31 ms·

Pandora says laboratory-made diamonds are forever

• La1n 5y ago
  Biggest jeweller is not biggest diamond seller in this case. Still this seems like a great initiative. >Although diamonds have traditionally only been a very small share of the 100 million pieces Pandora sells worldwide each year, Mr Lacik believes that will be boosted by lower prices.
  • Mauricebranagh 5y ago
    Yeh its more the Ratner end of the market - not Hatton Garden
  • Nursie 5y ago
    If they can offer mass-market diamonds at prices that hit their target demographics, they might well become one of the biggest!
• cyberpunk 5y ago
  Married members of HN, what did you do if you think diamonds are utterly ridiclious however due to societal constraints some kind of ring is required for your SO?
  • pjc50 5y ago
    We bought an antique one, containing two diamonds and a nice large amethyst. Because the diamond secondhand market trades at such a detriment to new ones this was very affordable.
  • tdrgabi 5y ago
    It depends on culture. In my country, a gold or silver ring is acceptable.
    • StavrosK 5y ago
      In my country, a simple gold band is also customary. When you think "wedding ring", you think "simple gold band". They all look the same.
      • lewisflude 5y ago
        In the UK at least, there is an "engagement ring" that has a diamond typically, and then a "wedding band" that is typically a gold (or silver) band that goes next to the engagement ring on the ring finger, with a similar ring for the other partner on the ring finger.
    • chrisseaton 5y ago
      > a gold or silver ring is acceptable As in not having a ring is 'unacceptable' somehow then?
      • croo 5y ago
        Not op, but yes. Engagement traditionally is giving a ring to your desired future wife. I don't understand your point. Of course you can ignore tradition but then why marry in the first place?
        • chrisseaton 5y ago
          I mean who is it unacceptable to? Who complains if you don't have a ring and what do they do about it? If someone told me they thought it was unacceptable that I didn't have a ring I'd laugh at them.
          • mavhc 5y ago
            Unacceptable to sexists
          • simias 5y ago
            The conversation is framed from the point of view of tradition in some parts of the world. Of course the cops won't arrest you if you decide not to get an engagement ring. It's like going to work in flip flops, it's not illegal, just frowned upon in many circles. These faux-intellectual "I'm a robot, beep boop I don't understand context and I parse conversations like a compiler would, semantic error on line 5" conversations are probably the least productive on this website, and they're unfortunately very common. It's not smart, it's just obtuse.
  • gtirloni 5y ago
    Just bought it and moved on. I'm happy that she's happy. I couldn't care less.
    • lifeisstillgood 5y ago
      Just to say, thats a great attitude - and that I am happy to hear is an option amoungst a sea of 'if you are not on the same page your marriage is in trouble' comments
    • woofcat 5y ago
      Yeah, I'm not understanding a lot of the sentiment here. I suppose if you're a fresh grad, or not making a ton of money. However if an engagement ring's cost is some barrier to getting married... perhaps you're too young to get married? Life is expensive, and between cars, house, the actual wedding, kids, etc. The money I spent on my wives engagement ring seems like child's play. Also I feel like most women want it, because it's what everyone asks of them. 100% it's societal pressure. If you tell someone you got engaged, question #1 will be "Ohh let me see the ring!"
      • float4 5y ago
        > Also I feel like most women want it, because it's what everyone asks of them. To me it feels more like a classic case of mimetism: all beautiful / successful / happy / rich people have a diamond ring, so most women naturally want one too. It's not really about fear, but more about a strong desire to have the same object as your role models.
        • woofcat 5y ago
          Perhaps mimetism. Do you lump say all fashion under that category as well? I think there is an unofficial "pecking order" of society. People treat you differently if you roll up in a new Mercedes vs a new Honda. If your purse is a Louis Vuitton or a Walmart brand. They all functionally do the same thing, but society uses these things to lump people into camps. In that same regard, I've seen women who are not materialistic seem embarrassed to show off their modest ring which is wrong. I think a lot of people treat engagement rings in the same way as designer bags, and nice cars. We can say it doesn't matter, but if society ranks you differently I think it does matter on some level.
  • mhroth 5y ago
    Ask your partner what they want. Then do that. Your opinion on this matter is not particularly important ;)
    • tonyedgecombe 5y ago
      Your opinion on this matter is not particularly important ;) Although you should bear in mind there is a correlation between the amount spent on getting married and the likelihood of divorce.
      • tromp 5y ago
        Is that a positive or a negative correlation?
        • tonyedgecombe 5y ago
          Positive, the more you spend the more likely divorce.
          • dagw 5y ago
            The more you spent, the richer both of you are. The richer both of you are, the easier it is to afford getting divorced.
            • tonyedgecombe 5y ago
              Possibly although that would be fairly easy to filter out in a study.
      • paulcole 5y ago
        Yes, although one isn’t necessarily causative of the other.
    • 2pEXgD0fZ5cF 5y ago
      > Your opinion on this matter is not particularly important Feeling sorry for the people that go in a marriage with those kind of sentiments about their partner, or about relationships/marriage in general.
  • MattGaiser 5y ago
    Build a Wall-E type robot to deliver a lab grown one to create environmental vibes.
  • lewisflude 5y ago
    Not married, but engaged! I ended up buying a diamond on James Allen (they allow you to select earth created or lab created). They allege their mined diamonds are "conflict free" https://www.jamesallen.com/education/diamonds/grading-conflict-free/ https://www.jamesallen.com/education/diamonds/grading-confli.... However, my feeling is I don't trust this 100%, and for my SO having a "real diamond" meant a lot. For me, in this case, the need to get a "real diamond" for my SO trumped my ethical stance on where the diamond was sourced. I think if you are going for 100% ethical purity, then you should either get no diamond (many other beautiful, precious gemstones if you still want one) or just go for it to make your SO happy.
    • sharken 5y ago
      As long as the concept "real diamond", as in mined the traditional way exists, then real change will be slow. It will be interesting to see if companies will try to market "real diamonds" and how the market will respond.
      • lewisflude 5y ago
        When you buy a mined diamond, you are paying for the story, of it being a finite thing, formed in the earth over a very long period of time. Lab grown diamonds don't have that story. Separately, the work that goes into cutting/finishing diamonds is incredible and there is a huge amount of variety between individual diamonds. They are very fascinating things.
        • Nursie 5y ago
          That sounds like industry apologetics, to me. I don't know that the population in general are that keen on geology.
