I understand where you are coming from logically, but one obvious answer: for the same reason people buy antique furniture that may be less structurally sound and comfortable than modern reproductions that look equally beautiful to the naked eye.
I don’t think man-made diamonds are ever going to replace natural diamonds as jewelry. I think diamonds as “meaningful” jewelry will eventually disappear entirely. In the not-to-distant future you’ll be able to get a full-sized single-crystal diamond coffee table. In a few generations having a few teeny diamond chips attached to your fingers will be seen as tacky, whether they’re natural or artificial. Yeah, people will still have diamond jewelry, but it will be seen as lower-class costume jewelry stuff.
Because if your fiancee’s girlfriends find out, they will look down their nose at her?
I expected this counter-argument, which is agood one. To say the truth, I’d rather have antique furniture. That’s would be because I’m amazed that someone made the thing so long ago… You should see me gawking at, say, a rusty roman nail, thinking : “well…there was this blacksmith, 2000 years ago, who was hammering on this nail, wondering what he was going to eat when he will have delivered the nail to his neighbor Mr Septurnius, who needed it to fix some furniture”. Old man-made things amaze me.
However, I doubt that most people who insist on having a “real” diadmond are really interested in it being billions years old. I suspect it’s more about the social issue … (what the in-laws, neighbor’s wife, etc…will think).
By the way, I like precious stones (but actually colored stones, not much diamonds), and if I were a woman, I would probably waste a lot of money on shiny things. But I like them for there appearance. If you give me a 2 dollars artificial sapphire, I’ll be exactly as happy as with a “real” one. Sole exception, once again : if said sapphire was cut 300 years ago, for the aleady mentionned reason.
If my fiancee thinks that way, she won’t be my fiancee any longer, in all likehood (or more likely, she’d ever have been my fiancee at the first place). I positively hate greediness and materialism, and even more so when associated with a supposedly loving relationship. That’s a complete deal-breaker for me.
So, “I want a biggger/real/whatever diamond” would make me reconsider any marriage plan (exception : potential spouse happens to be really fond of diamonds, like people are fond of, say, enamels, and it’s not out of desire to impress or for such similarily vain and vile reason that she wants it).
Besides, I wouldn’t lie on such a thing.
Anyway, engagements became quite rare in France (the last one I remember attending was when I was a child, they were rather social than private affairs), and there’s absolutely no tradition of an “engagement diamond” over here. Fotunately, the De beers propaganda never took hold on this side of the Atlantic.
I heard a few years back on “Wha’dya Know” that a survey said that, even if there was no way their fiancees would find out, 90% of men would still not try to pawn off a cubic zirconia as a diamond in an engagement ring. The host, contestants, audience, and I agreed that this proved that 90% of men are liars.
I think there’s a difference of terminology, here. In the US, the engagement is the period of time between when the couple decides to get married and when they actually do, and surely you have that in France, as well. The engagement typically starts with an event of sorts where the man presents the diamond and pops the question, but this is typically in some intimate setting with nobody else known to the couple (it might be in a public restaraunt, but the other diners would probably be strangers). What is an “engagement” to the French?
Interestingly rigged test. The gems were placed in water for that “demonstration” test. So instead of the less than 10% increase (2.65/2.42) in RI you’d have in air, you see (2.65-1.33)/(2.42-1.33) or a ~21% difference in refractive index.
I’d also not be suprised if the “new and improved” stone were not cut to preserve total internal reflection while in water, while the old diamond was cut to “sparkle” in air. I could be that they are the same geometry, but the higher RI is just enough to preserve TIR.
Also, the “demonstration” makes note of the colors, which are due to dispersion, not RI.
I guess if you want to impress your gal, and she happens to be a Mermaid, it would make a lot of sense to choose a stone based on how well it sparkles underwater.
The reason why fake diamonds will never catch is that there is a perceived value or investment in real diamonds.
A while back there was a fantastic article about the Diamond Industry and how the American Market lagged behind the European market. Here it was tradition to give Grandma’s diamond to the next generation. Essentially, recycling the diamond and cutting out DeBeers.
They came out with an advertising promo that took over, and I want to say it was either pre ww2 or shortly thereafter, that slowly turned that recycling diamond mentality into ‘Doesn’t She Deserve The Best’ and ‘Isn’t 2 months salary for her worth it’ mentality. Within two generations, every woman is buying new diamonds.
DeBeers are, if anything, marketing geniuses.
The entire "right hand ring’ is nothing short of brilliance! If you can’t get your man or if you don’t have a man to buy you a ring, then show your independance and buy what you like for yourself. They are amazing in this area.
Very few diamonds, FTR, are really investment diamonds. You know the kind that Liz Taylor has or some famous celebrity or royalty. Those are investment diamonds. The kind that are worth hundreds of thousands already.
The diamond I am wearing on my hand, the only that is near flawless and has outstanding clarity…I could probably get $200 for it, despite the fact that my husband paid at least $1200.
Most diamonds cannot hold the test of time financially speaking and are a lousy investment.
I wish I could find the article…I could have sworn it was the Atlantic Journal that did it within the last 8 years, but I can’t locate it. It eludicated the entire history and deception far better than I ever could.
It should be noted that the Wired article above talks about man made diamonds…not CZ or something. Man made diamonds are real diamonds in every sense of the word. There is nothing that makes them less of a diamond than one that comes out of the ground. Heck…they are flawless too so may even be considered superior to a “natural” diamond.
A young friend of mine took his fiancee to look at wedding rings. Both my friend and his fiancee are on a very tight budget, and they agreed that if they got any sparkly stones, they’d go for CZ. The jeweler got very snotty about this and said to the girl, “I suppose you’re going to carry a plastic bouquet and have your honeymoon at Motel 6.”
My friend and his bride-to-be went elsewhere for their rings.