Diamonds and their pearls moment
Photo:
Alexia Russell
Diamonds are having a pearls moment.
Once upon a time pearls were the world's most valuable jewellery item - their extreme rarity making them the way to display wealth to the world.
But in the early 1900s Japanese pearl famers worked out how to culture them and for the first time, a string of round pearls became affordable and obtainable.
Now, lab-grown diamonds, indistinguishable from mined diamonds, are flooding onto the market at a tenth of the price of those that came out of the earth.
But before you rush out to buy a ring that will give you more bang for your buck, think again - the price of yellow gold has risen so much that if you want your sparkler set in a gold band, it could well have cancelled out your savings.
"We've had big movements in diamond prices, in both mined and lab diamonds, over the past five years," says Newsroom senior business reporter Alice Peacock.
"A lot of jewellers, a lot of retailers have been getting into the lab space, and manufacturing of lab diamonds has increased a lot over the last decade. They've been around for a few decades but have really taken off in popularity over the last 10 years.
"There's a bit of confused terminology around what lab diamonds are, but they are real diamonds. The chemical and the physical makeup of them is exactly the same. Essentially you can't tell the difference. I think people have different ideas about the ethics of them, but again that's a bit of a murky area."
The split between customers who want a lab or a mined diamond varies greatly between outlets, but Peacock says Michael Hill Jeweller told her it's still lower than 50 percent. In its Canadian and Australian stores however, the demand is higher. In the US demand is soaring.
Zoë and Morgan
is a bespoke jeweller in Auckland. If you look at the company's website you will see side by side two rings, a two-carat lab diamond for $6,000, and a mined diamond of 1.01 carats for $16,700.
Zoë Williams is the co-owner of Zoë and Morgan, a bespoke jeweller in Auckland
Photo:
Alexia Russell
Zoë Williams is the co-owner and says at the moment more than half of her customers are opting for a lab-grown diamond - but it's a really changeable situation.
She tells
The Detail
that many customers come in who don't know what lab diamonds are, or who think they're fake.
"It's been fun just to be able to chat about the different processes ... obviously the way diamonds have been extracted through history is really horrible."
However, the increasing popularity of lab diamonds has forced the "natural" diamond industry to improve its game, with more ethical operations and giving back to the communities they're taken from.
Williams explains how jewellers can trace the origins of mined stones using the code each one comes with.
"In modern times, all of those mining processes have had to become much more ethically-minded to come up to speed with how we should be treating our humans in the world.
"And that's a fantastic thing. That's what I personally quite like about the lab diamonds coming onto the market, is it's .... caused the other side of the industry to really tidy up their act and to really become a lot more responsible. And within all of these things there's pros and cons ... but I do feel like we've made some great advances in the last few years."
But lab-grown diamonds aren't spotless when it comes to sustainability - it takes an immense amount of energy to make them and there are nasty chemicals involved.
Williams says the diamond market is also no longer just about engagement rings, but people are buying them to mark special moments in their lives - from the 21-year-old who's celebrating getting a job, to someone who's not waiting for someone to give them a diamond, to those who've made it to 40 and are happy with where they are in life.
They might not be quite the investment they used to be sold as, but Williams questions if that really matters.
"Sometimes I like the idea that it doesn't stand up financially, but it holds an incredible story and it holds a lot of personal value, and I think that's really important as well."
Check out how to listen to and follow The Detail
here
.
You can also stay up-to-date by liking us on
or following us on
.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
RNZ News
4 hours ago
- RNZ News
Australian state seeks to enshrine work from home in law
Under Jacinta Allan's plan, workers would be entitled to work from home at least two days per week, if the job allows. Photo: 123rf The premier of the Australian state of Victoria announced Saturday plans to enshrine working from home in law, saying it should be "a right, not a request". Under Jacinta Allan's plan, workers would be entitled to work from home at least two days per week, if the job allows. "We're doing that because we know what the evidence tells us - workers are more productive, it saves time for families, it saves money for families," Allan said, launching the proposed policy at the Labor Party's state conference. "This change will mean that any worker who can reasonably do their job from home has the right to do so for at least two days a week." Allan said the policy would now go out for consultation with workers, employers and unions. She said it was important to "get the details of this important change right". Allan said the move could save the average worker A$110 (NZ$120) a week, cut congestion on roads, and keep more women in the workforce. During national elections in May, the opposition Liberal-National coalition's plan to eliminate remote work was partly blamed for its poor performance. Victoria's Opposition leader, Brad Battin, said work from home arrangements had been valuable, and that he supported measures that promote better work-life balance. The measure is likely to come before the state Parliament next year. - AFP
RNZ News
2 days ago
- RNZ News
How bad is the tariff news for NZ, really?