          • lewisflude 5y ago
            I don't mean to sound like I'm apologising for the industry. I agree with you, the general population don't care about the geology of diamonds. But there's definitely this feeling that lab grown diamonds are seen as this "other" thing that "isn't real" and I think that largely stems from this mythical idea of diamonds being rare things that are found in the earth. I think it's quite common knowledge that diamonds were traditionally mined before we were able to make them in a lab, and because of this it's seen as the default to which any other methods of making a diamond are compared.
  • sneak 5y ago
    Rings also fall under the category of utterly ridiculous. A marriage isn’t jewelry.
    • JackFr 5y ago
      Along with being a visible symbol of my love and commitment to my wife, I also use my wedding ring to open beer bottles - so, you know, not utterly ridiculous.
  • madarcho 5y ago
    Talk about it. It may turn out that the societal constraints don't enforce the conflict mined diamond. And you may find out more about what it is that is motivating the choice. But you can't force things and insist that the whole thing is a useless charade. Objectively, sure, but not everything in life has to be.
  • rm445 5y ago
    There are lots of other types of pretty rock available. I think also if you decide to bow to those constraints, grit your teeth and buy a diamond, you can get ones certified to as less likely to have murder and slavery involved in their extraction. Albeit you'd still be supporting that ridiculous market indirectly. Smashing the stigma against lab diamonds seems like a great idea.
    • djdjdjdjdj 5y ago
      As anyone ever would be able to distinguish a real diamond from anything else. Like srsly how often even does someone look longer than a few seconds on your ring? I would bet people can't really determine a difference between glass and a diamond
      • eru 5y ago
        Cubic zirconia is the go-to material for fake diamonds. It's so close, even the jeweler has to break out some equipment. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cubic_zirconia#Cubic_zirconia_versus_diamond https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cubic_zirconia#Cubic_zirconia_...
  • TekMol 5y ago
    Honest question: Why marry in the first place? Why practice a personal relationship in a way others have designed? Isn't it somewhat contrary to the theme of Hacker News? To me, the term "hacking" describes the habit of doing things in a more interesting/efficient/fun way than how they are usually done.
    • adrianN 5y ago
      Being married has a bunch of tax benefits where I live.
      • magicalhippo 5y ago
        Here it can also help the partner in case of inheritance. For example, if you haven't lived together for over 3 years and aren't married, then unless there's a will the partner won't inherit anything. If you have a kid, the kid will get most of the inheritance but can't manage the money until they're 18. Been a few cases in the media here where the kid inherits lots of money on a locked account while the partner that's left struggles to make ends meet.
    • lewisflude 5y ago
      It's an interesting question! I think a lot of the time when both partners feel getting married adds no value, they don't marry! I know plenty of older couples who never got married and don't regret it. Some good reasons I've heard. 1. Legally it's a lot simpler if you're married, if one partner dies for the other partner to get control over assets/legacy. 2. For many couples it's a ceremonious way of making a commitment that is recognised and understood between cultures. 3. In some cases, it allows for certain benefits/perks to be shared (tax, healthcare). 4. It's fun to have a party and get family together. I personally don't see Hacker News as one homogenous culture with a distinct opinion on what "hacking" is. Being curious, rational and experimental, I still think getting married can fit into that. If you were truly trying to optimise every aspect of life to be some sort of objective best option, I think getting married may or may not be the right option. I do think generally we give too much power to "the culture" over how we live our lives though and so I do think being sceptical of the rituals/ceremonies we're born into is a positive thing.
  • lordnacho 5y ago
    Caved in and bought an expensive diamond. What really counts here is social ideas of what is necessary. You can push against but most people will do what's socially the done thing. I shudder to think what horrible things we might be able to get people to do as a gateway to getting married. Eg the Spartans had to murder a Helot to graduate IIRC. What if you had to beat up a random person to get married? People would still do it I think. Not long after I got married, I read about Moissanite.
  • trapexit 5y ago
    We opted for a moissanite. Partly because of the ethical problems with diamond mining, and partly because my wife didn't want to carry something with the replacement value of a small car around on her finger. See previous discussions of moissanites on HN: https://www.google.com/search?q=moissanite+site%3Anews.ycombinator.com https://www.google.com/search?q=moissanite+site%3Anews.ycomb...
  • chrisseaton 5y ago
    I don't wear a ring at all - don't see why I'd need to. My wife wears one because she wants to. Why do you care what anyone else thinks?
  • enriquto 5y ago
    If you are on the same page as your partner, you'll have no trouble sorting this thing out. In my case I bought a joke ring that cost me about 2$ in a toy store. If you are not on the same page as your partner, you have more important concerns than a stupid ring of metal.
    • dotancohen 5y ago
      There are many considerations and compromises to be made when finding a partner. Compromising on her stance regarding blood diamonds might be necessary when finding a partner who shares your other values.
      • paholg 5y ago
        I think it's safe to say that if I were marrying someone who required a blood diamond, we'd be on different enough pages that we should not get married.
        • kijin 5y ago
          Few people outside of a satanic cult would actually require a blood diamond specifically. But people do have different tolerances to the risk of getting a stone that isn't as "conflict-free" as the jeweler says it is.
    • tda 5y ago
      I did exactly the same, engagement ring was made of plastic with some fake shiny stone! Though for our wedding rings we did get real gold with no stones.
    • shakna 5y ago
      > In my case I bought a joke ring that cost me about 2$ in a toy store. I love it. My ring was a spinner, which people find far more interesting than some pretty stones in it. It cost about $10. Hers was one with a fingernail-sized stone the colour of her eyes, that cost a few hundred. The metals matched on eyesight, which was good enough for us. The rings represented what we expected from our marriage - to join us, the way we were, rather than some showy way of expressing our love. We're no longer in the age of selling a ring to get by if a marriage falls apart or something else happens.
  • dagw 5y ago
    My mother had inherited a bunch of jewelry from her mother, among which was her engagement ring. It was a really nice ring that was just sitting in a box, so I asked if I could have it and used that.
  • djdjdjdjdj 5y ago
    What social constraint requires a ring? We bought the cheapest gold rings we could fined. 757 gold due to the internet saying that below that, your ring will loose material. We wanted wolfram but it's bridle, ring size can't be changed and gold was just the easiest at the end. I think we paid 700$ for both.
  • CannisterFlux 5y ago
    Explain it to them. If they don't understand or come to some compromise, maybe they aren't the right SO to marry. I'm married and we don't wear rings at all, we discussed it and agreed they were pointless and spent the money on better things.
  • fogihujy 5y ago
    The Missus refuse to wear one. We both have (relatively) massive silver wedding bands.
    • yason 5y ago
      Same here. We both did want a ring of some sort. I wouldn't care much about the material as long as it takes all the beating from elements that my fingers are subjected to, and Mrs would find diamonds or rocks abhorring and wouldn't even go for a gold band. So we bought modest silver bands that happen to be replicas of some ancient bands found a few hundred years ago locally. Mine has been sitting around my finger for fifteen years now except during a brief enlargening operation.
