RAPAPORT... It’s undeniable that natural color diamonds have been drawing more and more attention. A growing number of companies are now involved in their trade, and a proportional amount of energy, money and advertising resources has been diverted from white diamonds to colored.
Marc Brauner of the International Gemological Institute confirmed that “We have seen an important increase in fancy color diamonds submitted to our laboratories last year and this year — at least a 30 percent increase. All colors are submitted but it seems, especially in Asia, that yellow, orange and pink are more and more in vogue. Submission of other colors, such as greenish, grayish and various shades of brown, is also increasing. Jewelry featuring ‘bouquets’ of various contrasting colors is apparently more and more desired worldwide.”
Flagging TreatmentArthur Langerman of Langerman Diamonds rings the alarm: “People should stop at once nurturing and reinforcing the confusion that exists between treated or synthetic color diamonds on the one hand and natural color diamonds on the other. If our industry continues to encourage retailers to sell colored diamonds as if they were natural color diamonds, the confidence of the end-users will erode at lightning speed. Just imagine the faces of the consumers who discover, when they’re about to sell their stone in five or ten years, that it’s not worth even one-tenth of the price they paid for it. Or, the consumer who hears, ‘Yes, it’s a diamond, but it’s a synthetic one.’”
Brauner expressed his views regarding the danger that lies ahead: “Treatments account currently for less than 1 percent of the submitted diamonds. In a big center such as Antwerp, for instance, statistics show that of a total of 10,000 stones, only one is treated. As I see it, the real danger lies in the nondisclosure of treatments and synthetics at points of sale, which could result in loss of consumer confidence. Synthetic diamonds are indeed possibly one of the major challenges for the future. However, if — and it is very likely — the market reacts as it did to synthetic color stones, then the impact on the natural color diamond market could be insignificant.”
If laboratories in general have shiny days ahead, the smaller companies are not as thrilled, especially when one considers the growing interest by the bigger groups in the natural color diamond market. An American specialist anonymously admitted, “Big players think in terms of patterns. What can’t enter into an economic pattern doesn’t interest them. As far as we’re concerned, on the other hand, our skill and experience give us an edge when it comes to increasing the yield of a natural color diamond, compared to what a big shot would do. Our job is to adapt the cut in such a way that we lose on weight what we’ll more than compensate for in terms of color.”
GIA Colored Diamond Grading
If, in fact, natural color diamonds are a market on their own, and there’s money to be made, thanks to the high prices reached by rarer stones, the problem was — and is still —to find enough stones to meet the demand. Thanks to the unwitting help of the Gemological Institute of America (GIA), a new abundant source has apparently been discovered: the use of cape color or of generally lower colors to “create” fancy color diamonds.
Eddy Elzas of Rainbow Gems explained what could become a very essential issue: “It’s generally agreed that the guidelines of diamond polishing are a crown angle of 39 degrees and a pavilion angle of 41 degrees, so that the diamond is cut as a perfect mirror. Doing so enables the pavilion to reflect the light through the crown with the most brilliance. Such a diamond will present the same color and brilliance no matter what angle you observe it under. Having said that, if you give the pavilion a 35-degree angle, you kill the brilliance and you increase the impression of color at the center of the stone, when looking through the table. The problem comes when you look in any other direction, because there are areas where the color is almost entirely gone. Everyone knows, though, that color grading for white diamonds takes place when the stone is upside down. If the same principle was applied to natural color diamonds, everything would be all right. Unfortunately, the GIA made a catastrophic choice. The GIA color grading is made when looking perpendicular to the table. This is what is causing many people to use cape colors. For example, they repolish the pavilion with as few as four facets and even sometimes a double culet, just to enhance color when seen through the table, in order to get the ‘fancy’ label, and thus be able to sell the stone for 400 percent of its value.”
Now that Pandora’s box is open, it is hoped that the many underlying consequences will be promptly addressed, for the sake of those who see more than just money in natural color diamonds.
The MarketplacePolished
• Everything is generally slow. People are waiting for the results of the Hong Kong show.
• 3-caraters-up, across the board, in all shapes are strong.
• 2-caraters are slow and there is more stock on the market in general.
• 4-grainers: SI to piqués are doing well and VVS is doing very well.
• 90 points are strong across the board.
• 50 to 70 points: VVS/VS are strong; SI is slow and piqués are doing okay.
• 20 to 40 points: everything is average except for 30 points, which are a little slow.
• 3 to 7 points are holding strong.
• 10-per-carat are slow.
• 6-per-carat are doing well.
Article from the Rapaport Magazine - October 2006. To subscribe click here.