De Beers has announced the launch of a new company – Lightbox Jewelry – to market a new brand of lab-grown diamond jewelry under the Lightbox name, and produced by De Beers’ synthetics lab Element Six. According to a press release, the brand will be revealed in September and feature “high-quality, fashion jewelry designs at lower prices than existing lab-grown diamond offerings”.
Lightbox lab-grown diamonds will come in pink, blue and white, and will retail from $200 for a 0.25-carat stone to $800 for a 1-carat stone. The line will have a selection of earring and necklace designs. Lightbox will launch in the US and will initially be available to US-based consumers through the Lightbox e-commerce website. De Beers says it is investing a total of $94 million over four years in a new Element Six production facility near Portland, Oregon, and that the plant will be able to produce “upwards of 500,000 rough carats of lab-grown diamonds a year” once it’s fully operational.
Bruce Cleaver, CEO of De Beers, said: “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 […] After decades of R&D investment, we’re able to offer consumers a better price today […]”.