  • brobdingnagians 5y ago
    Lab grown diamond was much cheaper for the size; looks just as great; I have no emotional attachment to dirt grown or lab grown. I think diamonds are kind of ridiculous since they were a PR campaign by De Beers, but they are quite beautiful, and lab diamonds are high quality for cheap. Social judgement is a real thing and it is nice to just sidestep it with a "good enough diamond" (I think social judgment of diamonds is completely ridiculous, that is the one reason why I considered just not getting a diamond at all so I wasn't in that game). But it is nice to never even have to think about it and people tend to just say "oh that's a nice diamond" (I went for an average "nice" size for my area, not gaudy) and move on, and if it was lost or stolen, I could actually afford to buy another one...
  • ihalip 5y ago
    I opted for a moissanite engagement ring from Charles & Colvard. There really isn't any perceivable difference between moissanite and diamond, except the light reflected by moissanite seems a bit more colourful.
  • cwingrav 5y ago
    My SO did not want a traditional diamond gold engagement ring due to normative ways, consumption, global diamond trade, etc. but it’s hard to not buy such a thing number one, and two, u have to wear it each day. I bought a polar bear diamond (Canadian) which in addition to being mined in a friendly way (environment, labor, etc), uses a cut that hides its size. It’s brilliant in the light and sparkles like no other. Then I chose platinum as it isn’t as showy as gold and doesn’t corrode like silver. So overall, it’s an amazing ring to look at, isn’t traditional but so too hides its cost. Rings are for spending time thinking about your partner and what they want to be shackled with. She really liked it, even though she never would have expected it to look like what it is.
  • Jiejeing 5y ago
    I am curious, is the diamond thing a US-centric trope? I do not know anyone here who genuinely cares about that sort of thing, generally people want some discreet metal ring. It may be a precious ore to symbolize the commitment but otherwise I have not seen anything outlandish among my friends or family members who got married.
    • kungito 5y ago
      in the balkans it's definitely a thing
    • q3k 5y ago
      Pretty much, the US makes up ~50% of the global diamond jewelry consumer market. It seems the US-focused De Beers marketing campaign from half a century ago is still holding strong.
    • nottorp 5y ago
      Eastern Europe. We didn't bother with the engagement stuff and the wedding rings were plain gold bands. Which we don't bother with any more after 20 years. I've almost never heard of anyone buying engagement rings, diamonds or no diamonds. I do know a nouveau riche (or aspirational nouveau riche) couple whose wedding bands have tiny diamonds on them.
    • Draken93 5y ago
      In Germany it is not a thing either. Discreet gold/silver rings are much more common. I like it, it is less decadent and you can wear the ring every day.
      • cyberpunk 5y ago
        That's weird, all my SO's friends who are engaged/married here in .de got diamond engagement rings. They also wear a wedding band, and tend to only wear the engagement ring on special occasions..
        • Draken93 5y ago
  • PartiallyTyped 5y ago
    If my SO does not find other rocks far more interesting or insists on a wedding ring, then we are not on the same page. Diamonds are carbon atoms arranged in the most boring fashion, they are almost meteorite poop, and real ones are covered in blood. There's beauty in imperfection and quirky rocks, they are sort of like a metaphore for life.
  • neilwilson 5y ago
    Always remember the whole diamond ring thing was a marketing putsh by DeBeers in the first place. https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2015/02/how-an-ad-campaign-invented-the-diamond-engagement-ring/385376/ https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2015/02/ho... So arguably buying a diamond ring has always been a symbol of wage oppression and terrible mining conditions in Africa, and any right thinking person should boycott it. Fortunately my SO isn't that struck by sparkly rocks. She prefers antique jewellery with character and history. Her wedding ring is 150 years old.
    • hiharryhere 5y ago
      Likewise. There are some beautiful rings in antique stores that are unlike anything really being made today. Different craft. It's also nice to think that the ring has had a life of its own already and you get to be another chapter in it.
    • jfk13 5y ago
      Likewise. My wife now wears my late mother's wedding ring, after we had it remade to fit her. (Resizing was non-trivial, as it is not a simple circle.) It's not hugely valuable, but it has a unique character and history. (Added twist: the jeweller couldn't have it ready in time for the ceremony, so we made do with a dime-store trinket, and swapped it later.)
      • positr0n 5y ago
        The most compliments I ever got on my spouses ring is in the couple months after our first child was born and her fingers were too swollen to wear the original wedding rings. She switched to a $10 Target ring with a huge fake diamond.
    • JoshuaEddy 5y ago
      Diamond engagement rings date back to 1477, and diamond jewelry dates back much further. It was viewed as very exclusive/rare. Diamond engagement rings for the masses was from DeBeers advertising starting in 1938. The growth in diamond mine production in the late 1800s tremendously increased diamond supply. DeBeers took advantage of historical perception of rarity and actual lower cost of materials to create a new market.
  • throwaway6734 5y ago
    I gave my wife my grandmother's engagement and wedding rings
  • kop316 5y ago
    Paraphrased from a previous comment of mine (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26699188 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26699188): I did not get a dianmond, but a Moissanite ring. A couple of things I learned along the way: - I bought the ring and the Moissenite seperately. I bought the ring at a regular jewelry store (my spouse found one she liked). It is a very HARD sell when you buy the ring to also get the diamond. I ended up buying the ring online to pick it up, and I have wondered since then if they would have refused to sell me the ring if I tried to buy it in store without a diamond. - I bought the moissanite online. It was nice seeing a linear increase in price on size versus an exponential price difference (I got it from here: https://www.charlesandcolvard.com/ https://www.charlesandcolvard.com/ ) - When I took the moissanite to a jewelry store to get it mounted, the "fake" diamond detector actually said the moissanite was a diamond! I was actually very surprised to see that, and I was candid in the fact that I brought them a moissanite. - As soon as the jewelry store found out I bought them a moissanite, they said they cannot do anything with it. I ended up bringing the ring and moissanite to a store that deals in moissanites. My spouse likes her ring, and absolutely no one has been able to tell the difference. I have seen is commenting on how "flawless" the "diamond" looks, and the "diamond" must have cost a lot due to it looking flawless.
    • andjd 5y ago
      Interesting. When I went in to a jeweler to get my Wife's ring appraised for insurance purposes, the tester they pulled out said that one of the (3) diamonds was moissenite. Not surprised that those testers are nearly worthless.
  • bryanrasmussen 5y ago
    our rings are platinum, as my wife thinks gold is vulgar looking. inscription. No jewels.
