Renowned diamond-maker De Beers announced Tuesday it plans for the first time to carve out a small niche in the artificially-produced stones market.
The London-based group has traditionally focused on natural mining to find and produce rare, expensive diamonds.
"Lab grown are not special, they're not real, they're not unique. You can make exactly the same one again and again," De Beers CEO Bruce Cleaver told Bloomberg Tuesday.
The group said subsidiary Lightbox will launch the new line of lab-generated jewelry in September.
"Lightbox will transform the lab-grown diamond sector by offering consumers a lab-grown product they have told us they want but aren't getting: affordable fashion jewelry that may not be forever, but is perfect for right now," Cleaver said in a statement. "This is how consumers regard lab-grown diamonds -- as a fun, pretty product that shouldn't cost that much."
Some retailers of lab-grown diamonds include Diamond Foundry of California and Warrent Buffett's Helzberg's Diamond Shops.
De Beers said its new jewelry will not only be less expensive than mined diamonds, but also cost less than lab-grown stones from competitors.
The synthetic stones will retail from $200 for a quarter-carat stone to $800 for a one-carat stone -- and include pink, blue and white diamonds, De Beers said.
"We will introduce more designs and colors as the range evolves," Lightbox Jewelry General Manager Steve Coe added.
This article has been adapted from its original source.
