Lightbox is Dead, Long Live Natural Diamonds

Synthetic diamond growing at De Beers' Element Six facility in Oregon, which will now focus on lab grown for industrial use. (De Beers Lightbox)

What are we to make of the De Beers Lightbox experiment?

The company launched its lab-grown diamond brand at the JCK Las Vegas show in May 2018. This week, it announced the brand’s final closure — a move that, in its own words, “reinforces De Beers Group’s commitment to natural diamonds in the jewelry sector.”

Looking back on its seven-year journey, Lightbox often felt like a brand destined to fail — not for lack of resources or execution, but because of its inherent contradiction. It was positioned as a disruptor of the disruptive lab-grown sector, all in an effort to bolster the appeal of natural diamonds.

It was a bold, risky play by then-CEO Bruce Cleaver, who later called Lightbox “one of the scariest things” he’d ever done (see his exit interview with JCK Online).

Understandably so; the backlash of the launch was immediate. Many in the trade viewed the move as De Beers giving its blessing to lab-grown diamonds at a time when the product was still seeking legitimacy. Lab-grown proponents seized the moment — “Even De Beers approves,” they proclaimed — while natural diamond loyalists expressed frustration, seeing the move as a betrayal.

Yet De Beers’ intentions were clear: to create a visible distinction between lab-grown and natural diamonds, especially in terms of positioning and price. If it couldn’t keep lab-grown diamonds out of the market, it would try to shape how they were perceived within it.

Lightbox introduced a cost-plus pricing model, offering diamonds at a flat $800 per carat regardless of size or quality — a stark contrast to the exponential value curve of natural diamonds. The message was clear: these stones are manufactured, not rare, and their value should reflect that.

But as lab-grown prices tumbled, Lightbox's fixed price point quickly became uncompetitive. By 2024, De Beers revised its pricing structure to offer three linear price tiers — a tacit acknowledgment that lab-grown diamonds were in fact being valued differently.

At the same time, De Beers introduced GIA verification for its Lightbox diamonds — a notable shift from its earlier stance that lab-grown stones should be subject to quality assurance, not formal grading. After all, the 4Cs are what assign value to one diamond over another. By applying color, clarity, and cut grades to synthetics, De Beers risked reinforcing the idea that these stones could carry nuanced value, despite lacking rarity.

Perhaps the greatest challenge, however, was the brand’s core positioning. De Beers framed Lightbox — and lab-grown diamonds more broadly — as fun, fashion-forward accessories, deliberately distancing them from natural diamonds, which it reserved for life’s most meaningful moments.

De Beers recognized early on that the bridal segment was too important to cede. But retail jewelers didn’t get the memo. Lured by attractive margins and easier sales, they gradually — then swiftly — began offering lab-grown diamonds as an affordable alternative for engagement rings.

That momentum proved difficult to resist, even for De Beers. In 2023, Lightbox quietly tested engagement rings on its website — a move quickly retracted and dismissed as an “experiment” when the trade pushed back. But the incident laid bare a deeper tension: Lightbox couldn’t fully compete in the lab-grown market without undermining De Beers’ natural diamond narrative.

In the end, De Beers had to choose. It couldn’t play on both sides. By closing Lightbox, it reaffirmed its commitment to the natural diamond story.

With the benefit of hindsight, it’s tempting to say those Lightbox brand-building dollars would have been better spent on marketing natural diamonds. Lightbox was an ambitious attempt to shape a market from the inside — but it couldn’t achieve its goals alone. And the suspicion always lingered: was De Beers trying to differentiate lab-grown or capitalize on its growth?

In truth, the core principles Lightbox introduced back in 2018 may have been more forward-thinking than they seemed. But disrupting the lab-grown diamond market was never a one-brand job. It requires an industry-wide strategy. A coordinated approach built on cost-based pricing, quality assurance instead of grading, and fashion-focused positioning would carry far more weight if adopted at scale.

With Lightbox now shuttered, De Beers appears to be returning to its roots — partnering with retailers and reviving category marketing to reaffirm the unique value of natural diamonds. It’s a course correction that, had it come sooner, might have saved the industry years of mixed messaging.

Still, it’s a welcome shift — not just for De Beers, but for a trade that’s long needed a clearer narrative and more unified strategy in the face of lab-grown disruption. The burning question is whether the industry will rally behind an effort De Beers is only now — and finally — free to lead.