  • hellbannedguy 5y ago
    Synthetic stone with microscopic laser etching, "I had a feeling?" on the girdle. (I'm so romantic? Don't be like me.)
  • wodenokoto 5y ago
    I remember reading some threads on slashdot about alternative materials for wedding rings accompanied with stories of why they were more romantic than gold and diamonds. I really wish I could find them or similar discussion because I’d really like to make a push for a non-diamond ring. But as other replies here mention - if she wants a diamond, it’s a diamond that she wants.
  • edoceo 5y ago
    re-used a ring my grandma had (she was done with it)
  • InvOfSmallC 5y ago
    Had to buy it. There was a huge fight about me not threating her well because of this f'ing diamond.
  • eru 5y ago
    Get a ring that doesn't have a diamond in it? Or, buy a ring with a cubic zirconia in it, and don't tell anyone. They are almost indistinguishable from diamonds. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cubic_zirconia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cubic_zirconia
  • tut-urut-utut 5y ago
    Not every society in the world requires a diamond on the wedding ring. In large parts of Europe, the wedding ring is just a golden ring, maybe a bit bigger or nicer, but doesn't cost an arm and a leg compared to other jewellery. I always found the stories that middle-class people are expected to pay 20+K for the wedding ring quite hard to believe, but it may be it's true in some parts of the world.
  • yrgulation 5y ago
    I simply didn't care - bought a meteorite ring instead. Everyone is impressed as few know such a thing exists. I even tell them it's rarer than diamonds (I don't know that for a fact, but it makes a good story for the wow factor).
    • BenjiWiebe 5y ago
      Well meteorite rings are definitely rarer than diamond rings.
  • necheffa 5y ago
    I got a ring with a different stone.
  • wilsonrocks 5y ago
    Luckily my wife wanted Peridots but I would not have bought diamonds on ethical grounds.
    • bluedevil2k 5y ago
      What ethical grounds? Based off an article you read a few years ago about 1 mine in 1 African country that accounts for < 1% of all global diamond supply?
      • wilsonrocks 5y ago
        Didn't spot this till now, so you may have gone. Largely based on articles I read after watching the film Blood Diamond, actually.
  • mattowen_uk 5y ago
    Engagement rings are rings of ownership - They are a marker to tell other prospective suiters that the wearer is is 'off the market' and belongs to someone else. If you think you are any kind of forward thinking person, you would not be on board with this archaic practice at all. Also, De Beers invented[1] the concept of diamond-based engagement rings back when diamond jewellery sales were at an all time low, as a business-saving incentive. There zero romance in buying one for your partner. --- [1] https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2015/02/how-an-ad-campaign-invented-the-diamond-engagement-ring/385376/ https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2015/02/ho...
    • whitepaint 5y ago
      > If you think you are any kind of forward thinking person, you would not be on board with this archaic practice at all. What if both people want to do it? You are demonstrating a vast amount of ignorance.
      • mattowen_uk 5y ago
        > You are demonstrating a vast amount of ignorance. No need for insults. I'm allowed my own opinion on this. I am also allowed to express it, this is, after all, a discussion forum.
        • zamadatix 5y ago
          Probably best to remove "If you think you are any kind of forward thinking person" from your discussion starter if soft insults are going to be a problem. But back to the actual topic, what about the point they raise: What if both people want to do it?
        • depaya 5y ago
          You posted your opinion, a very broad statement suggesting it was bad for certain people to believe something. They countered your opinion with their own, stating your opinion was ignorant and offered an example as to why. This is a discussion forum, but you sure seem to have a problem with sometime attempting to respond to you. Do you not see the irony?
  • prawn 5y ago
    Knew my partner wanted a diamond and of a certain cut. Knew I wasn't excited about spending a fortune on a diamond. So I split the budget midway so half was spent on the diamond/ring and half was spent on a trip to propose overseas somewhere memorable. Ultimately the happiness of your partner is what counts, but this combination made it more palatable for my practical self.
  • stilley2 5y ago
    My (now) wife picked out her engagement ring on Etsy. It's an antique ring with a sapphire gem. Of course that took away some of the surprise from the proposal, but we were of the opinion that the fact one wants to get married shouldn't be a surprise. And the time/place of the proposal can still be somewhat of a surprise, or at least special.
  • deleted 5y ago
    [deleted]
  • KennethPT 5y ago
    Alternate view: Almost everything in life is ridiculous when you view it with cold logic. It's utterly ridiculous to put golden balls on a fake tree in your house every year, but due to societal constraints most people in Western societies do it. Your SO probably doesn't want a logical gift, she wants something sentimental that makes her feel that you care about her. For some people, that's an expensive rock with no utility, for others it might be something different. But applying logic to what's ultimately an emotional, illogical affair isn't always productive.
    • pydry 5y ago
      Rituals do make a lot of sense even if the content of them makes no intrinsic sense: https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/why-rituals-work/ https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/why-rituals-work/
      • tialaramex 5y ago
        You should where possible create rituals which do have a direct purpose anyway. Big example of real rituals which have purpose, Key Signing Ceremonies. Small example, when I leave somewhere I always pat both pockets twice, everything I absolutely need is always in those pockets, keys, wallet, phone. And so I won't leave them behind. The weird thing about the diamond engagement ring is that it isn't a powerful symbol of anything. The wedding ring is the powerful symbol, and that would conventionally just be a metal band. You see those everywhere which is of course made more practical by their being a simple metal band.
        • cecilpl2 5y ago
          > when I leave somewhere I always pat both pockets twice, everything I absolutely need is always in those pockets, keys, wallet, phone. After my wallet fell out of my pants pocket into my office chair and I thought I'd lost it for 2 days, I updated this ritual to do it every time I walk through a doorway. That way if I lose something I know exactly which room it's in.
  • gspr 5y ago
    America is leaking again.
  • fy20 5y ago
    Engagement ring had a diamond, but pretty basic. Think I paid €250 six years ago (which wasn't even 3 days salary, let alone 3 months). Wedding rings are just white gold.
  • Draken93 5y ago
    I did not know that marriage rings with diamonds are so important in the US. In Germany it is pretty common to have plain gold/silver rings.
  • Tade0 5y ago
    Not married (yet), but I gave my SO an "engagement iPad". It was around what you would expect an engagement ring to cost you in this region of the world, the lens cover is made out of sapphire crystal so the jewelry aspect is there, and should I perish in an accident the resale value should give her 2-3 months of runway assuming she moves in with my family, considering we have an infant daughter. On top of that she very much enjoys the practical aspect of this gift.
