In 1947 De Beers, the diamond industry kingpin, famously started their advertising slogan “A Diamond is Forever.” In 1953, Marilyn Monroe famously performed her version of “Diamonds Are A Girl’s Best Friend.” Since these days now gone diamonds have been ingrained in our culture as a symbol of love, status, and beauty. Ladies, look at yourselves right now, do you have diamonds on? Men, are your ladies wearing diamonds today? My fiancé sure is. The wonderful, talented, and beautiful Sheconomist has a ring from her grandmother, earrings from me, and a big engagement ring purchased just a few months ago, that’s from me too.
Despite diamonds being merely compressed carbon atoms, we value them highly in this society. They are expensive, with high-end single carets fetching as much as $10,000. If you’re anything like me you value material possessions, if you deny it you’re only lying to yourself. Diamonds are the ultimate material possession, but for many they are out of reach. A basic diamond engagement ring can set you back a few thousand dollars, and most of that expense comes from the center stone. What do we do when we can’t afford the real thing? We buy knock-offs.
The cubic zirconia is a fantastic diamond imitator, but it is not a diamond. But thanks to modern science we can now make our own diamonds. Remember the brilliant little stones are compressed carbon atoms, and we do have a compressor to do it. For years synthetic diamonds have been “grown” in labs. Not only are they pretty, but diamonds are used in drills, knives, glass cutters, and even scissors. Diamonds are very strong stones and are put to good use whenever industrial cutting of any kind is needed. Only recently has the growing process evolved enough to make “gem-quality” stones; they are called synthetic diamonds.
Synthetic diamonds are indistinguishable from regular diamonds because they are actually diamonds! Recently, synthetics have begun to make inroads into the jewelry industry. There aren’t many out there yet, but they’re much cheaper to produce than natural diamonds are to mine and so there is a big potential market for any business getting in early. Had I known about them last year when I bought my engagement ring I might have at least gotten my fiancé’s thoughts on it.
And there-in lies the problem. I wouldn’t dare buy a synthetic diamond for my fiancé without first checking to see if it was OK. She wants the real thing mined out of the ground because something just doesn’t feel right about diamonds “grown” in a lab, and I can’t disagree with her. De Beers knows this too. They’ve developed a tool that will identify what diamonds are mined and which are grown. On top of that, they’re planning on tagging their product so everyone knows the real thing is real. De Beers has not let up on marketing since 1947; an advertising campaign is no doubt in the works to stop these synthetic diamonds in their Petri dishes.
We live in a world where knock-off Rolex’s work just as well as the real ones, a dozen fake Coach hand bags are the price of the real one, and Starbucks coffee is no better than McDonald’s. Yet knock-offs and supplemental products have yet to make a dent at all in the products or industry they seek to copy. Despite the value offered by these alternatives, you just can’t take your eyes off the “real thing.”
So what do you think? Are synthetic diamonds acceptable in a materialistic society or am I doomed to a life of “genuine” tennis bracelets and diamond pendants?
Photo: rogerbarker
 By The Weakonomist |
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Said,
Said,
I think that “synthetic” diamonds will be used more and more as time goes on. As consumers become more aware of the social implications that go into buying a diamond other alternatives will become more viable. Whether this be buying diamonds from Canada or ones grown in a lab, I think people will try to avoid practices that may put other people’s lives in danger. (I’m not saying it’s morally wrong to buy mined diamonds; it’s just hard to make sure you’re not funding terrorism or slavery).
What De Beers is doing now is marketing the story. This is used to sell all kinds of higher margin items from milk to cars. Personally, I don’t buy into it. Scientifically there isn’t a quality issue so I’m sure to buy these knock-off real diamonds.