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China ‘Kaput,’ Synthetics Are Biggest Disruptor, Says Martin Rapaport

China’s crackdown on conspicuous consumption is dampening diamond demand there, and this has consequences for the rest of the global market, Rapaport Group Chairman Martin Rapaport told diamantaires in Los Angeles last week.   Rapaport was the keynote speaker at a gathering of the Diamond Club West Coast, where he addressed issues including synthetic-diamond competition, the […]

Lab-Grown Diamond Grading Is Becoming Its Own Thing

At the JCK Show, I was with a group of people who work with lab-grown who were upset that a certain lab was supposedly lax in its lab-grown grading. “It doesn’t matter,” one said. “It’s only lab-grown.” I’ve complained in the past that some people in the lab-grown world sometimes devalue their product, and that’s […]

Tiffany Reinterprets Iconic Jean Schlumberger Pieces in Blue Book

Launched in 1845 as one of the first mail-order catalogs in the United States, the Tiffany Blue Book is now an annually anticipated collection highlighting Tiffany & Co.’s finest one-of-a-kind creations. This year’s Blue Book, Tiffany Céleste, is the jeweler’s largest to date, with 157 pieces reportedly worth on average a million dollars or more. The […]

NDC Complains About Indian Company’s Lab-Grown Ad

The Natural Diamond Council (NDC) has filled a complaint with India’s advertising watchdog about a Kalamandir Jewellers ad for lab-grown diamonds. The Advertising Standards Council of India (ASCI), which received the complaint from the NDC, lists the case as informally resolved on its website, and said the contested ad was “withdrawn.” However, Kalamandir disputes that characterization, noting […]

Synthetic Diamonds: How Low Will They Go?

More importantly, how will retailers pivot once these goods cease to be profitable? The conversation about synthetic diamonds has reached a fever pitch as oversupply and cheaper production costs continue to push down prices and trade-in values, even while consumer exposure and demand rise. Meanwhile, the natural-diamond industry, smarting from man-made diamond competition and its […]

Podcast: Making Peace in Antwerp

Antwerp industry veteran Isidore (Isi) Mörsel joined the Rapaport Diamond Podcast to share the inside story on the urgent and controversial issues affecting the Belgian and global diamond trades.  Mörsel, director of manufacturer Dali Diamond and president of the board of the Antwerp World Diamond Centre (AWDC), related how the city was originally on course […]

Another Enormous Find for Lucara: A 1,094ct. Rough

Lucara Diamond Corp. has recovered a massive diamond weighing 1,094 carats from its Karowe mine in Botswana, the second over 1,000 carats in the last month.  The “extraordinary” stone was detected during the processing of kimberlite from the EM/PK(S) portion of Karowe’s south lobe, known for yielding large, high-value diamonds, Lucara said Monday. The diamond […]

Indian Diamond Manufacturers Cut Production by Around 50%

Factories focus on melee amid slump in demand for larger sizes. The Indian diamond industry has a habit of using vacation seasons to reset the market. The main time for this is Diwali, when factories shut down for longer or shorter stints depending on demand levels.  August is a less significant closure period, but it […]