In 2017, in celebration of the 1O-year anniversary of Dutch Diamond Group, CEO Ton Janssen and his team, attempted and succeeded to create the first full diamond lab-grown ring. At that time, it was an innovative and experimental process to show the unique abilities of the DD Group and not made for commercial use.
The piece is still visible today in the DIVA museum in Antwerp. That piece created so much attention worldwide, that he got an offer from the oldest European Jewellery house, Heursel, to make a second version, but this time as a high-end luxury piece of jewellery. It took two attempts and more than 1.600 hours of blood, sweat and tears, but they did it again.
What proved to be a challenge in 2017, remains a complex operation today. That it wasn’t smooth sailing, was made very clear when his first attempt at reproducing this result shattered at Christmas 2021, during the cleaning process, after 1.300 hours of work. After restarting the process, materials were shipped in from Germany and together with the Antwerp company Spitsdiam they started on a new design.
The pre-grinding took about 80 hours in-house at DD Group. For the facets, they came to Belgium, which took almost 300 hours. But the hardest part, the inside was by far the inside polishing which took more than 750 hours. A big difference in comparison to an average small diamond where you polish for about 8 hours.
After certification by HRD Antwerp, the ring will go to New York and through Hong Kong to its final destination in China, where a happy client will be able to wear the first full diamond lab-grown ring. DD Group is not planning to sell this design commercially.
The results of the ring are the following: Diamond Type: CVD lab-grown diamond - Carat Weight: 4.04 ct - Shape: Ring - Clarity: VVS2 - Color: D - Polish: EXC - Symmetry: EXC.
Alex Shishlo for Rough&Polished
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