Diamond identification and diamond grading studies have lengthy performed essential roles within the Swiss watch and nice jewellery industries. Contemplating the incommensurable amount of lab-grown, a.ok.a. artificial, diamonds current throughout the pure diamond provide chain, identification and grading studies are of pressing significance right this moment.

Jewellery commerce publications resembling JCK are reporting ever extra cases of lab-grown diamonds bearing fraudulent inscriptions linked to grading studies for pure gems. These impostors possess traits and measurements virtually equivalent to the pure diamonds that acquired the unique lab studies. What’s extra, some producers, wittingly or not, are producing jewellery and watches that they market as containing pure diamonds when in reality they comprise synthetics. “On condition that the resale worth of lab-grown diamonds is subsequent to nothing,” stated Soraya Cayen, proprietor of the Carmel, CA. jewellery salon, Cayen Assortment, “retailers and shoppers alike are understandably searching for affirmation that their diamond is a naturally mined one.” Cayen, who carries one-of-a-kind diamond jewellery by such globally esteemed manufacturers as David Webb, Bayco and Sylvie Corbelin, additionally designs diamond jewellery for her Cayen Assortment vary.

Whether or not you’re an trade skilled or looking for diamond jewels or diamond watches, specialists like Cayen recommend following due diamond diligence guidelines to assist make the best-informed choices. To start with, Rule #1: analysis your suppliers till you discover one you belief. Rule #2 is to solely purchase stones which are accompanied by a grading report from a good gemological laboratory that has recognized them as both naturally mined or lab-grown. “A gemological lab report will help be sure that the diamond you’re buying has been vetted by specialists and correctly recognized as both pure or an artificial product,” famous gemologist Jean-Pierre Chalain, head of the diamond division on the Swiss Gemmological Institute SSEF, a non-profit analysis basis based mostly in Basel, Switzerland.

“Diamond grading studies are important as a result of they will defend jewelers and shoppers alike from shopping for undisclosed lab-grown diamonds (LGDs), that are additionally referred to as synthetics,” stated Hutton Wilkinson, proprietor and inventive director of Tony Duquette, a Beverly Hills, CA. firm that has bejeweled everybody from the late Duchess of Windsor to Sharon Stone. “Synthetics can find yourself in jewels or watches marketed as containing pure diamonds,” Wilkinson noticed. “Synthetics are typically found after the shopper takes a chunk in for repairs or takes it to a grading laboratory after buy.” If and when a buyer learns that their diamond is one thing aside from pure, Wilkinson associated, “This discovery can set off emotional misery or marital arguments. After all, it may well additionally harm the fame of the jeweler who offered it to that buyer.”

Rule #3 includes understanding that pure diamonds often get blended into batches of synthetics. (In October 2022, JCK reported {that a} Kay Outlet itemizing for ¼ ct. t.w. artificial, a.ok.a. LGD earrings famous, “Because of provide constraints, these earrings might embrace pure diamonds.”) Sure, you learn that accurately: a scarcity of artificial diamonds meant that the Kay Outlet needed to resort to utilizing pure ones. Including extra thriller to the diamond combine, whereas respected gemological laboratories have been grading pure diamonds for many years and figuring out lab-grown ones for the reason that early 2000s, they’ve by no means been in a position to determine whether or not the tiniest melee stones are synthetic or natural/lab-grown. That’s, till now, which leads us to Rule #4: keep knowledgeable about diamond screening advances, and make the most of them to your finest benefit.

A brand new screening system is disrupting and demystifying melee and it’s referred to as the ASDI-500. This automated small diamond screener has the precision and energy to distinguish between hyper-tiny spherical colorless and polished melee starting from 500 microns (0.02 inches or 0.5 mm) in diameter to three.80 mm vast. (To raised put these widths in perspective, the scale of a typical human hair strand is about 0.12 mm). The primary ever system to guage giant portions of very small melee, the intrepid ASDI-500 can analyze 700 stones in an hour, detecting and separating lab-grown diamonds and diamond simulants from lots of pure diamonds. Notice: people are nowhere close to able to performing this sort and quantity of labor throughout the similar timeframe.