Photo: ARNE DEDERT / AFP New Zealand has been hit with a higher tariff rate than Australia on exports to the US - but economists say the situation could have been worse. It was revealed on Friday that New Zealand exports would have a 15 percent tariff applied, up from 10 percent announced earlier. Australia remains at 10 percent. Brad Olsen, chief executive at Infometrics, said that was a clear challenge for New Zealand. "There is now a wedge between us and Australia." There were other parts of the world that previously had a higher tariff rate that were now on the same level as New Zealand, such as Europe. "Wine, for example, under the original tariffs, we might have had a slight advantage. Now we don't." But he said it was not necessarily true that the country would have been better off had it negotiated a deal. He said New Zealand did not have a lot to "give up" in those negotiations, and it could have ended up being costly . "I'm a little bit surprised by comments, including from the opposition's trade spokesperson, that the government failed to achieve a lower tariff rate. "The comments seem to make the implication that New Zealand could have found a way to come up with a trade agreement that might have given us a lower tariff rate. "That might be true, but we have no idea what we would have had to give up to achieve that… some of what had to be given up by other countries to get a 15 percent tariffs rate is consequential - Japan and other countries had to give up to half a trillion dollars of further investment into the US." He said the impact on New Zealand's trading partners might not be as bad as had been expected, which should prove positive for the economy. "It will be slightly more challenging to export to the US from a New Zealand point of view, but our trading partner activity might not be hit as bad as was feared in April. That's probably a net benefit for us." Mike Jones, chief economist at BNZ, said the increase was not unexpected given indications of the past few weeks. "It's obviously unhelpful for NZ exports into the US, particularly how we line up with those coming from Australia and the UK, given the lower 10 percent baseline tariff rate for those countries. "Beef and wine exports could be affected. It's interesting in this context that we've seen the NZD/AUD exchange rate fall a little today in the wake of the announcements." Kelly Eckhold, chief economist at Westpac, said he thought New Zealand was in roughly the same position as in April. "On one hand, the tariff is higher, so there is a bigger direct cost, but it's a bit lower for a lot of our trading partners, so it's better for the economy than would otherwise be the case." He said how the lingering elements of uncertainty played out over the coming weeks would be important. "The legal basis of these tariffs, whether they're going to be able to continue or need to be replaced with a different type of tariff, is an issue. And the sectoral tariffs have not yet really been negotiated. "While I don't think these things affect the sort of goods New Zealand trades with the US, there may be some impact on our trading partners." He said it seemed strange that the US was calculating tariffs based on which countries exported more than they imported. "The concept that US authorities have had of countries ripping them off by selling more stuff to America than they're been buying is quite myopic. "We're only talking about goods trade here, we buy a lot of services from the US. "In large part, the trade imbalance is a cyclical rather than a structural story. "In the last few years, the economy has been relatively weak compared to the US. We're not sucking in as many imports, and the exchange rate has been lower than would normally be the case, which has encouraged export revenues. "I would have thought trade policy metrics like tariffs would be determined on the basis of structural, not cyclical factors. "All those things could easily be the other way around in a few years' time." Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero , a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.
RNZ News
2 days ago
- RNZ News
'Bald-shaming' billboard sparks debate
An advertisement from an Australian company that specialises in overseas travel for medical and cosmetic procedure has sparked some debate, reading "You look better bald ...said no-one ever". There are questions over whether the ad is light hearted marketing or thinly disguised body shaming that assumes baldness is undesirable. CEO and founder of Australian company David Allen spoke to Lisa Owen. To embed this content on your own webpage, cut and paste the following: See terms of use.
