New analysis of 26 jewelry artifacts unearthed 60 years ago at early Iron Age graveyards in Poland — and stored unceremoniously at the Częstochowa Museum — revealed that five of them were crafted from meteoric metal.



Armed with cutting-edge technology, Polish and French scientists recently revisited the 2,700-year-old objects extracted from burial sites at Częstochowa-Raków and Częstochowa-Mirów, and were surprised to learn that the jewelry was fabricated from an exceedingly rare meteoric iron.

Three bracelets, an ankle ring and a pin all contained iron with a uniquely high concentration of nickel. It's a type of iron characteristic common to ataxites, a rare type of iron meteorite.



The scientists conducted their analysis using X-ray fluorescence spectrometry (p-XRF), as well as scanning electron microscopy with energy-dispersive spectroscopy (SEM/EDS).

Their findings were recently published in the Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports.

According to archaeologymag.com, the jewelry items date back to about 750–600 BC and are linked to the Lusatian culture, which flourished in the areas that are now Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, eastern Germany and western Ukraine.

Unlike other cultures, such as the Egyptians, who revered meteoric metal, the Lusatians simply saw the heaven-sent material as a handy resource. Lusatian metalworkers didn't hesitate to combine meteoritic iron with terrestrial iron to achieve special patterns, and the distribution of the meteoric jewelry throughout the grave site didn't seem to be determined by gender, age or social status.

The scientists believe that the jewelry artifacts represent the oldest know version of patterned iron, predating both the wootz and Damascus steel patterning techniques by hundreds of years.

Credit: Jewelry image via Częstochowa Museum/Archeologia Żywa/Facebook. Cemetery photo by Andrzej Otrębski, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

Leila Roker, the daughter of The Today Show's affable weatherman Al Roker, is sporting a pear-shaped diamond engagement ring after accepting a romantic marriage proposal from boyfriend Sylvain Gricourt in Venice last Friday.



On Sunday, the 26-year-old freelance journalist and content creator turned to Instagram to announce the big news.

Roker shared a carousel of photos from the momentous event along with a heartfelt caption that read, “8 years ago, I moved to Paris, 7 years ago I met my person and best friend, and 2 days ago, that person took me on the most amazing surprise trip to Venice to ask me to spend the rest of our lives together.”



On his own Instagram page, Gricourt, 33, posted a similar grouping of pics captured in and around Venice's Hotel Danieli, a venue famous for its history, culture and opulent accommodations.

The SEO content manager wrote, "Just two days ago I put a ring on her finger, and that's the best thing I did in the last 33 years."

And then, in French, he added, "@leilaroker qu’est-ce que tu dis de passer les 33 prochaines ensemble, et toutes celles d’après?" which means in English, "What do you say we spend the next 33 together, and all the ones after that?"



In one of the shared photos, Gricourt can be seen on bended knee as he presents to Roker a ring box containing a sizable pear-shaped diamond mounted with a sleek three-prong setting on a simple gold band.

NBC's Al Roker and his wife, ABC journalist Deborah Roberts, couldn't have been more excited about their daughter's announcement.

Roker wrote, "Well, it is now official. @gricourt.thegreat has proposed to my little girl, @leilaroker in the romantic city of Venice. We could not be happier, and look forward to planning for these two wonderful young folks coming together."

"We could not be happier and more joyful!!!!," added Roberts. "Welcome to the family Sylvain! Now let’s plan a wedding!"

Where will the wedding take place? We're guessing that the top three choices may be Paris (The City of Love, where the couple resides), New York (The Big Apple, where Leila's parents work) or Venice (the romantic Floating City, where Leila and Sylvain officially declared their love for each other).

Credits: Photos via Instagram / leilaroker.

In the world of gemstones, hard and tough are two very different things. While diamond may be the hardest material known to man, when rating a gemstone's resistance to breaking or chipping, a special variety of jade rises to the top of the "toughest minerals" list.



For millennia, nephrite jade has been revered not only for its beauty, but also for its incredible toughness. Ancient civilizations prized this resilient stone, shaping it into weapons, tools, sacred artifacts — and jewelry.

The Chinese, as early as the Neolithic period (3500–2000 BC), crafted nephrite into ritual blades and ceremonial vessels, believing it symbolized strength and immortality. The Māori of New Zealand used it for chopping tools and war clubs, passing them down through generations. Even today, in China, a pierced jade disk is a symbol of heaven.



Unlike other stones that shatter under pressure, nephrite’s densely interwoven fibrous structure makes it nearly unbreakable — perfect for practical, spiritual and decorative uses.

