One of the more difficult tasks I confront as both a Jeweler, and Diamond Educator is to provide a reality check for clients and referrals seeking to purchase a style, design, or product that I cannot in good faith recommend. Most take the easy way out and provide these products regardless of price. When it came to selling gold at $1,700 and above I refused to do that here at NYC Wholesale Diamonds, and when it comes to Brown Diamonds…I say there are infinitely better values out there for your consideration. Here is why:
WHAT IS BEING ADVERTISED: Chocolate Diamonds are the next fashion statement
THE REALITY: Brown diamonds, the least valuable of the diamond family, are so common and unattractive they were once only used for industrial purposes, attached to blades on cutting machines
Large Jewelery manufactures and Importers in the U.S. have so much power that I had to reach across the Atlantic to provide this well written article by Sadie Whitelocks in today’s Daily Mail. It is both informative and quite accurate.
A $12,000 ‘Chocolate’ Diamond ma’am? How Jewelers are fooling woman by repackaging the common brown diamond as an expensive gem
Brown diamonds, the least valuable of the diamond family, are so common they were once only used for industrial purposes, attached to blades on cutting machines.
But now an increasing number of jewelers are being criticized for ‘pulling the wool over women’s eyes’, by charging the same price for them as their rarer white diamond counterparts thanks to some clever marketing techniques.
Instead of ‘brown’, the gemstones are referred to as ‘chocolate’, ‘champagne’, ‘cognac’ or ‘caramel’-colored by outlets, instantly giving them more of a luxury appeal.
Dr. George Harlow, a trained geologist specializing in mineralogy and crystallography and a curator at the American Museum of Natural History in New York, told Jezebel.com that this ‘upgrade’ trend is becoming more common among jewelers.
‘The thing is with brown [diamonds], there’s an oversupply,’ he said.
‘So there’s a desire to try and change them from industrial diamonds, which is what they generally are, to a gem buyer.’
The fine jewelry brand Le Vian has actually trademarked the term ‘Chocolate Diamond’ in an attempt to glorify the brown gemstone.
One of its ‘bridal set’ rings listed at Macys.com, which consists of a 2-1/4 carat round-cut brown diamond, surrounded by smaller stones in the same color and 20 clear ones, is priced at $12,300.
At the bottom of the price scale – but certainly not cheap at $950 – is a simple white gold band featuring just over a dozen 1/5 carat ‘richly-hued chocolate diamonds’.