For his second proposal to Jlo, Ben Affleck opted for a green diamond. This announcement generated a spike in searches, and revived the general public’s curiosity about colored diamonds.
It was enough for Ben Affleck to propose – for the second time – to his sweetheart Jennifer Lopez, with a ring adorned with a green diamond, for the whole media scene to go wild. Could JLo be setting a new trend? That’s the question.
In a market dominated by the inevitable white diamond, colored diamonds have always been the choice of the outsiders but also connoisseurs. And yet, these gems are leaving their mark like a milestone in the history of jewelry, following the example of the famous “Tiffany Diamond”- a sumptuous 128.54 carat yellow diamond worn by Beyoncé, in the About Love advertising campaign as the new ambassador of the American brand.
These rarer coloured diamonds fetch a high price. Sotheby’s has been known to sell them on several occasions, the last one in 2015 for a “Blue Moon” diamond that was auctioned for 48.7 million dollars. Coincidentally, Sotheby’s is preparing to sell another blue diamond, the De Beers blue, of exceptional quality and size (15.1 carats) in Hong Kong on 27 April.
If, according to the experts, the most popular shades are blue, red and green, it seems that Ben Affleck had the wrong idea. In 2002, the star caused a stir with a Harry Winston ring set with a 6.1-carat pink diamond. Twenty years later, it is the green diamond that happens to be his favorite. With an 8.5-carat diamond, the second ring outshines the first, both in size and price. “I estimate the ring to be worth well over $5 million, and it could even be worth over $10 million. If this is a green diamond, I’m stunned,” Mike Fried, CEO of Diamond Pro, told Page Six. “This piece of jewelry is extremely rare and would dwarf the value of their previous engagement ring,” he concluded.
While the lovers are all happy, the market is watching to see if the spike in online searches for green diamonds will translate into sales. At the very least, the episode will have served to distract from the announcement that the Richemont Group has withdrawn from the Responsible Jewellery Council (RJC) because of doubts about their sourcing of Russian diamonds.
