Lightbox Jewelry, the De Beers–owned lab-grown brand that made waves upon entering the business by charging $800 a carat, has lowered the price of its entry-level product (I and J color diamonds) by nearly 40%, to $500 a carat.
G-H color stones are now priced at $600 per carat. And Lightbox is charging $900 a carat for its top-tier (D, E, or F color) gems, down from their original price of $1,500. All the diamonds have a minimum “very good” cut and VS clarity, while the D-E-F colors have an “excellent” cut, the company said.
These are the first price changes since Lightbox premiered in 2018.
Lightbox originally maintained that its lab-grown diamonds don’t need reports, but its stones will be now be accompanied by downloadable GIA “batch quality verification” reports. For these, GIA will examine a “statistically significant sample [from] each production” to verify their quality, Lightbox said. But GIA won’t offer individual grades; instead, it will just verify that diamonds are D-E-F, G-H, or I-J and meet Lightbox’s specified cut and clarity specifications.
While the new Lightbox prices are lower than most lab-grown sellers, a few retailers have priced their diamonds at similar levels and sometimes even less. Perhaps the most aggressive prices can be found at Walmart, where a 2.5 ct. G-H lab-grown solitaire is selling for $1,299. Ritani is offering a 1.3 ct. I VS2 lab-grown with an IGI report for $371, and Grown Brilliance has a 1 ct. E VS2 lab-grown (with GIA report) priced at $885.
“The wholesale prices of lab-grown diamonds in the jewelry sector continue to decline, and we are pleased to pass on these savings to our customers,” said Sandrine Conseiller, CEO of De Beers Brands, in a statement. “These lower prices will ensure that the brand remains competitive within this fast-evolving sector.”
De Beers CEO Al Cook recently spoke about the company’s strategy for Lightbox on JCK‘s The Jewelry District podcast.
(Photo courtesy of Lightbox Jewelry)
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