Surat (Gujarat) [India] : Pandora, the world’s largest diamond jewellery brand based in Copenhagen is giving sleepless nights to the diamantaires in the world’s largest diamond cutting and polishing centre in Surat. Pandora has announced the launch of the lab-created diamond jewellery in the U.S and Canada, as the company will no longer use mined diamonds.
Pandora is not the lone player to enter into the lab-grown diamond jewellery segment. Many renowned jewellery brands in the U.S—U.S is the largest export market for the diamonds manufactured in Surat–such as Signet Jewelers, which owns Zales, Kay Jewelers and Jared, Tiffany etc., have also forayed into the lab-created diamond jewellery segment to tap the ever-increasing demand from the millennials in the U.S.
The lab-created diamonds have the same “optical, chemical, thermal and physical characteristics” of a mined diamond and are graded by the same standards known as the 4Cs: cut, color, clarity and carat.A 1-carat engagement ring with a lab-grown diamond can cost 60% less than a 1-carat natural diamond ring.
According to Edahn Golan, a diamond industry analyst and founder of Edahn Golan Diamond Research and Data, about 4.7% of the specialty diamond jewelry market in the United States is represented by lab-grown diamonds. That figure is up a whopping 34% from 2020.
“The future of luxury is here today. Lab-created diamonds are just as beautiful as mined diamonds, but available to more people and with lower carbon emissions. We are proud to broaden the diamond market and offer innovative jewellery that sets a new standard for how the industry can reduce its impact on the planet,” said Pandora CEO Alexander Lacik.
The global diamond jewellery market is estimated at US$84 billion. The market is expected to continue to grow, and lab-created diamonds are outpacing the industry’s overall growth. The U.S. is the world’s largest diamond jewellery market
To further reduce the climate impact of the jewellery, it is the first Pandora collection crafted with 100% recycled silver and gold. This brings greenhouse gas emissions of the collection’s entry product – a silver ring with a 0.15-carat lab-created diamond (US$300) – down to 2.7 kg CO2e, which is equal to the average emissions of a t-shirt. The flagship product – a one-carat lab-created diamond set in a 14k solid gold ring (US$1950) – has a footprint of 10.4kg CO2e, which is less than the average emissions of a pair of jeans.
