational level of this planet may be lifted enough to get us out of this cave -man mentality, and into an age of enlightenment.
September 8, 2003, 11:00 amLilia Noreiga:
I would like to know more about these comp.gems. where can I see them, where can I buy them !!!!!.
Thanks for the ultimate imformation regarding the Gems of the Future…
September 10, 2003, 7:06 pmjay1:
Natural diamonds have retained their popularity because of the one thing that these mass produced diamond makers can never say, no diamond created is identical and the rarity of natural diamonds is what continues to drive its value in the market. I’m not sure that anyone knowingly will pay thousands of dollars for a product that does not have any rare or special values associated to it. This is why diamonds have remained top rate for years. The resale value and trade-in for these stones will ever compete with natural stones. Natural diamonds are viewed as family heirlooms to many and I can’t see someone passing a mass produced stone to their children or grandchildren. Diamonds to the true admirers will always be natural and I would imagine that no women would want to feel that the ring, which symbolizes their bond, looks like thousands of others being worn by people all over. I would think they would at least want their life long partner to think more of them then just a better deal!!
November 1, 2003, 12:33 amMike:
My fiance has told me to hold off buying a ring until the Apollo diamonds are available. She say’s “A diamond is a diamond no matter where it was made” I hope all the women out there are that sensible.
November 5, 2003, 9:18 amdreama:
I am a wholesale jewelry distributor. WHERE CAN i see and buy the Apollo diamonds?
November 11, 2003, 9:45 pmJesse:
I want to ask the question, “Where can I SEE them? Where can I BUY them?”
Here is some links:
Gemesis Cultured Diamonds Home Page
http://gemesis.com/
Apollo Diamonds Home Page
http://www.apollodiamond.com/
Gemesis list of Wholesale and Retail Partners:
http://gemesis.com/where.htm
Hope that helps!
December 18, 2003, 4:06 pmJC:
I have something to say to the person who says that diamonds are rare. YOU ARE WRONG.
Look at everyone’s fingers.
Diamonds are a manipulated commodity.
Look at the precious metals markets withthe eye of an economist and youwill see what i mean.
If only we can make gold or silver out of lead…….
December 23, 2003, 4:20 pmMelissa:
I just looked at the website and can’t wait to really buy the cultured diamond, but I am a little surprised to see the price they still want for them. If a machine that can make them only costs $50,000 how can 1 carat cost $5,000. That is still too high now that we now they are being mass produced and how cheaply it’s done. I personally don’t want to see Gemesis become the new DeBeers!!!!
January 14, 2004, 7:06 pmjplang:
Gemesis will likely undercut deBeers by 50% untill the patent runs out. Then, as soon as the quality is on a level playing field, everyone will undercut them. This is only gemstone market. The real differentiation will be industrial and computer application. Look for companies like Gemesis to try for longer term contracts and differentiation in meeting specific product needs in this space to capture market share and reputation as the cultured diamond leader to essentially become the default choice similar to how IBM was in the early computer markets.
January 16, 2004, 10:07 amjames:
i’m hoping the entire overseas diamond cartel collapses in a decade, but i doubt they’ll go easily. the FTC is already making Gemesis label their diamonds with microscopic inscriptions stating “Cultured Diamond” or something.
personally, i’d like to see somebody triple the size of the plasma chambers used to make the diamonds. you could have a diamond 5 times the size of the Hope Diamond! rap videos will never be the same!
January 20, 2004, 3:00 amPadraig:
I’m in Vancouver BC and I’m currently holding 25,000 cultured diamonds. I’ve showed them to one girl after another (including my mother) and whatever misconceptions they had about wearing these stones (that they might have had before) disappeared when they saw them. They are absolutely gorgeous. Ladies, don’t look at this as an engagement rock. It’s fashion.
January 29, 2004, 1:13 amHonestly, your boyfriend or husband would dump his savings to buy you a piddly little white diamond pendant. My diamonds have been gemologist graded as FL, and D-E colour, and 2-4 carats. They are terribly affordable and brilliant.
