Artificial diamonds are cheaper, but diamonds are no longer a necessity for young people

This year's young people can't do it, they are all going to buy synthetic diamonds, which leads to the continuous decline of the performance of natural diamond giants… The purity of synthetic diamonds is higher, the color is more beautiful, and the price is 90% cheaper. DeBeers said that impurities in natural diamonds are a symbol of status. The Yiwu boss said that it is not easy, I will just add impurities to it.

This is a standard "Shuangwen" story, which integrates popular elements such as price butchers, hanging and beating seniors, and Yiwu's omnipotence. It can easily catch everyone's attention. But cultivated diamonds are more of a less "cool" story. Cultivated diamonds have innovated the production method of diamonds and innovated the price. However, this kind of innovation is currently difficult to "reduce the dimension" of natural diamonds in terms of price and positioning.

Cultivated diamonds are still not cheap

Zircon and Moissanite are some people's understanding of man-made diamonds. They are indeed man-made, but they are not cultivated diamonds.

This is like the three concepts of meat, artificial meat, and vegetarian meat, which can always cause a lot of misunderstandings. Meat is real meat, artificial meat is also real meat, but it is real meat grown in the laboratory, while vegetarian meat is fake meat, it is just trying to get closer to meat in terms of taste and taste.

Zircon and Moissanite are "fake meat" in this sense. They are "fake diamonds" products, and the main component is different from the pure carbon of diamonds, zircon and moissanite are essentially zirconia and silicon carbide.

And cultivated diamonds are more like "artificial meat", they are synthetic diamonds grown in the laboratory to simulate the natural formation environment of natural diamonds. Lab-grown diamonds are all "real diamonds" in terms of chemical, physical and optical properties. They are not like natural diamonds that have gone through hundreds of millions of years, but are simulated in a scientific and efficient way. the environment of the diamond, and the time is drastically reduced.

There are also two ways to cultivate diamonds. One is high temperature and high pressure, which uses graphite and diamond powder as carbon sources to simulate the diamond growth environment (HTHP); the other is to put diamond flakes into a vacuum box filled with hydrogen and methane. , CVD method to form uniform diamond coating under specific pressure.

Both methods have to be done in a laboratory and are more expensive than imitation diamonds, so the overall price is not as crazy as zircon and moissanite.

According to data from Ping An Securities, the price of a 1-carat cultivated diamond is 8,000-15,000 yuan, while the price of a 1-carat loose diamond of medium quality is 30,000-50,000 yuan. That is to say, the price of cultivated diamonds is still not cheap, and will use the same standards as natural diamonds, but its price may be about 10%~40% of 4C natural diamonds, and some of them are backed by the price of cultivated diamonds from big brands. Even only a little cheaper than natural diamonds.

Of course, cultivated diamonds still have a lot of room for development in terms of price. After all, it does not require a cycle of hundreds of millions of years. As the technology becomes more mature, the lower price of cultivated diamonds is also a predictable change. According to statistics, from 2017 to 2020, the retail price of cultivated diamonds has decreased by 30%.

As a laboratory product, improving production efficiency is profitable for natural diamonds, and it is not impossible for cultivated diamonds to drop in price as production efficiency increases.

There are more cultivated diamonds, but there is still a market for natural diamonds

Since cultivated diamonds are also real diamonds, natural diamonds will also be impacted by cultivated diamonds, and it seems a normal logic for prices to fall.

But on the contrary, natural diamonds are more expensive.

Data from the IDEX international diamond trading platform shows that the polished diamond price index rose 5.67% in January 2022, surpassing the 4.35% increase in December 2021 and becoming the largest monthly increase since December 2011.

The reasons for this are complicated. First, the existence of the epidemic has caused the global mining industry to stop production, and the supply of natural diamonds will be less, and the price will naturally go up; the second is that the supply is less and the demand is not much, and even the demand has changed a lot, and some retaliatory consumption caused by the epidemic And the consumption enthusiasm that cannot be suppressed by traveling abroad has been moved to diamonds, and the demand is strong and the supply is in short supply.

In December 2020, De Beers began to increase the price of rough diamonds, and in 2021, it increased the price six times. The overall price change curve is completely different from that of cultivated diamonds, which can be said to be different.

Lian Guoyan, author of the book "Diamond Investment Buying Guide", also said in an interview with Harper's Bazaar that the price of natural diamonds is unlikely to fall. "According to the historical trajectory of more than 30 years, once the price of diamonds has risen sharply, it will not be revised rapidly (unless there are major international factors), and it will probably remain relatively stable in the future. Do selective, small-band climbs.”