Interestingly, super-resilient nephrite jade scores a modest 6 to 6.5 on the Mohs hardness scale. Diamond, by comparison, rates a perfect 10.

And the gap in hardness is even more amplified by the fact that the Mohs scale is not linear. For example, diamond at "10" is four times as hard as corundum at "9", and corundum is twice as hard as topaz at "8".

The relative softness of nephrite makes it easy to fabricate into rings, necklaces, pendants, anklets and beaded bracelets.

According to the Gemological Institute of America, for both nephrite and its pretty cousin, jadeite, green is the most valued color. Semi-transparent clarity and fine texture also increase jade’s value dramatically. The most common colors of nephrite jade are shades of green (from pale to "spinach"), but they also occur in white, gray and black.

While jadeite has a slightly higher hardness rating than nephrite, the fibrous crystal structure of the latter makes it significantly tougher.

Nephrite jade is mined in Canada, China, Australia, Russia, Taiwan and the US, specifically in the states of Wyoming, Wisconsin and Washington.

Credit: Jewelry photo by Lê Phạm Gia Hy, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons. Close-up photo by James St. John, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

Beaming with star power, the obelisk-shaped, fantasy-cut “Dom Pedro” aquamarine is one of the top attractions at the National Museum of Natural History in Washington, DC. Standing nearly 14 inches tall and weighing 10,363 carats, Dom Pedro is the largest faceted aquamarine in the world and, arguably, the most beautiful example of March’s official birthstone.



The Dom Pedro is the masterwork of the late Bernd Munsteiner, an Idar-Oberstein-based gem cutter, who has been called “The Picasso of Gems” and “The Father of the Fantasy Cut.” When Munsteiner viewed the rough, 57-pound, two-foot-tall crystal for the first time, “it was love a first sight,” according to Smithsonian.com. And transforming the rough crystal into the Dom Pedro would become the “project of his life.”



Munsteiner spent four months studying the towering aquamarine before embarking on a grueling six-month labor of love to meticulously cut, facet and polish the stone in a project he would call "Ondas Maritimas" in Portuguese, or “Waves of the Sea.”

The Dom Pedro was originally part of a much larger crystal that was discovered by three Brazilian prospectors — garimperos — in the state of Minas Gerais in the late 1980s. While being transported, the one-meter-long, 100-pound crystal fractured in two places. Two pieces were eventually cut into smaller gemstones, but the largest piece had much greater potential. Its exquisite sea-blue color and pristine clarity opened a window of opportunity for a cutter with the skill of Munsteiner.

Munsteiner reportedly made hundreds of sketches before deciding on the lozenge-shaped “negative facets” that are “stepped” along the two backsides of the obelisk. In certain lighting conditions, the gem gives the illusion of being illuminated from within.

The former curator of the Smithsonian National Gem Collection, Jeffrey Post, described it as an "ethereal glow."

While cutting the gem completely by hand, Munsteiner was never concerned with the eventual carat weight. His attention was purely on the beauty and the brilliance. The finished piece measured four inches across the base and weighed 4.57 pounds.

“When you focus on the carat weight, it’s only about the money,” he said. “I cannot create when I’m worried about the money.”

Unveiled at the annual gem fair in Basel, Switzerland, in 1993, the Dom Pedro became a traveling ambassador for the German government, an example of German craftsmanship and ingenuity.

But, by the late 1990s, the gem’s future was in jeopardy. The Brazilian consortium partner wanted the gem to be sold so he could recoup his investment. Gem collector Jane Mitchell and her husband Jeffery Bland stepped in to purchase the Dom Pedro in 1999, ensuring that it wouldn’t be cut up and made into many smaller aquamarines.

The stone was generously gifted to the Smithsonian by the couple in 2011 and made part of the permanent exhibition at the very end of 2012. Munsteiner passed away on June 6, 2024, in Stipshausen, Germany. He was 81 years old.

Aquamarine is the pretty soft blue variety of the mineral beryl. Other gems in the same family include green emerald, pink morganite and golden yellow heliodore.

Credits: Dom Pedro photos by Bruce Carter for The Jeweler Blog.

Saturday Night Live: Weekend Update anchor Colin Jost recently recounted how he spent a day dumpster diving in an effort to rescue a $400,000 diamond engagement ring that was accidentally thrown in the trash by his movie star wife, Scarlett Johansson.



Jost revealed his malodorous encounter with the not-so-glamorous side of The Big Apple while hosting an episode of Amazon Prime Video's Pop Culture Jeopardy!. During the segment, a contestant quipped about a lost engagement ring that was later found in a trash can at a bar.