Paul:
Found an excellent source for these synthetic diamonds:
http://www.diamonddreamstore.com/syntheticDiamonds.htm
Just purchased a 49-point 1b yellow IF clarity stone. Price is reasonable and the diamond is a real beauty.
January 29, 2004, 8:19 amSJ:
I am COMPLETELY for a synthetic diamond in my engagement ring!
January 29, 2004, 2:39 pmDon’t hand me that “It will be handed down for years to come” and “Each stone is unique” nonsense. Like new cars, diamonds instantly lose value the moment you take it out of the store. Ask any little old lady who’s tried to sell her ring in attempt to make ends meet- her stone won’t fetch even HALF of what the same stone would get in the jewelry store down the street. Why? Because DeBeers makes money off of SELLING their inflated diamonds. The last thing they want is a resale market of diamonds infringing on that artificial scarcity.
Diamonds are a form of mineral that, due to lack of technology, were hard to find and refine at one point in history. Guess what? So was SALT! (Roman centurions were actually paid in salt.)
I resent a bunch of rich guys twiddling markets and putting out ad campaigns aimed at trying to make me feel that a falsely priced rock is the only way my darling can “really” show his love. Pah! I’d rather have a pretty cultured diamond and money in our bank account (instead or theirs!) any old time!
Paul:
This is for Padraig.
Hate to tell you this, but white “D” color synthetic diamonds that size aren’t made yet. What you have there are simulants, not synthetic diamonds.
This is one of the difficulties I encountered when trying to locate genuine cultured diamonds. Many sellers misuse “synthetic” instead of “simulant”. There’s also a lot of double-talk. Even ran into one seller calling a zircon a diamond. Very misleading, to say the least.
I found that, in order to determine what is actually being sold, the best question to ask is “what is the hardness?” There are simulants out there that will indeed cut glass, and they can have a hardness (on the Mohs scale) of up to 9.5. A real diamond has a hardness of 10. (Incidentally, the Mohs scale is relative. a diamond is actually four times harder than a material with a hardness of 9.)
Hope that helps for those people trying to find a genuine synthetic diamond.
January 30, 2004, 8:36 amCato:
Perhaps I can inform everyone a bit more. I’m a law student studying the industry in order to assess the international ramifications of this new alchemy.
First, remember that both Gemesis and Apollo are for the time voluntarily labeling their diamonds with laser inscriptions. You cannot go buy a fake diamond that would pass as real. Not yet. It would be criminal. But undetectable crimes seem to be the most difficult to solve. That’s what this is all about.
Now, Gemesis will have small effect on the industry because their product is easily distinguishable through current testing methods. Unlabeled fake diamonds will be tested and caught before market. This happens already to make sure other types of fake diamond are not fraudulently sold as naturals. Therefore, the fear of destroying the trade is nil because all diamond labs have the technology to test for impurity. Gemesis’s technology isn’t new, per se. It has been around for ages; all you do is extrude carbon from a machine at enormously high pressure. Gemesis just does it much cheaper.
Apollo, on the other hand, is a bombshell.
Unlike Gemesis, Apollo uses a technique that condenses gaseous carbon rather than extrudes it. The result is perfection for the process perfectly mirrors the earth’s natural processes. To my knowledge,no currently available test identifies these diamonds.
Apollo voluntarily labels its product with the same laser inscribing process used by Gemesis. For now.
Apollo is venturing into the diamond market not for the gem jewelry industry, but for semiconductors. Just a quick review on diamond’s properties: hardest stuff known; perfect electrical insulator; only slight expansion when heated; highest thermal conductivity of anything known–this is where silicon fails; transparent to all UV, infrared, and visible light; nearly inert to all acids and bases. In short, the perfect semiconductor. Light years ahead. Hold on to your hats my friends. I’m talking the condensed knowledge of the world now available on one CD.
