Last year, Jay Moncada, founder of Perpetuum Jewels, a diamond trading company that recycles antique diamonds, told WWD: "For the past 150 years, the United States has been the largest jewelry consumer market and the largest diamond importer, so the next big diamond deposit is hidden in the jewelry boxes of Americans." ”
Now it seems that this prediction is gradually being realized in the context of a good diamond jewelry consumer market.
On February 7, Bain & Company and the Antwerp World Diamond Center jointly released the "Global Diamond Industry 2021-22" research report. Bain & Company pointed out in the report that the diamond industry has bottomed out in 2021 at a faster rate than people expected, and profits across the entire industry chain have returned to pre-epidemic levels.
Notably, Bain & Company highlighted sustainability trends in the diamond industry in its report, noting that many diamond jewelry brands not only proposed and developed their own traceability plans in 2021 in response to this increasingly mainstream industry trend, but also launched new product lines made from recycled and used jewelry diamonds. For example, Tiffany & Co. A new product line made from recycled gold was launched, while Signet launched a series of recycled gold and used diamond products. At the same time, some retailers have also sold second-hand jewelry through new services and capital acquisitions, such as Blue Nile, a jewelry and diamond retail platform founded in 1999, which launched the myGemma product line to provide consumers with a range of high-quality second-hand diamond rings and jewelry, while Kering group acquired a 5% stake in vestiaire Collective, a second-hand luxury e-commerce platform, last year.
Signet
It can be seen that under the background of the continuous growth of jewelry and diamond consumption and the concept of sustainable development has gradually become the consensus of the market, the second-hand jewelry market is ushering in a period of rapid development.
In recent years, the concept of sustainable development has become a global mainstream issue. In the field of jewelry consumption, sustainable development plays an important decision-making role in people's consumption behavior. According to McKinsey's forecast, by 2025, 20% to 30% of the global market's fine jewelry sales will be affected by sustainability concepts.
As a result, the jewelry industry has also made many efforts in terms of sustainability, such as Pandora, the world's largest jeweler, announced in May last year that she would no longer use natural diamonds and switch to the use of artificial diamonds exclusively, declaring that this move is an important step in the company's sustainable development strategy.
Pandora Jewelry
Yet man-made diamonds, billed as more sustainable and fully transparent, actually produce far more carbon emissions and carbon footprint than natural diamonds. While man-made diamonds from laboratories do not have the unethical problems of natural diamonds in the mining process, the production of a man-made diamond also requires a lot of energy, and requires the division of labor in different countries and regions around the world, and its carbon footprint is longer than that of natural diamonds. In addition, man-made diamonds can have an impact on African countries such as Botswana, where diamond exports are the backbone of their economies, such as employment problems.
Therefore, from the perspective of sustainability, whether man-made diamonds are more environmentally friendly than natural diamonds is indeed debatable, but second-hand diamond jewelry, which also belongs to the category of natural diamonds, is obviously a better choice than man-made diamonds.
First of all, second-hand diamond jewelry is in line with the development trend of the fashion circular economy. The process of repurposing recycled diamond jewelry in re-polishing, cutting, designing, and re-flowing back to market produces far fewer carbon emissions and carbon footprint than mining natural diamonds and producing man-made diamonds.
Secondly, the "to be mined" second-hand diamond jewelry resources are very rich, which can make up for the market gap caused by the decline in natural diamond production. Bain & Company pointed out in the "2021-22 Global Diamond Industry" research report that in the context of the epidemic is not over, diamond rough production can only grow at a rate of no more than 2% in the next five years. In 2022, although rough diamond production can reach more than 1.2 million carats, the contradiction between supply and demand between increased market demand and declining production capacity will lead to a sustained increase in rough diamond prices. The continued decline in global diamond mining has also forced many jewelry brands to turn their attention to second-hand jewelry diamonds.
Perpetuum Jewels
So against the backdrop of declining natural diamond mining, growing jewelry consumption also means that more diamond jewelry will remain in the hands of global consumers. As Jay Moncada told WWD, "the next big diamond deposit is hidden in an American jewelry box," in other words, with a well-established recycling mechanism, the number of second-hand recycled jewelry diamonds worldwide will be considerable.
Unlike the fashion bag resale market, fashion bags will suffer a discount loss due to traces of use and time of use, but second-hand jewelry diamonds will not. First of all, the properties of jewelry diamonds are very stable, and diamonds are the hardest substances known to mankind. As a result, they can circulate in the market for decades, centuries or even without any traces of wear, so recycled second-hand diamond jewelry will still be priced according to color, clarity and size.
Driven by the continued tight jewelry consumer market, people often get unexpected surprises when reselling diamond jewelry because of the resale price higher than the purchase price, so people are more willing to sell their diamond jewelry to recyclers, and the role of consumers will thus become a "private supplier" of the second-hand jewelry and diamond market, continuously providing jewelry and diamond supplies for this market.
In terms of the supply of raw materials and the concept of sustainable consumption, second-hand jewelry diamonds are undoubtedly very much in line with the current market trend.
In fact, second-hand diamond jewelry is not a product of the epidemic, on the contrary, it has a long history.
In Both Eastern and Western cultures, diamond jewelry has always been a symbol of wealth, and it has a certain value consensus that can be reached without education and popularization. Coupled with the fact that diamond jewelry is inherently extremely stable, it can be passed down from generation to generation as a material wealth.
