By Michelle Graff
Washington, D.C.–A new company called Washington Diamonds Corp. announced recently that it will begin selling loose, colorless synthetic diamonds online in December or January. The stones will be grown in a facility located just outside of Washington, D.C., using the chemical vapor deposition (CVD) process.
In an interview with National Jeweler on Monday, company founder and President Clive Hill said the company has been able to grow stones as large as 2.3 carats to date. However, the bulk of the synthetics produced will be one carat or slightly larger in size, G to J color and VS to SI clarity.
They will be sold online direct to consumers “through leading global distributors and partners,” Washington Diamonds stated in a news release. Hill refused to disclose any names, noting that the company is in discussions with several potential distributors and also is not opposed to a partnership with a retail jeweler.
Washington Diamonds CEO Uzi Breier, who is based in Tel Aviv, Israel, says the diamonds will be priced at about 25 percent less than comparable mined stones, though that differential will shrink as the stones improve in clarity.
While diamond-growing technology has improved in recent years, reaching the one-carat threshold has proven difficult for companies using the CVD process. It was only a little more than two years ago, in May 2010, that the Gemological Institute of America reported its first identification of a carat-plus CVD-grown diamond, a 1.05-carat pear-shaped synthetic.
“That’s what different about us,” Hill says. “We can grow larger white diamonds. The technology we’re using has been developed at Carnegie.”
The Carnegie that Hill is referring to is the Geophysical Laboratory of The Carnegie Institute of Washington, a private, nonprofit organization that focuses on research and education in the earth sciences, founded in 1902 by steel magnate and philanthropist Andrew Carnegie.
Hill says the institute has been experimenting with CVD-grown diamonds for about 15 years. Washington Diamonds, which is backed by Hill, licenses the Carnegie Institute’s technology for use in its lab. The institute could not be reached for comment on Monday as it was closed for Rosh Hashanah.
He says he approached the Carnegie Institute about licensing their technology around 2005 when he knew he was “coming out of” the retail jewelry business. Hill spent 21 years–including a stint as CEO–at United Kingdom chain jeweler Fraser Hart, which was started by his grandfather Fred Hill in Glasgow, Scotland in 1936.
Breier’s background is in technology and the semi-conductor industries. He was the chief marketing officer and executive vice president of worldwide sales for PrimeSense Ltd., which develops technology that allows digital devices to detect and be controlled by body movement, without remote controls.
He joined Washington Diamonds a year ago after being introduced to Hill through a mutual friend.
Hill says the company has been working with American Gem Society Laboratories (AGS Labs) for more than a year, and the diamonds produced and sold by Washington Diamonds will be AGS certified. Washington Diamonds’ synthetics will be submitted to AGS with full disclosure, he says.
Lack of proper disclosure for synthetic diamonds has been a problem in the industry over the past year, withhundreds of undisclosed lab-grown diamonds surfacing in Antwerp in the spring, followed by a parcel of 10 stonessubmitted to the GIA lab in Hong Kong in June.
“We will be 100 percent disclosed. We are very proud that we are able to do this,” Hill says. “We are telling everyone.”
As of January, Washington Diamonds expects to be producing about 150 one-carat stones a month–which adds up to 1,800 carats a year –with production increasing with time and eventually including the addition of fancy shapes. While the initial production will be loose stones, they are having discussions with manufacturers about adding finished jewelry.
The company will have a small team of technicians, engineers and scientists in the United States led by Chief Technology Officer Yarden Tsach. Tsach, who has a master’s in material engineering, most recently was an external project manager in the solar energy division at Siemens in Bet-Shemesh, Israel. He also has held managerial positions in the semi-conductor industry.
AGS Labs Executive Director Peter Yantzer says Washington Diamonds coming to market with synthetics has been in the works for some time; a couple of years ago, a Carnegie Institute research doctor paid a visit to his Las Vegas lab to learn more about its operations.
To date, Washington Diamonds has sent a “few stones” to the lab for grading and indeed has been upfront about what they are sending, he says.
“The cost is coming down enough to the point where they can actually manufacture (lab-grown diamonds) and make money. I am a strong supporter of synthetics. You don’t have to worry about the politics of the geographical areas in the world where these naturals are mined,” Yantzer says.
He views synthetics as a positive for the industry.
“The synthetics keep showing up more and more now. People are making them and, unfortunately, a lot of people are trying to make a lot of money on them while they can. They’re in and out of the game,” Yantzer says, referring to those that are submitting lab-grown stones and trying to pass them off as mined diamonds. “The up-and-up guys, though, there’s a great future for them.”
Lab-grown diamond company Genesis began selling colorless diamonds online direct to consumers in March, more than a year after initially announcing plans to do so. Though that company once had diamond-growing facilities in Sarasota, Fla., its synthetics are now produced overseas.
Late last year, Scio Diamond Technology purchased the assets of Boston-based synthetic diamond company Apollo Diamond, with plans for a small jewelry division that would include colorless stones.
In addition, Greenville, S.C.-based D.NEA announced in December that it was launching a lab-grown diamond store that would operate primarily online.
SEP 18, 2012
http://www.nationaljeweler.com/nj/diamonds/a/~29516-New-labgrown-diamond-co.-launches
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