Pick your diamond, get it lab-baked

MUMBAI: The provenance of diamonds has long been the mines. Having patiently been cultivated by the earth over millions of years, these rocks were prized as much for their clarity as their rarity. Then of course labs came along, muscled in on the earth's area of expertise and promised to grow diamonds in a petridish. Now, there are pressure cookers that hasten up the process and bake a diamond in flat 24 hours.

You could order your very own Koh-i-noor for a do the next day. Artificial diamonds are not today's news, but lab-made diamonds and the perfection they've achieved over decades of experimentation is. Top international jewellery bodies say they've finally succeeded in manufacturing stones that are "comparable to top natural diamonds" and they cannot be told apart from natural stones by either eye or magnifying loupe. It's what has inspired some jewellers to pass off the natural stuff for the quick-built proxies.

Lab-made diamonds cost about Rs 7 lakh a carat, compared to the Rs 15 lakh for the natural stone which is internally flawless in clarity, bears the finest colour — D — and has a superior cut. The faux variants cost as little as Rs 1,000 to Rs 3,000.

Factory-made diamonds arrived at the Indian shores late last year. It's a growing business, says Ashok Gajera, proprietor Laxmi Diamonds, who places the market cap of lab-made diamonds at US$ 0.5 billion. "However, not many know about high-quality man-made diamonds which can lead customers to be conned. I wouldn't recommend anyone exchanging their old jewellery for new designs," said Sanjay Shah, proprietor Nine Diam. Industry captains insists that consumers ask for a certificate for all the jewellery they buy.

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