  • exhilaration 5y ago
    We got Canadian diamonds when we got married. Things may have changed in the past decade or so but back then they were a safe cruelty-free option.
  • alienchow 5y ago
    My wife told me not to get anything for my eventual proposal because she's not going to be wearing it. She preemptively said yes before I did anything. But a ring is still needed for the ceremony. I bought some small amounts of rose gold and white gold, gave it to a custom jeweler and told them to do whatever they always wanted to do (but no client ever accepted) using only the gold I bought. They gave me back a rose gold ring, with a gigantic "gemstone" made of the white gold I bought. From far away, the ring made everyone think it had a huge diamond on it. It was really funny. Total cost $1000 including labor, not cheap but at least the ring was special. Formally proposed with it and my wife liked it. My wife, as promised, never wore it after the wedding. She likes to be not robbed.
  • warmwaffles 5y ago
    Instead of a diamond ring, I went with a saphire ring. My wife likes blue and it was all I could afford at the time (~$800). She loved it either way and knows we were dead ass broke at the time and doesn't complain. She works as a physical therapist now and wears a silicon ring because she bent the wedding ring giving CPR to a patient in a hospital a few years ago (patient lived).
  • slumdev 5y ago
    I bought her a diamond ring, and we got married.
  • eatbitseveryday 5y ago
    I bought a 1.5 carat lab-grown clear sapphire for $900 and had it installed into a custom old-school setting made of platinum. I said, in many earlier conversations, diamonds are overpriced and I wouldn’t waste my money on it.
  • rednerrus 5y ago
    I just bought a $4,000 diamond ring from a jeweler in India for $550.
  • CapmCrackaWaka 5y ago
    It's got to be a conversation between you and your spouse - my (now wife) said she definitely wanted a diamond. I ended up proposing with my great grandmothers ring, that has a small diamond. She loved it. Some people will want to go select a ring together at diamonds direct. Some won't even care about a ring. As far as friends and family goes, they can get over it. I actually have a lot of fun telling people about the current scam that are diamonds, if they make any sideways remarks about my wife and my preferences. There really is no defending the diamond industry, so if they are pushy or too nosy, it's an easy argument to 'win'.
  • klmadfejno 5y ago
    Moissanite ring for < $1,000. Upper middle class, northeast coast american. Nobody in my social circle thinks rings are important, including SO. Observationally, younger couples who have been dating longer tend to care less about rings. Older couples who have been dating less seem to care more.
  • lief79 5y ago
    My wife understood my concerns, and she really wanted a diamond that was left to her by her grandmother. Easy compromise with a custom ring. ( I also managed to accidentally end two relationships that were already going in the wrong direction by casually mentioning my concerns about diamonds. At least I noticed how it was being interpreted the second time. 8-/ No complaints with how that accidentally played out. )
  • dcre 5y ago
    Bought yellow gold and white gold wedding bands on Amazon for a few hundred dollars each.
  • 1-more 5y ago
    I bought a lab diamond ezpz. Or do Moissanite: SiC is damn near the same everything as diamond. Or do any other charming non-clear stone.
  • cwkoss 5y ago
    Had a good experience through diamond nexus - was able to get a custom designed synthetic for a good price.
• MattGaiser 5y ago
  I think this is a lot less significant than it seems at first glance: > Although diamonds have traditionally only been a very small share of the 100 million pieces Pandora sells worldwide each year, Mr Lacik believes that will be boosted by lower prices.
  • Nursie 5y ago
    I think it's significant in that diamonds may now make up a lot more of the lower end of the market. This has the possibility to change their image from one of remote inaccessibility to one of availability to the masses. What the eventual fallout will be, who knows.
• intsunny 5y ago
  I wonder how well this Reddit-famous commentary about the diamond industry has aged: https://reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/8pb8d5/i_grow_diamonds_i_make_custom_jewelry_with_these/e09x919/ https://reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/8pb8d5/i_grow_diamonds_i_...
  • tda 5y ago
    There was an article the other day that talked about the resale value of diamonds. Basically jewelers refuse to buy back diamonds at any reasonable price (compared to original retail value. And refuse to make new rings with old diamond etc. So there is very little market for second hand diamonds. Sounds like a business ready to be disrupted Edit: Found the article: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/09/15/fashion/jewelry-diamond-sale.html https://www.nytimes.com/2019/09/15/fashion/jewelry-diamond-s...
    • deleted 5y ago
      [deleted]
    • faet 5y ago
      Diamond prices are fairly stable, the issue is jewelers mark prices way up and most people don't know what a good price is. If a diamond goes for $5k wholesale, chances are they're looking to sell it for $10-20k. Since most people only buy 1-2 engagement rings in their lifetime they don't know what is a reasonable price. They "shop around" at three stores that are all owned by the same company. So they end up paying $15k for a ring. Then if they need to return it they only get $5k for it. They overpaid due to the emotion of the moment and expect to get something close. Even in the article you listed there were a number of offers all close to each other. ~8-10k is a 'reasonable price' for that ring. Most jewelers I've interacted with are more than happy to buy your diamond for a bit under wholesale cost. They're also happy to make rings with old diamonds. They make money selling settings too. One issue is the public. There are a number of people who don't want a "Used Ring". But, there are a large number of diamonds being sold that have been owned previously.
      • bluedevil2k 5y ago
• Nursie 5y ago
  Good for them. It's literally the same material, and we can now use scientific and engineering advances to remove the need for people to toil and die underground to get them. Hopefully the process is more environmentally friendly too. They are real diamonds. I find it hi-goddamned-larious that the moment these became viable, the industry switched from "Diamond purity is the be-all and end-all and you must have the clearest, most pure" to "Oh, well of course it's all about having the right impurities to increase sparkle and character, lab-grown diamonds don't have character" Just like with sapphires, if we're not there already I'm sure it won't be long before exactly the right type and number of impurities or faults can be introduced to mimic any natural diamond.
  • goldcd 5y ago
    The flip side though, is that you're making diamond miners unemployed. I suspect if they had alternate employment opportunities available that were more pleasant/better-paying, they'd have already taken them. So losers are the poor folks digging in the ground and winners are the companies who've just built themselves a lab. Maybe a way out of this, would be price up the grown diamonds to include a charitable donation to help create alternate employment for the miners. Would be quite nice to have that representation included in the shiny thing on a finger.
    • rodgerd 5y ago
      > I suspect if they had alternate employment opportunities available that were more pleasant/better-paying, they'd have already taken them. Spoken like someone who thinks that mining is conducted by volunteers.
      • canadianfella 5y ago
        Employees.
      • goldcd 5y ago
        erm in the vast, vast majority of cases they are.. Most of the world's diamonds are coming out of open-cast mines and most of those are in Russia.