That comment led the host to segue into a story about his own experience.

“My wife actually lost her engagement ring,” Jost revealed, adding that she believed she “accidentally threw it in the trash.”

And this was no ordinary engagement ring. The statement piece he gave her in 2019 featured an 11-carat, light brown, modified pear-shaped diamond designed to "float" on her finger adjacent to a brown ceramic band.

Jost told the Pop Culture Jeopardy! audience that he was determined to find the ring and picked through the trash of at least 12 New York City dumpsters. Still, he came up empty.

A dejected Jost returned home to report the bad news about the ring, but before he could say anything, his movie star wife coyly admitted, "Oops! It was in my pocket."

"It was a great day for me," he joked.

It was July of 2019, when the Internet got its first glimpse of Johansson’s unusual engagement ring. At the time, jewelry experts placed the ring’s value in the range of $200,000 to $450,000. The couple had gotten engaged in May of that year, but the ring didn't surface until Johansson’s appearance at the 2019 Comic-Con in San Diego.

Jewelry-industry pundits recognized the design by James Claude Taffin de Givenchy of New York-based Taffin Jewelry. The brand had shared what seemed to be an identical ring on its Instagram account in June of 2019.

The ring generated a buzz for a number of reasons. Not only was the light-brown hue unusual for an engagement diamond, but so was the egg shape — a mashup of the traditional pear and oval. What’s more, the claw-set diamond seemed to float on the finger, offset from the undulating ceramic and gold band.

Marion Fasel of the online jewelry publication The Adventurine reported that she got the chance to try on the now-famous Taffin ring in May of 2019.

Fasel wrote at the time, “If James de Givenchy is indeed responsible for Scarlett’s stunning engagement ring, a closer look at the jewel… could reveal it to be one of the most stylish and stunning any actress in Hollywood has ever worn.”

The 40-year-old actress and 42-year-old SNL star started dating in 2017 and were married in 2020. They share two children, three-year-old Cosmo and 10-year-old Rose Dorothy from Johansson's previous marriage to Romain Dauriac.

Credits: Couple photo by Canal22, CC BY 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons. Ring image via Instagram.com/theadventurine.

Lucara CEO William Lamb hinted in a recent interview with South Africa's Financial Mail that the second-largest diamond ever discovered — the 2,488-carat Motswedi — may remain "in the rough."



Since the massive stone was unearthed at the famous Karowe Mine in Botswana in August of 2024, there has been speculation as to who the potential buyer may be and how the stone may be cut and polished.

Lamb told Rapaport senior analyst Joshua Freedman in September 2024 that the quality of the 2,488-carat diamond was still being assessed and it was still unclear how this “legacy” stone (defined as being valued at $10 million or more) would be sold.



In that interview, the Lucara executive had left open the possibility that the eventual buyer of “the largest stone in living memory” might end up being a museum or collector.

Now it appears as if the museum option may come to pass. Lucara is envisioning a different route for this treasure, to be showcased and admired by the masses while keeping the integrity of the remarkable specimen which has a rugged silvery-white appearance and weighs in at 17.58 ounces (1.1 pounds).

“We’ve had discussions with three different museums across the globe who want to acquire the (Motswedi) stone," Lamb recently told Financial Mail. "They want it in the rough. They don’t want to polish it.”

Lamb explained that selling stones of this size is difficult due to the limited number of buyers who could afford them.

It took nearly two years for Lucara to sell another impressive diamond — the 1,109-carat Lesedi La Rona. It was originally put up for auction at Sotheby’s in June of 2016 with a reserve price of $70 million, but bids stalled at $61 million. It was eventually sold to British luxury jeweler Graff Diamonds for the relative bargain price of $53 million.

By November 2018, Graff had transformed the Lesedi La Rona into 67 diamonds ranging from just under 1 carat to more than 100 carats.

Most notably, the largest diamond ever discovered — the 3,106-carat Cullinan (1905) — was cut by the Asscher Company into nine principal diamonds and 96 smaller diamonds. The Cullinan I and II – known as the Great Star of Africa and the Lesser Star of Africa — are set in the Crown Jewels of Britain. They weigh 530 carats and 317 carats, respectively. The remaining seven principal diamonds, ranging in size from 94 carats to 4.39 carats, are in the collection of the British Royal Family.

In Setswana, the local language in Botswana, “Motswedi” means a flow of underground water that emerges to the surface offering life and vitality. The name was the winning entry from a Legacy National Diamond Naming Competition, which received more than 39,000 submissions from the citizens of Botswana.

