It was the September 2003 cover story of Wired magazine that truly heralded "The New Diamond Age." Writer Joshua Davis profiled two start-up firms, Gemesis and Apollo, that had begun manufacturing gem-quality synthetic diamonds. "This sudden arrival of mass-produced gems threatens to alter the public's perception of diamonds -- and to transform the $7 billion industry," Davis wrote.

Synthetic diamonds, of course, are not new: Those pursuing DIY millionaire dreams have been trying to make their own diamonds for centuries -- often getting burned or maimed in the process. As the diamond industry itself points out, synthetic diamonds have been available since the 1950s, when General Electric developed a way to transform graphite into diamond. The De Beers company even has had a hand in this business, as the largest producer of synthetic diamonds for industrial use. Until now, prohibitive manufacturing costs have kept companies from making jewelry-quality gems that can compete with the real thing. But these new diamonds are not only inexpensive to produce, but they're also virtually indistinguishable from natural diamonds -- even in the lab.

Gemesis, based in Sarasota, Fla., is the best known of this new breed of diamond makers, creating showstopping yellow and orange diamonds similar to the colored natural diamonds that have been spotted on bling-sporting celebs like JLo. The lab-made yellow diamonds are a quarter of the cost of natural ones; a Gemesis diamond might cost $4,500 to $5,000 per carat, whereas a comparable natural fancy yellow might cost $15,000 to $20,000 a karat.

The Gemesis process uses high pressure combined with high temperature to mimic the way that diamonds are formed naturally underground. With hydraulics and electricity, the machines focus increasing amounts of pressure and heat onto a "core" of carbon. David Hellier, the president of Gemesis, prefers an analogy to cultured pearls, saying that the machine is "simply a vessel to control or manage the growth process."

The technology, though, cannot produce white diamonds, the most popular and available type of the diamond on the market. Hellier claims that Gemesis has no plans to try to create one, citing pricing as one rationale: "There is more value in the fancy colored diamonds because they simply don't exist at price points similar to white diamonds." Instead, Gemesis is focusing on the colored-diamond market; it's excitedly promoting its introduction next year of a blue diamond, among the most rare.

Boston-based Apollo Diamonds uses a completely different process to create diamonds -- white diamonds, among others -- that could ultimately prove more significant. Apollo diamonds are grown using what the company calls "modified Chemical Vapor Deposition technology." In this complicated, patented process, Apollo fine-tunes temperature, gas composition and pressure to create the perfect combination to produce synthetic diamonds. The result is an extremely pure crystal, which makes it almost impossible for even the most sophisticated equipment to discern the difference between these and natural diamonds.

More important to Apollo: The diamonds are a key element in enabling the company to compete in the semiconductor market. As Davis explained in Wired, semiconductors require diamond wafers. The CVD process allows Apollo to make almost-natural diamond wafers in bigger sizes than previously possible.

Bryant Linares, the president and CEO of Apollo, sums up the company's operations by saying its "cultured diamonds" will be significant in three major markets "beginning with the gemstone market and followed closely by the optics/electronics and nanotechnology markets." Linares confirms that Apollo intends to start selling water-clear diamonds for jewelry in the latter half of next year. Does Apollo have any deals with Harry Winston's or Tiffany's? Linares responded to this question with a written statement: "Apollo Diamond is currently in discussions with several prospective high-end international partners in the gemstone industry, whom we cannot name at this time."

The Wired article caused major ripples in the slick veneer of the diamond industry's confidence. Most of the responses have been subtle yet strong. Martin Rapaport, the chairman of the Rapaport Group, an international network of companies involved in many aspects of the diamond and jewelry trade, addressed the "cultured diamond" situation in this way: "Of primary concern to the entire jewelry industry are the three Ds -- detection, disclosure and documentation. An additional concern for natural diamond producers is that legitimate, fairly disclosed man-made diamonds will compete with natural diamonds. Such competition may shift jewelry demand away from natural diamonds and reduce or restrain natural prices."

The two major industry associations, the Gemological Institute of America and the International Gemological Institute, have seriously undercut the synthetic diamonds' credibility by refusing to grade or evaluate such diamonds with the famous "four C's" standard (carat, color, clarity, cut). The GIA's public stance on the matter is that synthetic diamonds should not be categorized like natural diamonds. As GIA's president, William E. Boyajian, has said, "GIA's policy is, as it always has been, that there is nothing inherently wrong with synthetics, provided they can be identified and are properly disclosed." From such statements, it is clear that the GIA thinks these lab-made gems make lovely jewelry, but they are not and never will be in the class of "real" diamonds.

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