The popularity of Diamonds has grown from century to century; starting with the moneyed aristocracy and merchant classes, it was soon coveted by the common man and the role of De Beers in creating this ‘need’ cannot be emphasized enough. The stone of the century was entirely a natural product created by Mother Nature in a mine over millions of years till a Swedish engineer named Anders Kampe set out to manufacture one in his laboratory. He succeeded in his efforts in 1953 and set the stage for Synthetic (or man made) Diamonds.

The man made diamond industry is now worth a billion dollars. Of the 3 billion carats (in weight) produced today, 130 million carat is used as Gemstones. Korea initiated this man made diamond industry in 1980 to be followed by China and today there are many man made diamond industries around the world. Most of these generate what we know as Cubic Zirconia or American Diamond, as it is called in common parlance. Produced by High Pressure High Temperature (HPHT) processes, these man made stones have all the same properties as a natural diamond, often making it difficult to differentiate from the original. Nitrogen impurities are used to give the yellow color and the addition of Boron or irradiation after synthetisation helps to create other colors such as blue, green or pink.

Cubic Zirconia is affordable and easy to maintain, produces very attractive jewelry and is a good seller. A lay person could easily confuse a cubic zirconia for a diamond. The main difference between the two is the weight: a cubic zirconia is three times heavier than a diamond.

The other man made product set to compete with the real thing is Moissanite; it matches the beauty and brilliance of a natural diamond without the same price tag (though more expensive than Zircon). Moissanite is almost as strong as a diamond and supercedes it in a heat resistance test: the temperature that vaporizes a natural diamond leaves a Moissanite unaffected!!! It is also lighter than diamond and as transparent and hard. As a result, this stone has more sheen, sharper surfaces and good hardiness; it is entirely possible to place loose Moissanite stones directly into the individual frames. While 18k gold melts at 900 °C, Moissanite will remain unaffected at temperatures higher than this also. This characteristic translates into achieving a more perfect design and ease of repairs without damaging the stone.

Since the advent of diamond substitutes was marked by products such as cut glass, cubic zirconia and rhinestone, Moissanite was also greeted as an inferior product of the same rank. However, as its characteristics are coming to the fore, industry experts are much impressed and it is all set to storm the bastion of natural diamonds. Considered today as one of man’s finest laboratory creations, a Moissanite diamond’s popularity is growing. It was introduced into the commercial arena less than a decade ago in 1998 and remains fairly exclusive and not known to the masses. The reasons for its acquisition are also shifting from just affordability, which was/is the guiding factor for Zirconia, to Moissanite diamond’s ability to match and even surpass at times, the natural beauty of the real thing and at a price far easier on the pocket.

The origins of the Moissanite are also very interesting. In 1893, the Nobel-Prize winning scientist Henri Moissan was analyzing fragments of a meteorite that crashed into the Arizona desert some thousands of years ago. In these fragments, he discovered minute quantities of a shimmering new mineral that he identified as silicon carbide and which was given his name in 1905: MOISSANITE. Almost 75 years later, a North Carolina company named CREE developed a proprietary process for producing large crystals of Moissanite. And it was only in the summer of 1995 that a master diamond cutter suggested that once properly cut, these crystals would make a superb new jewel. For three years, scientists from CREE and Charles & Colvard worked to achieve jewel-like qualities in this synthetic silicon carbide and it was introduced to the public in 1998.

It is a fact that this gemstone is so superior that it often misleads jewelers who depend on the older thermal testers. Moissanite is tough and has much more fire than diamond; it also maintains its patina over time. And of course, the final bottom line is that a Moissanite of similar size and color costs one tenth of a natural diamond. It is only ‘natural’ then that Moissanite jewelry finds a place at an ever increasing variety of retail outlets.