A beautiful watch can’t be overlooked. Or a watch, where there is an idea behind it. For example, sporty design, feminine elegance, and beautiful colour contrasts are surrounded by a diamond lunette and, of course, chronometer certification. In the manufacture of watches, all materials are extremely important. Diamonds are an essential part of it.
Sustainability Issues
The differences between natural diamonds and lab-grown diamonds cannot be seen with the naked eye. Natural diamonds have tiny amounts of nitrogen, while lab-grown diamonds do not have any. This is actually one of the signifiers gemologists use to identify if a diamond is lab-grown or natural.
The diamonds produced in the lab are not lagging behind the natural ones. “They have the same chemical, physical, and optical properties as the natural ones,” says Daniel Nyfeler, Managing Director of Gemmological Laboratories at Swiss Gübelin to Neue Zürcher Zeitung.
The mining and manufacture of the natural diamond of one carat emits an average of 160 kilogrammes of CO2. Still, for a comparable laboratory diamond, it is 511 kilogrammes, more than three times that. For such a production, the energy is used mainly for pressure and extremely high temperatures. To reduce the impacts of energy consumption, a mix of coal and nuclear power as well as solar energy is used, according to the reasoning of the major producers. Moreover, the production in the laboratory can be controlled, with no influence on the damage or environmental pollution caused by mining natural diamonds. Soil erosion, mine mining, waste disposal, water use, or even inhumane conditions, war conflicts—all of this is avoided by the production of artificial diamonds.
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Investing in the Diamond Labs
Finally, laboratory diamonds have one more advantage: the price. Artificial diamonds are currently only half as expensive as natural diamonds. In the case of synthetic gemstones, the price difference can be up to 90%.
So Breitling focuses on artificial diamonds, arguing that they “exclude any connection with conflict, human rights violations, and environmental destruction”. Last year, the largest luxury group, LVMH, which also owns Tag Heuer, invested USD 90 million in a diamond lab in Israel. While Fred is the first of the LVMH brands to use lab-grown diamonds in a high jewellery collection, it isn’t the group’s first dealing with the stones. In a similar one-time offering, TAG Heuer used lab-grown diamonds, both colourless and pink, in its timepieces. The company presented the watch “Plasma Diamond d Avant-Garde Chronograph Tourbillon” at a watch fair, Watches & Wonders, where all stones are artificially raised. The price is CHF 500,000. Even De Beers, the world’s largest producer of natural diamonds, is now investing in artificial laboratories.
But there are manufacturers that only use natural diamonds. “Every diamond has been created by nature and is unique,” said Karl-Friedrich Scheufele, Co-Chairman of Chopard, to the newspaper Le Temps. Rolex has also decided to use only natural diamonds; the manufacturer informs the Neue Zürcher Zeitung of the request. Cartier is active when it comes to sustainability. The world’s largest jewellery brand is one of the founding members of the Responsible Jewellery Council.
Jewellery associations and many brands are strongly opposed to the use of words such as “ecological” or “sustainable” for diamonds and gemstones. One of the arguments is that artificial diamonds should not be described as “ethical,” as diamond mining in Africa and India employs more than 10 million people.