• extrememacaroni 5y ago
  Anyone got a clue where they're gonna drop em?
• technics256 5y ago
  A bit off topic, but does anyone have a good reputable source for artificially made diamonds?
  • Nursie 5y ago
    Sounds like you can ask at Pandora! The article also mentions - "The largest US producer, Diamond Foundry, says its process is "100% hydro-powered, meaning zero emissions"." So they might be worth a look.
• joeblau 5y ago
  Random diamond story! As a freshman in college, I took a geology class and our teacher asked all of the women in our class to raise their hand if they would rather have natural or human-made diamonds. Most of the women (over 80%) raised their hands for natural. The reasons they gave all seemed to tie back to branding and natural diamonds being “real.” Then our teacher gave another analogy. He asked if people would rather have natural ice or human-made ice in their water. He broke down that the human-made ice could be frozen in a freezer to a custom size/shape, be a lot cleaner, consistent in how you make it, and chemically no different than H20 than naturally occurring frozen water. As you looked around the lecture hall, you started to see people’s brains unlock. He went on to explain cost efficiencies, ethics, challenges with conflict diamonds, and how you could make a perfect diamond at a fraction of the coast. After a 30 minute lecture, he asked the question again. Surprisingly, the majority of the women still wanted natural diamonds although the number was less than the original amount that raised their hand. That was the point where I realized the strength of diamonds product branding.
  • grw_ 5y ago
    The economics behind diamonds are better explained by an sociologist, not a geologist- the high cost and useless-ness of the gift are a feature not a bug! The burning of significant amount of wealth is a costly signal of commitment to the receiver. I heard from a friend who worked at a diamond company (and as such could purchase stones with significant discount to market price) that his fiancée had specifically rejected the idea of receiving a stone from his company on the grounds that it being 'discounted' devalued the gesture.
    • rjsw 5y ago
      Even if she could get a larger stone for the expected amount that the guy should spend ?
      • grw_ 5y ago
        yes, I should have mentioned it was explicitly put to her in those terms
• The_rationalist 5y ago
  Off-topic: Nylene blue made a video where he transform (serendipitously) glass beads to very beautiful "jowels" through supracritical impacts. I wonder if this paradigm has been tried for jewels and if it could make more interesting lab grown diamonds. https://youtu.be/JslxPjrMzqY https://youtu.be/JslxPjrMzqY
  • gspr 5y ago
    Not to nitpick, but just to make sure this wonderful creator gets credit where credit's due: his youtuber name is NileRed, and NileBlue (not Nylene blue) is the name of his secondary, less serious and less scripted, channel. https://www.youtube.com/user/TheRedNile https://www.youtube.com/user/TheRedNile
• nailer 5y ago
  > Laboratory-made diamonds are today all but indistinguishable from the real thing They are the real thing. A better way of wording this would be: > Man-made diamonds are today all but indistinguishable from their mined counterparts.
• arbitrage 5y ago
  Diamonds are really ugly and boring. I'm so glad they're finally becoming passé, there are a lot more interesting gemstones and jewelry configs than just "big diamond in the middle".
  • isitdopamine 5y ago
    > Diamonds are really ugly and boring. Ehm... They are still selling diamonds, just lab-grown. Optically identically to the ugly and boring ones.
  • postalrat 5y ago
    You aren't going to win any argument with just a opinion very few people are going to share.
• nailer 5y ago
  Quick reminder of options for men looking to get married and looking to avoid getting exploited by De Beers: 1. Man made diamonds. Better clarity and color and larger gems for the same price. Or the same gem for a smaller price. 2. Second hand mined diamonds. Better jewelers, deceased estates, auction houses like Sotheby's and Christie's etc. 3. Other precious stones which are not diamonds. 4. Not buying a stone or a ring (eg if she doesn't take your surname and you don't wish to have traditional gender roles it would be unreasonable to expect a gem to be provided).
• JCM9 5y ago
  The diamond industry managed to convince consumers that diamonds are rare, highly desirable, and something that traditionally one gives as an engagement ring. None of those are particularly true. They’re nice gems but true traditionalists generally prefer other gemstones. It’s about time the world moves on from the mined diamond charade.
• vonwoodson 5y ago
  We just got out first “fake” diamond. It is not perfect, it does have bubbles in it (s1), so the idea that lab grown diamonds are all flawless is just not true. The price was what reeled us in. My wife in inherited two diamond earrings from her mother that were fairly large, also my wife has three piercings in each ear. Buying a property sized natural diamond was way, way, too expensive. We tried to look for a zirconia or crystal that would match the set, but nothing sparkles like a diamond; well the lab grown diamond just fist right into the set like a long lost sibling. What made my wife finally be ok with the lab grown diamond, in her mind, was that the gems and the gold were not what made the jewelry valuable to her. They are valuable because they were her mother’s. When my son, or his kids, eventually get our jewelry I hope that the value is the same for them for their sentiment and not their spot price. The lab grown diamond will be just as durable and beautiful as the natural ones. And, I would not be unhappy if the price of diamonds drops to be as cheap as a pebble.
• SurgicalDoc_UK 5y ago
  Branding and emotion is the driving power. In the same way there's an emotional element to buying baby equipment (feeling like you need brand new clothes, cot, pram etc), there's a perception that true love is represented by a pricey diamond engagement ring. Having lived in South Africa and then after finding out how this industry controls the supply to maintain high prices, I specifically asked my fiancé for a lab-diamond. And I love my ring.. it's just a beautiful and sparkly. I feel sorry for the people who still believe in forking out a small fortune for a diamond.
• kwdc 5y ago
  Diamonds are cheap. You can tell by their resale value.
  • globular-toast 5y ago
    A general life pro tip is before buying anything expensive, check the resell value. If there is no second hand market, then it's a consumable. Aim to minimise all consumption. The cost of owning something is the depreciation and the insurance policy you take out on it (or just accept the risk). The cost of owning a $10k diamond is likely to be far, far higher than the cost of owning a $10k violin, for example.
• audunw 5y ago
  Good move. The problems related to mining is my main reason for not wanting to buy any jewelry with gems. Maybe I'd consider buying something from a brand that avoids all mined diamonds.