A number of phrases about melee: whereas melee initially contained 17 sides (generally known as single reduce melee) in comparison with a spherical sensible’s 58, cutters can replicate the 57-58 side design of bigger fashionable spherical sensible diamonds into stones that weigh 0.10ct (10 factors) and right down to 1.0 mm (0.006 ct). At all times been a serious component in accenting watches or diamond and coloured stone jewellery, melee has lengthy been sprinkled into to create twinkling pavé. Over the previous 20 years, melee has grow to be extra generally used as diamond-accented watches and halo settings in engagement rings have risen in reputation. Tiny melee diamonds create dramatic results for an inexpensive value, and since it’s price wherever from $400 to $800 per carat, melee, regardless of its small dimension, is definitely fairly beneficial. Up till now, there has not been an computerized machine that may authenticate melee diamonds between roughly 0.50 mm and 1.00 mm.

Created by the Swiss Gemmological Institute (SSEF) in collaboration with the Swiss robotics firm Unimec SA, the ASDI-500 got here in the marketplace in November, 2022. The ASDI-500 is a direct descendant of the ASDI, which was created and launched in 2014 to assist the Swiss watch and jewellery industries preserve high quality management and belief by screening batches of pure diamonds to detect any undisclosed synthetics and simulants which will have discovered their approach in. “The ASDI was the very first system in a position to mechanically authenticate giant batches of colorless diamonds,” stated SSEF’s Chalain. “Now the ASDI-500 is the very first computerized authentication system for the tiniest melee.”

Emmanuel Remonnay, CEO of UNIMEC SA described the genesis of the ASDI-500 in an e-mail. “In 2020,” he started, “SSEF approached UNIMEC with the loopy thought of growing a tool to authenticate small diamonds, as no dependable know-how or means of research existed in the marketplace for stones between 0.5 and 0.8mm. As well as, the brand new methodology of research needed to be inexpensive and simple to make use of for a variety of shoppers together with producers, diamond merchants and finish customers. It was greater than a problem,” he declared. “It was the conquest of a brand new world of diamond evaluation that lay forward.”

Quickly a growth crew of SSEF and UNIMEC specialists shaped and as Remonnay associated, “Every little thing was reinvented, the evaluation instrument which required 1000’s of measurements for its growth and validation, the dealing with of the stones which required a really excessive diploma of positioning accuracy but additionally an excellent robustness and a assure of reliability, in addition to the evaluation and automation software program.” In response to Remonnay, “We’re proud to have met and exceeded our aims, the tools is now out there for commercialization; it authenticates and counts diamonds exactly. The system is compact, its contact display screen interface is simple to make use of, and the outcomes of the diamonds evaluation are superb, with an especially low refer fee, which suggests ‘seek advice from additional checks’ and applies to unidentified stones put aside by the instrument for additional testing.” With the purpose of turning into “a serious participant within the trade,” Remonnay famous that, “Our work doesn’t cease with the ASDI-500. We’re presently engaged on options for big portions of stones, but additionally on different evaluation and dealing with protocols.”

Ever for the reason that ASDI-500 was launched through the Gem Geneve commerce present in November, 2022, watch and jewellery executives have been taking discover. In a face-to-face interview, Julien Tornare, CEO and President of the Swiss luxurious watch firm Zenith, stated that the ASDI-500 screening system fills a longstanding hole within the trade “and will help result in fuller disclosure of supplies” for watch producers, jewelers, designers and retailers. “It’s our accountability to precisely determine the character of the supplies we’re utilizing, after which talk that info to clients,” Tornare stated. Zenith, which is owned by the worldwide luxurious holding firm LVMH and has been manufacturing timepieces in Le Locle, Switzerland since 1865, makes use of diamonds in its DEFY Mindnight, Elite Moonphase and Elite Basic fashions. “Within the status jewellery and watch trades, large quantities of melee are used each month,” he noticed. “The extra clear we’re relating to supplies and sourcing, the extra precisely we are able to signify our merchandise to retailers, shoppers and the media. All people wins,” he concluded.