The changing diamond market: How laboratory diamonds are changing the industry

Laboratory diamonds: luxury for everyone?

Laboratory diamonds (lab-grown diamonds, LGD) are - contrary to what you might think - not cheap stones, but bear the properties of natural diamonds, as the production imitates the growth process.

Originally, LGDs were developed for various industrial applications such as drill heads, cutting and polishing equipment as a substitute for stones without gemstone quality. Since then, however, LGDs have also established themselves in the consumer jewelry market, where technological progress in terms of quality and stone size continues to progress.

Synthetic diamonds have several advantages for prospective buyers. In terms of price, they are significantly below the level of natural diamonds. Because LGDs can now be grown in just a few hours, while natural stones take billions of years. The range of laboratory diamonds is correspondingly large, while natural gemstones have to be mined with great effort and are therefore rare and expensive. LGDs were already sold in 2018 at a price discount of 20 percent compared to natural diamonds, while the Prices are even 80 percent lower today.

In addition to the cost factor, another advantage of artificial diamonds is that their origin is much easier to trace than that of mined diamonds. Since synthetic diamonds do not require large quantities of soil to be moved and there are potentially problematic working practices along the value chain, LGDs are seen as more ethical by many buyers.

However, the conventional diamond industry has been working for over 20 years with the Kimberley process established a process that certifies the origin of the mined stones and significantly complicates unethical trade. In addition, the production of laboratory diamonds is very energy-intensive — and therefore not as sustainable and ethically correct as some buyers assume.

Due to the price advantages, the Market share of laboratory-grown diamonds However, the entire diamond market has grown steadily in recent years and, according to forecasts, will account for ten percent of the global diamond market by 2030.

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Natural diamonds are more price-stable than LGDs

The growth of synthetic diamonds is causing a decline in the price of natural diamonds, which, however, has been lower in recent years than that of LGDs. The market analysis company Tenoris tracks diamond prices in more than 2,000 stores in the USA and confirms this development: The average price of a single-carat natural diamond peaked at 6,819 dollars in May 2022 and fell to 4,997 dollars in December 2024, which represents a decline of 26.7%. By contrast, the price of a laboratory-grown diamond fell from 3,410 dollars in January 2020 to just 892 dollars in December, which represents a decline of 73.8%.

Since they prefer the value of natural diamonds, many major jewelers, such as the Wempe Group, refuse to include synthetic stones in their range. Swiss brands Chopard and Bucherer also only offer natural diamonds, which represent a much better investment.

This is because synthetic diamonds cannot be regarded as a substitute for natural diamonds, but as an alternative that only closes the price gap between expensive, natural and cheap stones for jewelry. When it comes to investment, natural diamonds are more valuable because their availability is limited. Laboratory diamonds, on the other hand, can be produced indefinitely, which reduces their long-term (second) market value.

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“Fancy” diamonds are rising in price against the trend

Despite the rise of laboratory diamonds, so-called fancy diamonds — i.e. naturally coloured diamonds — remain largely unaffected by market changes and have even risen in price in recent years. In particular, “pink fancy color diamonds” rose significantly in price between 2022 and 2024. Their rarity and unique coloring make fancy diamonds still sought after collectibles and investments with fascinating beauty.

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