Between high gold prices, more appealing platinum prices, and ever-dropping costs of lab-grown diamonds (LGDs), the jewelry market is an interesting one for consumers to navigate now.
At press time, gold hovered at the $3,500 mark but that sum still manages not to discourage shoppers from buying it. In bridal, yellow gold is experiencing a resurgence at the same time that “demand for platinum from independent retailers and major chains has increased,” according to findings in the Plumb Club Industry & Market Insights Report 2025. “The white metal is now priced at less than half of what gold commands for an ounce,” the PC Report continued.

Plus, platinum sales from Platinum Guild International’s primary strategic partner, Anglo American Platinum, increased 6.8% year-on-year according to Platinum Jewellery Business Review 2024.

Frederick Goldman

Everyone in the industry—and many outside of it—know about the inroads made by LGDs in the wedding category. Findings in The Knot 2023 Real Weddings Survey reveal that nearly half, or 46%, of engagement ring center stones were reported to be lab-grown in 2023, a sum that is nearly four times as high as it was in 2019.

In January 2023, engagement ring sales were 50/50 between natural and LGDs per Tenoris’s 2023 Diamond Analytics Survey: When Will Lab-Grown Diamonds Be the Majority? And 74% of PC Report respondents stated that they would be open to giving or receiving an engagement ring with an LGD. Knowing their benefit, they can be hard to resist, particularly for young couples.

Bigger and higher quality for less money than mined? Sign me up, say many first-time couples. More data from Tenoris reveals that sales in 1,300 U.S. retail stores saw LGD engagement ring sales increase 33% from 2022 to 2023; all those retail prices were under $5,000. The U.S. is the leading market for LGDs. Challenges exist, however in China and India, where the manufactured products “struggle to gain traction due to their low resale value and limited perception as intergenerational assets,” according to the PC Report.

And given the significant drop in LGD production costs—some estimates have them at about $600 triple keystone a carat—they can make everyone’s “Diamond Dream” a reality.

“With LGDs, there is really no more entry level,” observes Jeffrey Cohen, president of Craft Lab Grown Diamonds, a division of H.K. Designs. “LGDs have allowed every customer to purchase a ring which would have been considered aspirational not that many years ago.”

Treliss Worldwide Inc. doesn’t make that much bridal jewelry, but when it does, an LGD center stone in a nice setting can run $4,000 at retail. In mined? “About $20,000 at the end of the day,” says Aadesh Zaveri, owner.

Ostbye’s engagement styles are made mainly for new brides, and their price points reflect that fact.

“Our first-time couples average between $5,000 to $10,000 for their engagement ring,” says Theresa Namie, merchandise manager.

 H.K. Designs

As LGD prices continue to decline, “retailers have fewer incentives to actively promote them over natural diamonds, which offer higher profit margins,” reveals Boston Consulting Group’s “Future of the Natural Diamond Industry” report, which also highlights that “over 70% of consumer conversions to LGDs from natural diamonds occur in-store.”

And with all the erratic prices in the diamond market, the colored gemstone market for bridal has gotten a boost; many consumers see value in a natural product with prices that can’t stop climbing (for top-end goods at least). According to another statistic cited in the PC Report, the colored gemstone market could triple by 2035, with North America driving the greatest demand.