The DeBeers marketing is still effective and most (US at least) women still want them for their romantic authenticity. I suspect this will be unpopular, but I know many of my married buddies would likely not be if they had insisted and held firm that a lab grown diamond is just as good. Doctors, lawyers, tech guys.
> “People don’t buy Swiss watches to tell the time,” he said. “Apple probably sells more watches than the entire Swiss watch industry but does that matter if they’ve grown during that period?”<p>Exactly. That diamonds are expensive is almost the entire point. If it becomes possible to buy artificial diamond rings for like $50, the tradition will disappear entirely. People will find some other signaling act.
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“The underlying concern is that we are walking towards a bloodbath in lab-grown diamonds,” said Richard Chetwode, managing director of RCC Diamond Consultants.
----<p>That's.. quite a choice of words.
Good riddance. There's no longer even any practical use for an expensive engagement ring anyway since breach of promise suits no longer exist. Not a good investment for a young couple setting out.
I bought a pair of 7mm diamonds that are said to be made with chemical vapor deposition. They're very nice and very cheap, at least relative to the mined diamonds. If anything, they're too perfect. The natural ones are imperfect in the way that real wood siding is less perfect than vinyl siding on a house.
If you marry the wrong husband, it's helpful to have a items you can sell in order to rebuild. The costs of lab grown diamond vs. natural is like a 60% difference. I understand wanting a real diamond for such an odd contract as marriage.
A diamond manufactured becomes a product like any other, an iPhone, a TV, whatever.<p>There is something more profound with holding a stone that was forged deep in the Earth and somehow mined from there, too, even if chemically it's the exact same thing.