June 18th, 2008
Smithsonian on Lab Grown Diamonds
Smithsonian Magazine covers Lab Grown Diamonds. Very interesting. Here’s a blurb:
“This is a virtual diamond mine,” says Apollo CEO Bryant Linares when I arrive at the company’s secret location, where diamonds are made. “If we were in Africa, we’d have barbed wire, security guards and watch towers. We can’t do that in Massachusetts.” Apollo’s directors worry about theft, corporate spies and their own safety. When Linares was at a diamond conference a few years ago, he says, a man he declines to describe slipped behind him as he was walking out of a hotel meeting room and said someone from a natural diamond company just might put a bullet in his head. “It was a scary moment,” Linares recalls.
Tags: Apollo, Diamonds, Gemesis, synthetic
I had my misgivings regarding lab grown diamonds. Nature had to work millions of years to give you a rough diamond which in turn was cut in to a fiery piece of art.
All the smart guys at Apollo do is go in to the lab, and hey presto, diamonds on demand.
Posted on July 24th, 2008 at 5:46 amOn hindsight, i was being harsh as not everyone has $5,000 to spend on a diamond engagement ring.
So more power to them but Mr. Bryant is right to watch his back. His company can cause a major dent in the pockets of De beers and Co!!
i liked the article, but nothing beats a genuine mined diamond in my eyes. There’s just something magical about knowing it came out of the ground, not out of a lab.
Posted on August 14th, 2008 at 4:05 pmI guess I’m the odd woman out, but I have forbidden my boyfriend from purchasing a diamond. Although I know he intends to propose, I don’t want something so cliched. As an amateur geologist I don’t see the allure of something that is, quintessentially, a rock. All of the mystique around it is pure fabrication and although diamonds are beautiful and I would happily wear jewelry made of them, for something that means as much as an engagement ring will, I don’t want something everyone else has.
Posted on October 1st, 2008 at 2:18 pmI personally have seen some beautiful synthetic diamonds. I have a chemistry degree before I went into the diamond business but I must say I value the mined ones more.
Posted on December 11th, 2008 at 3:11 pmGreat article, but I’m sure most people would agree that there is no substitute for genuine diamonds, however there is a market for these as a more affordable option for consumers to wear as everyday jewelery rather than as an engagement ring.
Posted on January 28th, 2009 at 7:42 pm