Lab-grown diamonds

Creating our jewels exclusively with lab-grown diamonds is a conscious choice. In our ALTR Tech lab in India, we recreate Earth’s billion-year process in 600 hours with renewable energy. For every carat, a mined diamond requires 7300 litres of water and emits 160kg CO2. In comparison, every carat of lab-grown diamonds requires just 1 litre of water and 12kg of CO2. (Trucost Report 2017). However, a lab-grown diamond's crystal structure and chemical composition are identical to one extracted from the Earth.

There is no difference between a lab-grown diamond and a mined one, but its method. As Unsaid chooses, growing diamonds means creating them in a controlled environment, accelerating nature’s process and transforming Earth’s elements without disrupting nature. A diamond is the hardest material on Earth, a symbol of eternity. Unsaid preserves its timelessness through more sustainable methods by using the power of the sun, sky and Earth to create a clean and entirely pure diamond. Classified as Type IIa, the most prized and collectable type of diamond, they have no chemical impurities on the lattice, meaning the entire diamond crystal is made of carbon. As a result, only 5% of mined diamonds can be compared.

Unsaid diamonds are created by placing a diamond seed inside a sealed chamber heated to approximately 800 degrees Celsius. Then, in a chemical vapour deposition (CVD) process, the chamber is filled with methane gas created from animal waste, hydrogen gas extracted from recycled water, and carbon gas, which ionises into plasma and breaks the molecular bonds of the gasses. With renewable energy, the diamond's growing process continues as the pure carbon adheres to the seed and crystallises, forming a diamond with the same scintillation, flash, fire and brilliance as a mined stone.

Growing diamonds in a lab allows remarkable flexibility as size, cut, and colour can all be predetermined. We can now design our pieces first and then grow the diamonds to exact specifications, making genuinely remarkable and original jewellery pieces.