• optimalsolver 5y ago
  A great movie that relates to this is Blood Diamond (2006) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hz6kAEQl9mw https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hz6kAEQl9mw
• cmod 5y ago
  If you want to read about the insanity of manipulation in the diamond industry, this Atlantic article on de Beers from 1982 is a … gem. Of the many shocking moments, one that stood out to me was the way they went after post-war Japan to convert their "backwards" desires to ones of a more "forward-thinking" diamond friendly impulse: "J. Walter Thompson began its campaign by suggesting that diamonds were a visible sign of modern Western values. It created a series of color advertisements in Japanese magazines showing beautiful women displaying their diamond rings. All the women had Western facial features and wore European clothes. Moreover, the women in most of the advertisements were involved in some activity -- such as bicycling, camping, yachting, ocean swimming, or mountain climbing -- that defied Japanese traditions. In the background, there usually stood a Japanese man, also attired in fashionable European clothes. In addition, almost all of the automobiles, sporting equipment, and other artifacts in the picture were conspicuous foreign imports. The message was clear: diamonds represent a sharp break with the Oriental past and a sign of entry into modern life." "The campaign was remarkably successful. Until 1959, the importation of diamonds had not even been permitted by the postwar Japanese government. When the campaign began, in 1967, not quite 5 percent of engaged Japanese women received a diamond engagement ring. By 1972, the proportion had risen to 27 percent. By 1978, half of all Japanese women who were married wore a diamond; by 1981, some 60 percent of Japanese brides wore diamonds. In a mere fourteen years, the 1,500-year Japanese tradition had been radically revised. Diamonds became a staple of the Japanese marriage. Japan became the second largest market, after the United States, for the sale of diamond engagement rings." https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/1982/02/have-you-ever-tried-to-sell-a-diamond/304575/ https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/1982/02/have-yo...
  • adamhp 5y ago
    Damn. This is one of those cases where you have to be slightly impressed even when the act is nefarious or the result negative...
    • beervirus 5y ago
      It’s just marketing. I’d call this a hell of a lot less nefarious than modern adtech.
• webreac 5y ago
  Does it require more CO2 to mine diamond or to make them ? True question.
• Tepix 5y ago
  HN 2028: How to make your own diamond jewelry
• trixrabbit 5y ago
  I remember a guy exposing the Canadian diamond industry on YouTube. I tried to search for him but he apparently disappeared from the surface of Earth. All I could find is this video : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=An76-kLVvZI https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=An76-kLVvZI (I think the guy had some conflict of interest since he owned a diamond shop or something but still really intetesting research)
• stjohnswarts 5y ago
  I wonder if they'll record that they're man-made diamonds in whatever database they register the laser etched serial numbers in
• duckfang 5y ago
  I got my wife a ring made of YAG and platinum setting. I got a custom cut, and designed the ring myself. The YAG (yttrium aluminum garnet) is https://www.stagandfinch.com/product-page/Paraiba-YAG https://www.stagandfinch.com/product-page/Paraiba-YAG It looks like nothing else out there.. And she's happy that we didnt contribute to the slave and blood diamond trade.
• Clewza313 5y ago
  While this is a great step forward, let's not ascribe too much to it just yet. Pandora's niche is cheap, impulse-buy jewelry, a lot of it under $100, so diamonds rarely feature anyway and few people would buy their engagement rings there. It'll take Tiffany switching to synthetics to make De Beers really start crapping their trousers.
• throwawayosiu1 5y ago
  I'm at the marriage age right now and I see tons of my friends getting married. A friend got proposed a couple of months ago and her ring is ~40k USD. In my opinion, that's crazy since they're spending ~30k CAD on their wedding. My partner also mentioned that she'd like a wedding ring of the same calibre since according to her - diamond ring is how much love / value / worth I hold for her. Furthermore, a significant group of middle/upper-middle class want naturally occurring diamonds (because they're "real") over lab produced ones (not because of the quality, but because of the tag associated with and the societal group pressure). Furthermore, the same group also hate moissanite because it's not diamond. It's irrational, marketing and conditioning all they way down. Hopefully, stuff like this forces lab grown diamonds to the mainstream culture so that we can finally get rid of that mentality.
  • lioeters 5y ago
    > diamond ring is how much love / value / worth I hold for her Wow.. I find it hard to believe how someone can say/repeat such a statement about the size and authenticity of a shiny rock to equal the love you have for the person. It sounds so materialistic - but, I can't blame her either, it's part of the value system of the surrounding society she grew up in. It's impressive how effective the diamond industry's marketing has been over the last century or so.
  • saiya-jin 5y ago
    Do an experiment - ask your partner if she wouldn't marry you if you don't give her precious stone. If she won't, I can't see how such a relationship is based on love, rather than various calculations. The idea that money express love is plain stupid from any point of view I can imagine. One big warning sign right there. FYI I didn't give my wife any diamond, in fact when I proposed to her on top of Mont Blanc after grueling dangerous skitour I didn't even have a ring since she never wore any before, so I couldn't get correct size. It didn't matter a bit and still doesn't - everybody we talked about considers my proposal way cooler than usual big money being thrown around. I bought her a ring of her choice afterwards (cheap stuff), and no surprise - she lost it / got stolen when working at tomography lab few months afterwards. Not a problem, imagine losing a ring worth 40k (upon sale, resale maybe 50% of it if lucky).
• BurningFrog 5y ago
  Fun fact: The expensive diamond engagement ring emerged as a way to facilitate premarital sex in the 1930s. That's when "Breach of Promise to Marry" laws gradually were abolished across the US. So now men could propose, enjoy premarital sex for a while, only to leave the woman no longer a virgin and possibly with STDs and/or pregnant. The very expensive diamond you can keep even if he leaves became the "insurance policy" to replace the legal option.
• rednerrus 5y ago
  This thread is a honeypot for Diamond astroturfers.
• adonovan 5y ago
  This is bad journalism. The article says: "Pandora also emphasized price as a consideration behind its decision. Lab-made stones cost about a third of mined ones and the switch will make diamond jewelry accessible to more consumers, it said." In other words, this is a cost-cutting measure that happens to have environmental and ethical benefits: everybody wins. But somehow the headline is "Jeweler Pandora Takes Ethical Stand Against Mined Diamonds". It can't be both an ethical stand an a convenient way to increase profits.
  • whytai 5y ago
    > It can't be both an ethical stand an a convenient way to increase profits. Why not?
  • bagacrap 5y ago
    Did they change the headline? I see the rather bland "Pandora says laboratory-made diamonds are forever"
• username90 5y ago
  Anyone who wants or buys natural diamonds are right wing. If they vote left wing that is only social signalling, in heir hearts they are right wing.
• intrasight 5y ago
  There must be a Bitcoin analogy in there somewhere.
