Ready to be stoned

A rarity that they are, exorbitant coloured diamonds have caught the fancy of the city’s swish set

Clear diamonds are girls’ best friends no more, because the girls have taken a shine to the coloured diamonds. They come in all shades of a VIBGYOR. And the ones naturally coloured come with a huge price tag. Recently, at a Christie’s auction in Hong Kong, a ring with a chickpea-sized pink diamond was sold for a record price of 10.8 million dollars.

Not just another stone
According to jeweller Vimal Bhai of Jetha Bhai Zaveri brand, “A one-carat pink diamond can cost you Rs 7 lakhs upwards, depending on the shade. The darker the pink, the costlier it would be. While the price of yellow diamond per carat will be 3 lakhs upwards.”

Jewellery designer Dolly Oberoi says she gets orders for pink, yellow and champaign coloured diamonds. “The market for these stones is high-end and niche. A few customers ask me to include them in a diamond set or a ring. Yellow diamonds sell the most, each weighing between two to three carats. But you should not buy fancy diamonds without a certificate of authenticity,” she says.

Praveen Goel of Shree Raj Mahal Jewellers, says that a few customers want clear diamonds to be coloured. “Because of the high cost of these stones, we dye clear diamonds to make them look like natural ones. But we only do that on client’s request. There are people who want coloured a diamond but don’t want to pay for the real one.”

More of bling
Accessories like watches, mobiles and rings and bracelets done in super-expensive diamonds have been patronised by the affluent class the world over. And that describes the market for Christian Dior’s pink diamond watches, Vertu’s deep pink diamonds encrusted mobiles, or De Grisogono’s black diamond jewellery.

Fawaz Gruosi, founder and creator, de Grisogono, says, “We use black, pink, yellow, brown and icy diamonds. Such is the rarity of these stones that only one in every 10,000 diamonds possesses natural colour.”

Meghna Bedi of Dior Watches, says, that it is a product of nature, shaped by millions of years of crystallisation. “Its colour is the product of chance and two natural colour diamonds can’t be identical. It is this uniqueness that gives them all their value. Dior has introduced pink diamonds in timepieces,” she says.