Lab-grown gems shine

Anglo American may not be the most obvious place to launch the quest for the perfect Christmas under-tree crowdpleaser, but this year Santa is likely to be sending great squadrons of elves to load up the sleigh with Lightbox’s sparkly offerings. Lightbox is part of De Beers’ Element Six synthetics business, and it is breaking new ground for De Beers by flogging laboratorygrown diamond jewellery straight from its shiny new website to the delighted consumer.

Sadly for the local punter, Lightbox is shipping only to the US for the time being, so anybody looking to take the plunge had better display some nifty footwork. But even if you’re paying in rand, Lightbox’s pricing is so aggressive that you get considerable bang for your buck.

The offering is also refreshingly simple, with white, blue or pink stones going for $200 a quarter-carat plus $100 for a silver setting and $200 for gold. This tosses up the ethical dilemma of whether you should stay with the Lightbox packaging or stick the jewellery in an old De Beers box and operate on a need-to-know basis.

Lightbox is not making rings, and it stresses that its stones are for moments rather than milestones, thus implying that you should be adding an extra zero and going for a natural stone if you’re looking at an engagement ring, for example.

The interesting question is whether De Beers will succeed in promoting the lab-grown diamond as a completely different beast from the natural, or whether the punters will sneak one look at the price differential and take the rational view.

Even if you’re paying for the jewellery in rand, you get considerable bang for your buck