If you’re interested, the Tom Brokaw of the diamond industry conducted interviews with Gemesis and Apollo. Also, the Gemological Institute of America issued a statement on Apollo diamonds that confirms my suspicions about the state of the trade.
http://www.gcis.ca/cdne-376-jan-03-2003.html
February 15, 2004, 10:51 amhttp://www.rapaport.com/news/newsitem.asp?num=8630&type=all&topic=all
http://www.rapaport.com/news/newsitem.asp?num=8629&type=all&topic=all
http://www.gia.org/gemsandgemology/18578/18935/2072/back_issue_article_detail.cfm
shell:
I was wondering if anyone could please tell me where I can fimd an apollo diamond. I only found links from Gemesis. Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks
March 2, 2004, 10:21 pmblac-einstien:
i thank you for making something so special so affordable
March 6, 2004, 10:52 pmspung:
According to the GIA website, Apollo diamonds will be commercially produced in 2004. They also estimate a stone as large as a carat may be available by the end of 2004.
March 13, 2004, 10:29 pmLisa:
I’m all for the lab grown diamonds!! Bring them on. Debeers is in trouble and he knows it. Where can I get an Apollo diamond? And has Gemesis started making clear diamonds?? This middle class girl with high class taste wants a wedding ring with size and sparkle just like the rich girls!!!
March 15, 2004, 1:29 amshep:
I really would like to buy an Apollo CVD Diamond to get engaged but I don’t want to wait until the end of the year. Help!!!
April 19, 2004, 10:51 pmsofie:
where can i get apollo-is it clear?? how big???? who can I call
July 28, 2004, 3:37 pmMike:
I have been looking with zero success for an Apollo vendor. All my Email attemps to contact them are replied to with a form letter. What happened to them? Did Debeers do them in? Buy them out?
October 4, 2004, 1:52 pmlamonte:
Cultured diamonds are great! You simply get more bang for your hard earned buck. Have you ever wondered where your chicken came from? It’s breed to be more lean and produce more meat in a shorter amount of time; but you still eat it, don’t you? Lets take high-end watches for example. A Rolex watch can cost 50k or more just to tell time! Timex makes watches for $30 bucks and they tell time more acurately than the mechanical ones. 9 o’clock on the Rolex is 9 o’clock on the Timex. So what’s the problem? Those people who can drop thousands for a watch will always buy those types of watches. Timex isn’t worried about Rolex or any other company stealing their customers. The two types of companies have different clientele.The same principle applies here, these stones will not destroy the diamond market; on the contrary, they will offer yet another option to the public. Who needs to pay 20k per carat for a D flawless round brilliant when they can get it for less than half the price. DeBeers is just scared to death of what they think will happen; their customers might do their own research and decide that their monopoly on the industry should come to an end. By the way, DeBeers keeps diamonds prices high by holding back distribution of millions of stones, much like those Darn Arabs with our oil. The perception of scarcity and intrincsic value of mined diamonds is what they want us to believe.
This is part of a quote from a article which interviewed the presidents of Apollo Diamonds and Gemesis, Inc. It appeared at http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/11.09/diamond_pr.html
“Jim Butler is the head of a project known as Code 6174 - the Navy’s diamond research arm, which is housed in a guarded facility outside Washington, DC. A civilian scientist, Butler has been been researching CVD diamond and semiconducting for the military for 16 years… There have been three long-standing roadblocks to diamond semiconducting - and each of them appears to be on the verge of falling. First, diamond is viewed as wildly expensive, due to the artificial scarcity that De Beers maintains with its lock on the market. Synthesized diamonds created outside of the cartel will greatly reduce that problem.”
Information is DeBeers worst enemy!!!
October 20, 2004, 3:38 amTom:
I was thinking of buying my wife a 25th anniversary diamond ring but this “disruptive technology” has thoughly screwed up those plans.
Not knowing where diamond values are going makes me reluctant to spend a serious amount of money on a natural diamond. I think I’ll still buy her something nice (jewelery) but just put the diamond on hold. This is really too bad. In the past you just bought the (overpriced) diamond and moved on. NOW I’ll actually have to be thoughtful.
Seriously, I think that we will continue to give expensive, largely symbolic gifts to one another. But I suspect that the cultured diamond phenomon may change that social patten somewhat.