In addition to the changes in the supply and demand side of the market, users may also prefer natural diamonds, the more expensive and more face-saving old choice.

Soda Cake, who got married two years ago, said that she also bought a natural diamond ring when she got married. Although the drawer is stuffed after the wedding, this is still an essential wedding expense. The southern Fujian region where she is located attaches great importance to the traditional customs of marriage, and also has a higher budget for consumption expenditure. Even during the wedding, relatives and friends will directly inquire about the price of jewelry. In this case, buying natural diamonds is a natural choice.

When getting married, the man will indirectly and unintentionally say how much he spent on the diamond ring… In addition to being worn by the new couple, diamonds are more of an attitude from the elders of the man to the elders of the woman in southern Fujian, which shows the economic strength and sincerity of our family. Diamonds are popular recently, and southern Fujian is more of gold, but they all use gold jewelry like this (face issue), and diamonds will not be spared.

In this case, natural diamonds may be more expensive to sell, and the high-end atmosphere is high-end, and it does not "combine" with cultivated diamonds.

Natural diamond brands are not idle in the process of growing diamonds to be known to more people. Many diamond brands jointly launched the "Real is Rare" promotion, telling you that pure natural diamonds are more precious. In addition, natural diamonds themselves are non-renewable types and can only be obtained after hundreds of millions of years, so many people will be moved by this kind of natural gemstones formed over hundreds of millions of years.

Just as the original advertisement of Diamonds, "Diamonds are forever, one will last forever" touched young people for half a century, perhaps "Real is Rare" can also retain new young users.

It is not cultivation that affects natural diamonds, but the new pursuit of young people

It's just that in the face of natural diamonds that have been condensed over hundreds of millions of years and the promotion of pure natural attributes, cultivated diamonds are not helpless, because cultivated diamonds can fully handle natural diamonds in terms of energy saving and environmental protection. There is no need for large-scale mining equipment or underground digging. Lab-grown diamonds have become an environmentally friendly and low-carbon option for some young people.

And another part of young people, they have no obsession with diamonds.

"Not only do I not want diamonds, I just don't want to get married." Fang Fang, who just graduated, said that he was not interested in the romance and long-term meaning behind diamonds. For her who doesn't want to get married, diamonds are a consumption she never expected, and she has no idea of ​​saving money to buy diamonds for herself.

Douban, who majored in advertising, has worked for 4 years. Her understanding of not buying diamonds is more based on her understanding of marketing.

Diamonds are more of a scarcity created artificially! As the most famous marketing case in advertising, I admire it, but I also feel that spending so much money on gems that are forced to be scarce is a bit like paying an IQ tax. I think it is a bit like a rare baby in a blind box. The price can rise very high or fall very low. It is an investment product that does not hold value.

Douban herself likes sparkling diamonds, but she doesn't feel that the attractiveness of natural diamonds can make her spend so much money. She said that if she bought diamonds, she would not even choose cultivated diamonds, but would choose the fake diamond moissanite in everyone's eyes, and wear it as an ordinary jewelry without a lot of psychological burden.

Wedding-ready oranges are also in the life stage of choosing a wedding ring, and diamonds are among their options, but not the only option. Orange has considered finding someone to customize a ring. Diamonds, colored gemstones, platinum, and gold are all within the scope of consideration. When purchasing, they will give priority to the degree of fit and price with themselves. Diamonds also have to be PK with other material rings. .

In fact, compared with the diamonds that young people are familiar with through marketing, gold that preserves value has become the choice of more and more young people. Orange became more and more fond of gold: "I used to think it was dirt, but now I think it looks the best."

According to data from the World Jewellery Association, the diamond purchase rate of newly married women in first-tier cities in China is 61%, while the penetration rate in third- and fourth-tier cities is only 37%. China's jewelry consumption is tilted toward the gold market. In this year's Taobao Tmall station, the entire gold category broke out by more than 1,700%, and the post-90s population accounted for 50%.

It is true that some people still regard diamond rings as a standard for marriage, but some people start to consider more value preservation and personalized choices when purchasing these commemorative jewelry. Apart from gemstones, young people have different needs for accessories, and whether diamonds can be the most important part of this demand is far more influential than cultivated diamonds on natural diamonds.

After all, the existence of diamonds is not only eternal, but also needs someone to recognize its value.

Only by being recognized by more people can the brilliance of diamonds be given more meaning.

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