GN Diamond: Where great prices lead to true partnerships. The diamond source that thousands of jewelers trust.
This week’s Saturday Long Read on the Blood Diamond movie received many interesting reactions, most like this one, from Rob Karpati, who works with artisanal miners:
As synthetic diamonds take dominant share from natural diamonds, the industry needs to figure out how to rebrand in ways that justify prices, and maybe this rebranding can center around responsibility, where an end customer isn’t just buying a diamond that lasts forever, but also a diamond whose production improved lives.
That actually came a few days after a post from Sean Dunn, of J.R. Dunn in Lighthouse Point, Fla., where he discusses what he sees as a great opportunity to sell based on ethical origin:
People don’t get engaged to support a supply chain. They buy a diamond because they’re in love. But knowing where it began, who found it, who cut it, and how it reached them gives that symbol more meaning.
It becomes a storied piece. Perhaps a future heirloom whose story gets passed down with it.
Now, when I see Sean’s enthusiasm for these projects, I know they will be successful. Passion means a lot in the sales process.
That said, I would caution everyone, including supporters of these kind of initiatives—and I count myself among them—not to get ahead of yourselves and risk damaging what could be promising and meaningful businesses. We still don’t know how consumers will react to them. It’s still an unproven business model.
That doesn’t mean you don’t try new things. It means you test them first. You may have a great plan. But as the saying goes, “No plan survives contact with reality.”
I am reminded of something Amber Pepper, the new CEO of the Natural Diamond Council, said during the World Diamond Congress in Singpaore:
My observation as an [industry] outsider is there is very little conversation around the consumer. Normally, if you come from a brand or marketing perspective, you are the voice of the consumer in the room, and you don’t think about, “How do we tell the story we want?” You don’t start from what you want to do. You start from what he or she wants to hear.
(Her predecessor said much the same. So, for that matter, have marketers from De Beers.)
Pepper notes that you must appeal to “shared values” with consumers, but different people value different things. Some prize “authenticity” and “heritage” more than helping people across the globe. Everyone is different.
Some, of course, will value price the most. And those are the ones who may choose lab-grown.
At another point, Pepper talked about how retailers should look at their shoppers, which I think provides a good framework about how to view diamond marketing overall:
Who is our consumer? Why is she loyal to us? And what does she want to hear from us? Is that about provenance? Is that about heritage? Is it about inherent value? Is she shopping here because her mother and father shopped here? Is she shopping here because it's a new trend with her friends? You think about what is the piece that is going to convert and be meaningful for him or for her. And that's what you push.
Lucara, owner of the Karowe mine in Botswana, says the market is “showing signs of a K-shaped recovery” in its latest financial results:
Larger, rarer and higher-value goods show stronger price performance, supported by constrained supply and resilient demand, while smaller commercial categories recover more gradually and continue to face pricing pressure. Encouragingly, positive price movement is becoming evident across rough and polished markets, suggesting that conditions are beginning to stabilize after a prolonged downturn. Macroeconomic uncertainty and lab-grown substitution remain headwinds, particularly in price-sensitive categories; however, tightening natural diamond supply, improving sentiment, and emerging price momentum provide an increasingly positive outlook for the remainder of 2026.
Counterpoint: The Jewelry Wire has talked to traders who say they’re not feeling an upturn yet.
This ad from an Indian jewelry chain, which has a store in Iselin, N.J., is bewitching and surprisingly elaborate—and has over 14 million views.
Here are the links Jewelry Wire readers clicked the most last week:
1. Jewelry ad of the week: Pandora (YouTube)
2. Natural Diamond Council unveils strategy to reignite diamond demand (GJEPC)
3. Israel’s diamond industry collapses as veteran traders become taxi drivers and money changers (Ynet)
4. Economist urges Namibia to drop De Beers partnership (Mining Insight News)
5. The Diamond Dudes, episode 5: Luxury jewelry is booming. So why are diamond mines closing? (YouTube)
Sunjay Ghandi’s Substack, Uncut, looks at the Luanda Accord, the funding mechanism for the Natural Diamond Council:
Under the Luanda Accord signed in June 2025, each signatory commits to channel 1% of their rough sales revenue to collective marketing efforts. The keyword here is signatories, not necessarily all diamond producers in the world. That doesn’t really matter, though. Even if every single producer in the world were to sign on the dotted line, this is what the funding would look like.
The math is straightforward. In 2024, global rough diamond production was valued at $11.48 billion. In 2022, the strongest year on record, it had reached $15.96 billion. Putting the 1% requirement on it yields a figure somewhere between $115 and $160 million. That doesn’t give enough funds for a serious effort in the U.S., let alone the rest of the world.
“If there’s a lack of confidence, people will buy gold. They always have, and they always will.”
—Michele Schneider, chief market strategist at MarketGauge, to Kitco News
Today’s jewelry links cover Bucherer, Rolex, Tenoris, Watches of Switzerland, LML Brand Holdings, Seiko, the World Gold Council, Nirav Modi, Anna P. Jay, Marilyn Monroe, and Carol Channing
LML Brand Holdings acquires Indian jewelry brands Asmi and Sangini (Indian Retailer)
Why is live selling booming? (Watch Insider)
“The rapid unraveling” of Nirav Modi (CNN; subscription)
How Marilyn Monroe’s performance of “Diamonds are a Girl’s Best Friend” was inspired by Carol Channing (Parade)
Vietnam gold firms face fresh scrutiny after inspection findings (Bloomberg)
World Gold Council, Dynacor sign deal on artisanal gold mining (Investing.com)
U.S. consumers buying fewer pieces of jewelry, but at higher price tags (Tenoris)
Seiko share price quadruples as watch sales continue to soar (WatchPro)
Watches of Switzerland rating withdrawn at issuer’s request (S&P Global)
Bucherer CEO Guido Zumbühl talks relations with Rolex, interest in carrying more jewelry (Bilanz; translation)
Private jeweler Anna P. Jay talks “impractical” engagement ring styles (Business Insider)
Brooklynite’s diamond, platinum rings rescued from dump with sanitation department’s help (The Gothamist)
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