November 14, 2004, 1:24 amchris:
I’m completely stoked about Apollo’s release, and I surely hope that it has a devastating impact upon De Beers. I was shocked at the price of natural diamonds after shopping for an engagement ring…5.5K for a medium quality, 1carat stone. Forget it! I’ll take my platinum wedding set that ran me $1,700 and place a nice 1 carat Apollo in it for much less. If she isn’t thrilled about the ring and the Hawiian vacation that comes along with it then I say, “Wish you well”
December 1, 2004, 2:39 amLisa:
I’ve been following the comments and news concerning ‘lab created’ diamonds, it’s a very interesting concept and has the potential to be a lucrative one. DeBeers or any other diamond conglomerate cannot control the public’s demand unless we allow them too. Now, I don’t claim to completely understand or know the scientific or political aspects but if it’s true how they are created then they are truly real. Just the location of their growth is different, above rather than below ground and if it’s indeed true that any human being is being exploited or harmed working in/for diamond mines then I wonder what the debate is over? Real + save lives = A very good idea. For me it’s kind of like the food industry, we don’t hunt down or farm our own food anymore, we buy it made and most times genetically enginneered….does that make it any less ‘real’? I am sure the debate will go on but for me, I’ll take the ‘lab created’…
December 6, 2004, 9:18 amLisa:
Oh, yes……where can I find these diamonds???? I checked the Apollo site and Gemesis only offers yellow to orange. Also, anyone know if their publicly traded?
December 6, 2004, 9:21 amhomer:
i have been following Apollo for quite some time but cannot find any information about when they will being selling them. it was supposed to be Christmas 2003, then Valentines Day 2004, and now I hear 2005 some time….
December 6, 2004, 11:44 amtim:
I think the articles that have mentioned these diamonds were being a little too hopeful at this point. All the research I’ve done tells me these diamonds are not ready in the white “engagement” style…. yet. No one seems to be able to say if they will ever be ready.
January 19, 2005, 4:51 pmPlatinumsmith:
They are not yet making commercial quality diamonds.
They are still only able to make small ‘included’ brown ones.
I suppose they will one day, but it will decades before they can do it cheaply. If they do make even 1 good diamond it will be all over the news don’t worry.
I am tired of the debeers scare stories. They provide stability in the market. Oil supply is overseen by OPEC not the Arabs. Diamonds are expensive because they are rare and people want the best ones. The prices will go up not down.
That article was pure fiction.
January 25, 2005, 12:36 pmMike:
Who are you? A Debeers spokesperson? Diamonds are not rare. They are a controlled commodity. The price may go up due to market manipulation, but it is only a matter of time until gem quality man made diamonds are available to the general public. I have seen pictures and a lab report from a man made stone. The stone was a D color. That is a long way from brown.
January 28, 2005, 9:09 amSwarthout:
A few points:
First: Who Runs OPEC? Not Europeans, or Aisians, and certainly not Americans…
Second: Gemesis offeers links to several web and brick-and-mortar shops, which sell their diamonds. I do not know about Apollo, as they are shockingly reticent on that. They say the sell them, in colors of blue, light pink, and black. They just don’t say where.
Third: A possible future for Heirlooms in synthetic diamonds can be found here:
January 28, 2005, 10:06 amhttp://www.lifegem.com/
These people will render ashes into graphite (Pure carbon) , and then using what looks to be the Gemesis method, turn the remains of your loved one into a Diamond of up to a carat.
If companies are licensing the Tech, andmaking fringe businesses like this one.. I’d say that “Cultured” Diamonds are more than stories that DeBeers Execs use to scare their children.
Shelley:
It seems as if some people are buying white synthetic diamonds out there (one guy said he paid $1700). I went to the one diamondstore site and got the run around. I’m a little wary of the the simulant versus synthetic distinction. I don’t want to buy something on-line that isn’t synthetic and pay that rate for a simulant.
But, all that said, I refuse to buy a natural diamond. DeBeers needs to be shut down regardless of whether I can find an alternative. I think 90% of American women have no idea what a DeBeers diamond really means.
February 14, 2005, 11:22 pm