The global love affair with diamonds wasn’t an accident. It was advertising wizardry. Cut to today. Diamonds are no longer just mined – they’re manufactured. Lab grown diamonds, with the same sparkle, same carbon structure, and near-identical properties, are challenging everything the industry once held sacred.
The twist? They cost less, are ethically cleaner, and easier on the planet.
The shift is inevitable: from “Diamonds are Forever” to “Diamonds are for Everyone.”
The Consumer Shift
US: The world’s largest market is seeing rapid adoption, especially by first-time buyers. Why pay more when the “lab tag” disappears the moment the lights dim at a cocktail party?
India: With traditionally modest diamond consumption, affordability is sparking disruption. First-time buyers will almost certainly go lab grown.
Weddings: Once the last fortress of naturals, are crumbling. Brides are saying “I do” with lab solitaires.
Celebrities & HNIs: For them, jewellery is fashion, not forever. They wear it, swap it, and no one dares ask whether it’s mined or made. Prestige lies in perception.
Purist arguments about heirlooms are fading. History already wrote this story: natural pearls, once royal treasures, were dethroned by cultured pearls. Kokichi Mikimoto invented the process; China scaled it. Today, natural pearls survive only in museums.
Legacy Players in Denial
The giants still polish the old tune: “Naturals are best.” That’s the same chorus Kodak sang about film until digital conquered 95% of movies.
Some incumbents hedge bets with lab brands, but history suggests disruptors rarely come from within. The real innovators are unshackled new entrants.
The Polisher’s Predicament
Surat, the world’s polishing hub, won’t go dark. Stones – mined or man-made – still need finishing. But thinner margins loom.
The tragedy? Despite controlling supply, most polishers never built brands. They stayed transactional – polishing for cash while global players and big corporates captured value through storytelling. They risk missing the brand bus again.
The Bottom Line
Lab grown diamonds are not a fad. They are disruption in motion, history on repeat. Natural diamonds won’t vanish overnight, but their dominance will fade – just as pearls moved from crowns to cabinets.
The sparkle of the future lies not in the mines, but in the labs. And while legacy players polish yesterday’s glory, new entrants are quietly writing tomorrow’s playbook.
Museums will always have a place for naturals. The market, however, may not.
P.S.
Thank you Hemant Desai for organising an engaging session on this topic at Concept Investwell Pvt. Ltd. last Saturday that triggered me to write this post.
Would you like me to polish this further into a blog/article style (with subheadings + smoother flow) so it looks more professional on your website?