Lucara’s Karowe Mine is credited as the source of seven of the top 10 largest rough diamonds ever discovered, thanks in part to the company’s state-of-the-art Mega Diamond Recovery (“MDR”) X-ray Transmission (“XRT”) technology, installed in 2017 to identify and preserve large, high-value diamonds.

Here’s how the diamonds of the Karowe Mine rank on the all-time list...

2 – 2,488 carats, Motswedi, 2024
3 – 1,758 carats, Sewelô, 2019
4 – 1,174 carats, unnamed, 2021
5 – 1,109 carats, Lesedi La Rona, 2015
7 – 1,094 carats, Seriti, 2024
8 – 1,080 carats, Eva Star, 2023
9 - 998 carats, unnamed, 2020

Lucara’s $683 million underground expansion at Karowe aims to extend the life of the mine beyond 2040.

Credits: Photos courtesy of CNW Group/Lucara Diamond Corp.

Welcome to Music Friday when we bring you great throwback songs with jewelry, gemstones or precious metals in the title or lyrics. Today, Paul McCartney and The Beatles tell the story of Desmond Jones and his memorable trip to a jewelry store in the 1968 singalong, "Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da."



In this song written by McCartney and John Lennon, we're introduced to Jones, a hardworking bloke who sells his wares from a barrow in the marketplace, and his girlfriend, Molly, who is a singer in the band. On this particular day, Jones hops a trolley downtown to secure a special bauble for his girlfriend.

McCartney sings, "Desmond takes a trolley to the jeweler’s store / Buys a 20-carat golden ring / Takes it back to Molly waiting at the door / And as he gives it to her she begins to sing: / Ob-la-di, Ob-la-da, life goes on, bra / La-la how their life goes on / Ob-la-di, Ob-la-da, life goes on, bra / La-la how their life goes on."

Because the main character seems to be of modest means, we wonder if McCartney might have intended to write karat with a “k” instead of carat with a “c.” With a “c,” McCartney was referring to a 20-carat gem in a gold setting. With a “k,” he would be describing a simpler ring — perhaps without a precious stone — made of 20-karat gold.

Over the years, a lot has been written about how "Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da" came about, and the production woes that followed.

According to McCartney, the title was inspired by his friend, Jimmy Scott-Emuakpor, a Nigerian conga player who performed at a London nightclub the Beatle regularly frequented.

McCartney would say, "What’s happening, Jimmy?" and Scott would answer, "Ob-la-di, ob-la-da, life goes on, bra.”

As the Beatles experimented with their first reggae-inspired song, “Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da” became a production nightmare. The band couldn’t agree on the tempo or style that would work best. They spent a great deal of time recording and overdubbing, but after 60 takes, the band members were exhausted and the song still wasn’t right.

McCartney continued to make adjustments on his own, while the rest of the Beatles — George Harrison, Ringo Starr and John Lennon — took a break in a side room, but continued to listen to McCartney’s tweaks that seemed to be going nowhere.

Finally, a frustrated Lennon stormed back into the studio, pushed McCartney aside at the piano and banged out the opening chords of a louder, faster version. That rendition became the fourth track of Side 1 of The Beatles (also known as The White Album), a classic work that would spend 155 weeks on the Billboard 200 chart and sell 24 million copies worldwide.

Beatles Trivia: In the last verse, McCartney flips the roles of the main characters as “Molly lets the children lend a hand" at the marketplace, while "Desmond stays at home and does his pretty face.” The Beatles considered the flub a "happy accident" and left it in.

The Beatles went on to become what many agree is the greatest and most influential act of the rock era. The Beatles have sold more than 600 million albums worldwide.

We invite you to enjoy the audio track of the Beatles performing “Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da.” The lyrics are below if you’d like to sing along…

“Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da”
Written by John Lennon and Paul McCartney. Performed by The Beatles.

Desmond has a barrow in the marketplace,
Molly is the singer in a band.
Desmond says to Molly, “Girl, I like your face,”
And Molly says this as she takes him by the hand:

Ob-la-di, Ob-la-da, life goes on, bra,
La-la how their life goes on.
Ob-la-di, Ob-la-da, life goes on, bra,
La-la how their life goes on.

Desmond takes a trolley to the jeweler’s store,
Buys a 20-carat golden ring.
Takes it back to Molly waiting at the door,
And as he gives it to her she begins to sing:

Ob-la-di, Ob-la-da, life goes on, bra,
La-la how their life goes on.
Ob-la-di, Ob-la-da, life goes on, bra,
La-la how their life goes on.

In a couple of years,
They have built a home sweet home.
With a couple of kids running in the yard
Of Desmond and Molly Jones.

