Did De Beers Really Fail to See Synthetic Diamonds Coming?

Rob Bates

Raul Sapora looks at whether De Beers missed the lab-grown threat.

In this week’s Saturday Long Read, Raul Sapora, a gemologist, ESG consultant, and Gübelin Gem Lab ambassador, offers his thoughts on whether De Beers misjudged the threat of lab-grown diamonds.

There is a growing narrative around De Beers. It is neat, persuasive, and, with the benefit of hindsight, almost irresistible. It says that De Beers, the great architect of the modern diamond industry, underestimated the synthetic diamond threat.

I find that interpretation difficult to accept. Not because De Beers should be immune from criticism. But because history deserves more discipline than that.

And few companies on Earth have understood synthetic diamond technology for longer, or more intimately, than De Beers.

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Main Image: Courtesy: De Beers

Source: The Jewelry Wire