• xyzelement 5y ago
  I really love this topic because it's been fascinating to watch my own thinking on it change. There are many comments below that come from the point of view that diamond rings don't make sense. On one hand this is completely true. On the other hand, whether they do or don't make sense depends on who's evaluating and there are many perspectives one could come at this from. I wanted to share my point of view and how it evolved in case it helps as nuance (or helps people understand when their partner is coming from) Growing up really poor and practical, I thought of diamond engagement rings as really stupid and impractical and that I would either never buy one, or buy one begrudgingly. Fast forward to a few years ago I met the woman that I am now married to. She grew up very differently from me and in many ways we think very differently. For example she values "how things work" and "tradition" much more than I do, because I focus on first principles thinking and how things ought to change. So her attitude towards diamond rings wasn't "I need something this expensive" or "you'll do it if you love me" but simply "this is how it works." It would be easy to say that my attitude was more nuanced and evolved but I also recognized that I had dated plenty of women who thought more like I do (in general and perhaps on this topic specifically) but that I didn't want to marry them. That I wanted to marry this woman because of who she is, and her tradition focus is part of that, and her attitude towards diamonds is part of THAT. I also noticed how women around her felt about their rings. They loved them and thought they were special. Her parents had just celebrated their 40th anniversary and her dad chose to buy her mom a new diamond ring which she loves. So here I was and my option was to either "put my foot down" and have our engagement go along my original principles or to recognize that my partner by nature of who she is sees it differently and to recognize how much joy and sentiment she will get out of it. I realized it's a no-brainer. I ended up having fun with it. Visiting old Jewish diamond dealers in dusty and super secured upstairs offices in NYs diamond district. Looking through loupes at the makeup and imperfections until I found a stone that resonated with me. Long story short I don't regret the approximately 20k I had spent for a second. It has brought more than than worth of joy already. I "get it" more now than I did before. We can say it's all marketing but everything is marketing, or rather product market fit. We don't really judge people for spending more money (or its equivalent, time) on things that make them happy. If someone spends 20k more on a car because they love it, or have 20k worth of vintage video games in their house, we don't get worked up about it. Those things are marketing too but the product resonated with the audience and I think the diamonds are much the same. Again it's all about who you are proposing to. The person's attitudes towards things are holistic. If I wanted to marry someone who thought more like I used to, I could have. But turned out the partner I needed was someone who thinks differently - and when you do that you have to accept that and make them happy in a way that makes sense for them.
• tijuco2 5y ago
  Don't worry guys, the price is gonna be the same. It's Not about environment, it's about lowering the cost and making more money. I can prove it! Why don't they stop mining gold and start turning lead into the precious metal? Because it's cost prohibitive. Don't be naive.
• boatsie 5y ago
  I find it ironic that many people in this thread are extolling the virtues of lab grown diamonds, as they are nearly indistinguishable from natural ones and cost around 50% less. But they still cost quite a bit, whereas cubic zirconia is also nearly indistinguishable to the naked untrained eye and cost a tiny fraction of that cost. Those who see value in a synthetic diamond over a CZ should also see the value some perceive in a natural diamond over a synthetic. And those who see value in a CZ over nothing at all should see why some value a synthetic diamond and so on.
  • boatsie 5y ago
    I should also mention that even imperceptible to the human eye traits of diamonds like clarity and color, above SI or near-colorless affect value and pricing despite the fact that nobody can tell with the naked eye in normal conditions whether your stone is a F color or I. Some people just ascribe value to these things, probably in the same way others value comics, baseball cards, art, NFTs... So let people value what they want rather than pass judgement.
• gandalfian 5y ago
  Or buy an antique and have it resized. You might actually get value and history with it. Imagine jewelry that appreciates in value rather than loses two thirds as soon as you leave the shop.
• midjji 5y ago
  Well unless you light them on fire?
• midjji 5y ago
  Well unless you light them on fire? That said I wonder if this isnt because its easier to restrict supply with branded artificial diamonds, compared to mined ones. If they expect the diamond rich regions of africa to stabilize in the next two decades, then they have to move away from natural diamonds asap.
• natn 5y ago
  "Pandora says laboratory-made diamonds are forever" They're wrong of course. Diamonds are flammable and also decompose (slowly) in sunlight.
• irrational 5y ago
  Years ago the natural diamond in my wife's wedding ring fell out somewhere, so she stopped wearing the ring. When our 25th anniversary was coming up I asked her if she wanted to get a new ring. Our 20-something year old daughters got wind of this and said under no circumstances could we get a natural diamond. I'd never paid much attention to the issue since I hadn't been in the market for a diamond in the 26 since years since I purchased one for the first ring (a ring that only cost $600 since I was a poor college student, no wonder the diamond eventually fell out). I did some looking around and learned about Moissanite. The women on r/moissanite were especially enthused about it. From there I learned that you could design and purchase Moissanite jewelry directly from China. I had my wife look through the rings of one of the stores on Alibaba and choose one that she liked, except the color was wrong (she wanted rose gold instead of platinum). So I reached out to the company and asked about the possibility of getting it made in rose gold. I was assured it was no problem. I told them I wanted solid rose gold and not plated. They said the price would be higher, but no problem. I sent my wife's ring size and a few days later they sent back CAD mockups of what the ring would look like with measurements. I had them enlarge the bottom of the band and we came to an agreement on what cut/color/clarity/etc. all of the side moissanite stones would be. Then we started working on the main stone. We came to an agreement on size (2 Carat), color, clarity, style, etc. We could specify everything about the stone from the height of the crown to the width of the edge to the way the stone was cut to the bottom point - frankly we had to read up a lot of how stones are cut and what the different options are to know how to appropriately respond. About a week later they had finished cutting the stone and sent us videos of it under different light conditions so that we could approve it. Then they manufactured the ring and sent us videos of it to approve. After approval and final payment we received it in the mail about 3 days later. Frankly my wife loves the ring. It really is gorgeous and everyone thinks the Moissanite is a real diamond. My favorite part is that the entire thing only cost me $700. 10 out of 10 I'd definitely do it that way again.
  • detaro 5y ago
    Very cool, and nice to see the customization worked out.
• groone 5y ago
  Diamonds are not forever. They burn in a fire like any carbon.
  • detaro 5y ago
    Which is IMHO a really fun example of how how unintuitive these things can be. It's a really really hard rock, shouldn't it be really stable? But it just doesn't work like that.
• feralimal 5y ago
  "Both types are chemically and physically identical to mined diamonds." Maybe they've been laboratory made all along?! Lol
• MrVu 5y ago
  It's a win-win for the company gets the image of caring for the environment, and they can buy the Lab diamonds for a 15000% mark up. So if you buy a $1,000 Lab Diamond, they are literally getting it for almost $7. All it really is, is heating up carbon.
• nickik 5y ago
  Never understood diamonds. Practically in the real world, how would you know the difference between a diamond and a simply piece of glass or the cheapest possible fake diamond?