2022: A Year of Lab-Grown Diamonds
As 2022 is coming to an end, analysts and jewelers take a look back and review the biggest trends of this year. Man-made diamonds were an integral part of it.
When it comes to the lab-grown diamond market, one of the main focuses was accessibility, as the prices started to get stable and the product seemed to strengthen its niche as a more affordable substitute for the mined diamonds. This led to yet another increase of sales and the growth of the overall lab-grown market. According to many brick and mortar stores, since the adoption of lab stones, it has rapidly become one of their best-selling categories.
Another development of 2022 was the size. This year we saw records being broken almost every few months, culminating in the 30 carat plus polished man-made diamond shown at The JCK Exhibition. However,not only the loose stone wholesalers and manufacturers went bigger. A fresh legacy brand Unsaid made news at this year’s Paris Haute Couture Week in July. The founder Ankit Mehta has introduced the 35.90 carat Reminiscence Ring exclusively set with lab-created gems.
By far the biggest trend has become sustainable jewelry and lab-grown diamonds were at the forefront of it. “We are building a new age brand connected to the audience today, their lifestyle and emotions,” - Mehta said while emphasizing the importance of the millennial consumers. And the choice of Millenials and Gen Z is the jewelry brands that value transparency and sustainability. With the certificates for sustainable lab-created stones introduced last year starting to appear on the market, we see many consumers ordering diamonds with this type of grading from retailers and through different online platforms.
If there is only one characteristic to give to 2022 in terms of the jewelry industry, it’s change. The market is changing and reshaping very fast, and the jewelers around the world need to keep up. More and more brands are being launched that have their promotional campaigns based on using recycled gold and lab-grown gems. Their main audience is self-empowered twenty and thirty somethings who are searching to buy from retailers with stories and pro-sustainability values. Such brands mostly promote their jewelry online and sell through websites and social networks. At the same time, the Internet-based marketplaces are able to reach customers on the other side of the world and ship to different countries. Large companies, such as LVMH and Signet, are also adopting manufactured diamonds, which now are available in almost every Signet’s outlet.
All this brings new kinds of competition to the traditional mom-and-pop stores. If 2022 has taught the industry something, it’s that learning to adapt to your consumer’s needs is essential for any businesses to function properly and stay successful. And this is what lab-grown diamonds are able to offer to jewelry retailers, the ability to change without losing what they are. Lab-grown diamonds are still diamonds, they are the union of luxury and mass-oriented products, the scientific achievement and the same shiny beautiful stones. This year suggests that more and more consumers are not ready to opt for less. Next year seems to be the year to prove it.
