Pandora, the world’s largest jewelry maker, is launching its first collection featuring lab-grown diamonds in Canada and the US, available later this month.
Why it matters: Coveted Millenial and Gen Z shoppers demand ethically sourced products, which means knowing for sure that their engagement bling doesn’t come at a human cost.
- Diamond mining has earned a global reputation for related injuries and deaths, blood diamonds, and negative environmental impacts from resource-intensive practices.
- Companies committed to ethical sourcing (like the recently acquired Blue Nile) are thriving, and last year, Pandora announced it would stop selling mined diamonds.
Another attractive feature of lab-grown diamonds is their affordability (good news for high school boyfriends everywhere), with some prices sitting at ~30% of a natural diamond.
- But if you do have a passion for flashin’, luxury brands are using new diamonds and keeping old price tags: TAG Heuer’s lab-grown diamond watch is its priciest item ever.
Bottom line: Lab-grown diamonds have the consumer stamp of approval, which leaves the challenge of making enough of them to meet demand. This means hiring technicians and building new facilities (per The Globe, BC has been scouted as a potential production hub).