In Europe, many royalty and aristocrats had a tradition of collecting jeweled diamonds, which were often passed down from generation to generation in the family as gifts or as a symbol of power. In the process of circulation, they will also redesign and transform these jewelry diamonds according to different needs, giving them a new look.
Princess Diana and Princess Kate both wore the same Cambridge Valentine's Knot crown
In China, the Chinese people have always regarded gold and silver jewelry as heirlooms and passed them on from generation to generation. In the southeast coastal area, the elders will bring out their ancestral gold jewelry and jewelry as gifts for their children and grandchildren when they get married. And the younger generations will also take these "inherited" jewelry to some jewelers and redesign it - the gold is still the gold, the diamond is still the diamond, but it has changed from the bracelet or earring in the mother's hand to a more fashionable, younger necklace.
So from this point of view, the consumption of second-hand diamond jewelry and the redesign of "old jewelry" actually have a very solid mass base. Compared with the need to "educate" consumers about man-made diamonds, second-hand diamond jewelry that is still scarce, natural and luxurious is more likely to be accepted by consumers. Because for a long time, the value identity of second-hand diamond jewelry has existed in people's traditional cognition, and the beautiful imagination of "diamonds are eternal and passed on forever" has been perfectly reflected in these second-hand diamond jewelry.
The beautiful imagination of "a diamond is eternal, a diamond that lasts forever" is perfectly reflected in these second-hand diamond jewelry
The Natural Diamond Association is very optimistic about the market trend of second-hand diamonds. "We focus on the timeless value of diamonds, both financially and emotionally. I think it's going to bring it back to the forefront of consumer awareness and demonstrate the value proposition of diamond uniqueness, the sustainability that people want rather than something that's disposable and has no eternal value. David Kellie, CEO of the Natural Diamond Association, told WWD.
Kristina Buckley Kayel, managing director of natural diamond association North America, said: "The trend of second-hand diamonds has been popular for some time. Today's younger consumers prefer customized, unique products, so many jewelry brands are paying attention to this trend. "Used diamonds are more attractive to younger consumers than newly mined diamonds. First of all, they have a special emotional value because of the time and story given by the "former owners", and secondly, after recycling, they will have more new style designs to meet the individual needs of the younger generation.
Coupled with the home isolation caused by the epidemic, people who are "trapped" in their homes have therefore passively have more time to "re-examine" the old jewelry they own or inherit from their families. The best way to bring these old jewels back to life is to send them to professional boutique jewelry brands, and through customized designs, they have designs that conform to the aesthetics of the moment and give them new life.
In this regard, jewelry industry analyst Hedda Schupak pointed out that providing consumers with "ancestral jewelry" redesign services is a huge business opportunity for small or independent jewelry brands, because they can more flexibly redesign these old jewelry according to consumer needs than large jewelry brands. At the same time, Hedda Schupak also said that the cost of this custom design will not be less than the price of buying a new piece of jewelry, but with the increase in people's awareness of sustainable consumption and the rise of millennial consumers, the old jewelry customization business will become more and more popular.
Some insiders pointed out that once young consumers have more spending power or inherit more jewelry and diamond jewelry from their elders, they will become the biggest driving force to promote the consumption of second-hand jewelry and diamonds. Although second-hand diamonds do not have the advantage of man-made diamonds in terms of price, and sometimes even higher than newly mined diamonds, they still have a strong appeal to young consumers with their uniqueness and the story behind them.
David Kellie believes that the trend of recycled diamond consumption in the US market will be the most obvious growth, followed by Europe, the United Kingdom and China. "As the concept of diamond engagement rings becomes more accepted by more young people, the demand for diamond jewelry in the Chinese market will continue to rise. But the trend towards recycling diamonds is likely to be relatively delayed, as the chinese market as a whole is not yet receptive to second-hand recycled jewelry. ”
However, it is worth noting that in China's second-hand luxury goods market, which will reach a market size of 34.8 billion yuan in 2025, as one of the smaller subdivisions at present, the growth space for second-hand jewelry accessories is still huge.
From the brand side, most of the brands that currently enter the second-hand jewelry are independent designer brands, and jewelry brands such as Catbird and Brilliant Earth, which are mainly aimed at millennial consumers, are already recycling their idle diamonds from consumers in their own way.
Leigh Plessner, creative director of Catbird, who added used recycled diamonds to his products in 2015, told WWD: "I think people just want to buy their favorite and satisfying jewelry, and whether the material is recycled or artificial is actually ranked after the style design." We're making these changes to let people know that we're moving the industry forward in the best possible way. ”
Catbird
As for industry giants like Cartier and Bulgari, they still haven't extended their supply chain tentacles to the field of second-hand diamond jewelry. In the future, whether these giants will join the ranks of second-hand diamond jewelry and jointly promote the improvement and development of this field remains to be seen. But some brands may be able to use the practice as a reference for future trends, and many jewelry brands with a long history will look for their past classics in the market and buy them back from the owners of these jewelry to supplement their brand archives, which not only somehow fits the concept of recycled diamonds, but also helps brands build a more complete brand culture.
The question of whether used diamond jewelry will change the rules of the industry may not be solved at present. But the only thing that is certain is that the market space for second-hand recycled diamond jewelry will continue to expand, driven by the continued popularity of hard luxury consumption. The characteristics of luxury and scarcity will still satisfy consumers' imagination of jewelry, and the emotional value behind some second-hand jewelry and the new life given after redesign will be the driving force that attracts more and more consumers to the second-hand jewelry consumer market. WWD
Written by Jason
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