The remarkable reversal of a product once poised to transform the luxury jewellery industry

Diamonds are forever. Their price tags, in some instances apparently, are not.

Beneath the glittering surface, the global diamond industry has quietly undergone a remarkable transformation in recent years.

Five years ago, a one-carat lab-grown diamond — or synthetic diamond, as the industry prefers to call them — sold for about $4000. Today, you can buy a comparable stone for about $400.

It’s a rather spectacular fall for a gemstone once marketed as the affordable, ethical answer to one of nature’s most coveted creations.

The statistics speak for themselves: according to a June report by diamond giant De Beers, wholesale prices of synthetic diamonds have plummeted a staggering 93 per cent since 2020.

The rise

Solid Gold Diamonds managing director Janelle Sapienza attributes lab-grown’s explosion in popularity to price.

Unlike natural diamonds, which form deep within the Earth over extraordinary periods of time, their laboratory-created counterparts are manufactured using technology that replicates the conditions in which diamonds develop.

Crucially, they’re chemically and physically diamonds, rather than imitation stones such as cubic zirconia.

During the early 2020s, Sapienza says, a one-carat natural diamond would sell for $9000, whereas synthetic alternatives were selling at the $3000 to $4000 mark (even though the cost was only $300-400) — a significant reduction in price.

For couples navigating increasingly expensive weddings, the appeal of lab-grown was obvious. Why settle for a modest solitaire when the same budget could secure a considerably larger stone?

Sustainability and ethical sourcing also became important selling points, with lab-grown diamonds frequently promoted as an environmentally conscious alternative to traditional mining.

But Sapienza questions how straightforward those claims really are.

“I think it was mainly price-driven, but there was a lot of misinformation about sustainability and ethical sourcing,” she says.

“Synthetic diamonds were promoted to be the green version of a natural mined diamond, but I think with time, as more transparency comes through, we see that’s not the case at all.”

The environmental comparison is complicated, with both mining and laboratory production carrying impacts that depend on how and where diamonds are produced.

The fall

Though lab-grown diamonds found an enthusiastic audience, as demand grew so did production and, as a result, value started to decline. Before long, the very technology that made diamonds more accessible would become their biggest financial downfall.

“We had Indian and Chinese manufacturers producing such large amounts of synthetic diamonds that the price per block of the synthetic dropped significantly,” Sapienza says.

“So it’s just a massive oversupply.”

And when supply can expand to meet demand, the traditional economics of scarcity begin to unravel.

Even the language used to sell these diamonds is changing.

In September, the World Jewellery Confederation, known as CIBJO, recommended that the term “synthetic” become the preferred international descriptor for manufactured diamonds, rather than “laboratory-grown” or “laboratory-created”.

Solid Gold has remained predominantly focused on natural diamonds, with synthetic stones representing less than one per cent of its business even at their peak. The jeweller does not hold synthetic diamonds in stock, although it will source them on request.

Nevertheless, Sapienza says the business has noticed an evident decline in customers seeking synthetic stones.

“We’ve noticed the decline in customers wanting these synthetic diamonds as well because they’re more aware of the actual price of them,” she says.

For Sapienza, synthetic diamonds were never quite the luxury proposition they were sometimes presented as.

“I don’t think they ever really had luxury status to begin with,” she says.

Au naturel

The enduring appeal of natural diamonds is about more than market fluctuations.

“As jewellers, we always look for a connection. We seek out items and treasures that are meaningful to us,” Sapienza explains.

“Jewellery is such a personal thing; it represents something special. And everyone wears jewellery for a different reason.”

She believes natural diamonds possess a particular significance because of their origins.

“Nature’s gifted us these natural diamonds over millions of years. They symbolise strength and longevity, and the value comes from the emotional connection we have with the jewellery, rather than any financial investment we put into that jewellery piece,” she says.

And nowhere is the significance of rarity and provenance more evident than in Western Australia’s own backyard.

Once responsible for producing more than 90 per cent of the world’s pink diamonds, the Argyle diamond mine in the East Kimberley ceased production in November 2020.

The closure transformed the remaining stones into an increasingly finite commodity, with their distinctive pink hues and WA heritage making them particularly coveted among collectors.

Solid Gold has been associated with the Argyle pink diamond program for more than three decades, and Sapienza says its collection of loose stones and finished jewellery now extends into the millions of dollars in value.

“They’re very highly prized, extremely rare, and West Australians are very patriotic,” she says.

“To have something that comes from our own home soil, to know that a lot of the people that we live and work around have worked to produce those diamonds, to recover them from the ground.

“The Argyle pink diamonds are very, very rare. Their colours are so unique you can’t find them anywhere else on Earth.”

The precious stones have recently entered another chapter, with mining giant Rio Tinto transferring ownership of the Argyle Pink Diamonds brand and its remaining inventory to British luxury jeweller Boodles in October.

For those lucky enough to own one, Sapienza says the stones can be treasured for generations.

“The people that were able to acquire a piece now have heirloom pieces that they can pass on,” she says.

Jewellery as art

Like Sapienza, Justin Linney, creative director of the Western Australian jewellery house that bears his family name, remains unshakably dedicated to the patient magic of the earth.

As synthetic alternatives flooded the market with promises of accessible scale and enticing margins, Linneys made a conscious choice to stick strictly to natural diamonds.

It was never just about market positioning — it was a matter of enduring value and artistic integrity.

“Finding a diamond under the earth is nature’s art, the fact that a diamond was formed by nature over a billion years ago makes it really special,” Linney explains, drawing a parallel to the world of fine art.

“In the same way you put your art on the wall, you put your jewellery on display in a different way. With a painting, you don’t have to buy an original — you can get a print for $200 instead of $5000 or $10,000 for an original. Both exist in the market, but when you’re investing in precious metal and the labour of an artist making it, you want natural diamonds.”

It’s meticulous craftsmanship that defines true fine jewellery, rather than mass-produced uniform pieces. And it’s the synthesis of natural rarity and human artistry that can elevate fine jewellery into something transcendent: a physical family heirloom.

“If you see your mum or your dad or anyone in your family wearing something for so long, I think the intrinsic value sort of outweighs the monetary value,” Linney says.

“If it was like a wad of cash of the same value — if there was a $10,000 piece of jewellery and they had $10,000 in the safe — if they give you the $10,000 piece of jewellery they’ve worn, that is special. There’s something about wearing it which gives it a different kind of value.”

And it is in that space where natural diamonds and precious metals meet with legacy that the decision lies in whether to purchase a lab-grown diamond or not.

“It was very tempting, but I guess we’re here for the long term,” Linney says of the decision to resist the lure of synthetic diamonds.

“I didn’t feel comfortable selling something that I knew someone would, in a few years time, come in to get a re-evaluation done, then I’d have to tell them it’s gone backwards.”

For jewellery lovers, the decision they make has become increasingly consequential as the price of lab-grown diamonds has tumbled.

Some early adopters have been left holding stones worth a fraction of what they originally paid.

But, despite not working with them himself, Linney believes there is room for both in the market and that the emotional significance of a piece of jewellery isn’t diminished by the provenance of its stones.

“I think it is up to people to decide what’s important to them,” he says.

“For some people it matters and some people it doesn’t.”

“At Solid Gold Diamonds we create emotional pieces,” Sapienza adds. “We pride ourselves on our design and craftsmanship. Whether a client chooses a natural diamond or a synthetic diamond, our focus remains on crafting special pieces that honour celebrated occasions.”

For Linney, though, there is only one choice. The value of a piece of jewellery lies not just in how it looks today, but in what it represents, the hands that have made it and the generations that may, one day, inherit it.