Happy ever after in the marketplace,
Desmond lets the children lend a hand.
Molly stays at home and does her pretty face,
and in the evening she still sings it with the band.

Ob-la-di, Ob-la-da, life goes on, bra,
La-la how their life goes on.
Ob-la-di, Ob-la-da, life goes on, bra,
La-la how their life goes on.

In a couple of years,
They have built a home sweet home.
With a couple of kids running in the yard
of Desmond and Molly Jones.

Happy ever after in the marketplace,
Molly lets the children lend a hand.
Desmond stays at home and does his pretty face,
And in the evening she’s a singer with the band.

Ob-la-di, Ob-la-da, life goes on, bra,
La-la how their life goes on.
Ob-la-di, Ob-la-da, life goes on, bra,
La-la how their life goes on.

And if you want some fun, take ob-la-di-bla-da.



Credit: Image by United Press International, photographer unknown, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.

On Tuesday, April 1, the Winston Red Diamond and 40 other fancy-color diamonds will make their debuts at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History in Washington, DC. Tipping the scale at 2.33 carats, the Winston Red Diamond ranks among the largest diamonds ever bestowed with the coveted “Fancy Red” color grade by the Gemological Institute of America (GIA).



Gifted by Ronald Winston, the son of distinguished jeweler and gem collector Harry Winston, the Winston Red Diamond and the Winston Fancy Color Diamond Collection will be featured in the museum’s Winston Gallery, offering visitors the rare opportunity to witness one of the finest collections of fancy color diamonds ever amassed.

The Winston family enjoys strong ties with the Smithsonian. In 1958, Harry Winston donated the iconic Hope Diamond to the museum, laying the foundation for the National Gem Collection.

According to the Smithsonian, Winston envisioned the institution assembling a gem collection to rival the royal treasuries of Europe — “Crown Jewels” that would belong to the American public.

“Other countries have their Crown Jewels,” Winston reportedly said. “We don’t have a Queen and King, but we should have our Crown Jewels, and what better place than here in the nation’s capital at the Smithsonian Institution.”

Natural red diamonds are among the rarest gemstones on Earth, and the Winston Red Diamond stands out as exceptional. Researchers estimate that less than one in 25 million diamonds is a Fancy Red, and the Winston Red Diamond is one of the most exquisite in existence.

“The red diamond is the highlight of my career, and I have never seen anything else like it,” Ronald Winston said. “This donation to the museum represents my life’s achievements in this domain, and I am so happy to share this collection with the Institution and the museum’s visitors.”

It is believed that red diamonds get their striking crimson hue from a molecular structure distortion that occurs as the jewel forms under immense pressure in the Earth’s crust. By contrast, other colored diamonds get their color from trace elements, such as boron (yielding a blue diamond) or nitrogen (yielding yellow), in their chemical composition.

The Winston Red Diamond features an old mine brilliant cut, a style that predates the round brilliant cut used in engagement rings today. With fewer, larger facets, this distinctive cut suggests the stone was fashioned before the mid-1900s.

A study on the science and history of the Winston Red Diamond is forthcoming in the spring 2025 issue of Gems & Gemology, the quarterly professional journal of the GIA.



The Winston Red Diamond will be displayed alongside 40 other gems from the Winston Fancy Color Diamond Collection. The diamonds will be arranged in a radiant rainbow of color, featuring every shade imaginable from deep teal to soft peach.

“In this collection, we have diamonds in colors I could never have dreamed of,” said mineralogist Gabriela Farfan, the Coralyn W. Whitney Curator of Gems and Minerals. “These gems give us the opportunity to share with our visitors the full range of colors in which diamonds occur.”

The Winston Red Diamond and Fancy Color Diamond Collection are the result of 60 years of dedicated acquisitions by Ronald Winston. Alongside the Hope Diamond, the new display will honor the legacy of the Winston family and showcase the brilliance and rarity of these exceptional gems.

Credits: Photo of the Winston Red Diamond by Robert Weldon, courtesy of Ronald Winston. Diamond group photo by Robert Weldon, arranged by Gabriela Farfan, courtesy of Ronald Winston.

A Brooklyn-based art collective famous for its irreverent product drops instantly sold out of its limited-edition candy rings featuring a 75-point lab-grown diamond hidden inside.



Reminiscent of the much-beloved Ring Pop, the $350 Rock Candy ring from MSCHF (pronounced "mischief") came in three nostalgic flavors: strawberry, green apple and blue raspberry cotton candy. And deep at the center of every Rock Candy ring was a round, lab-grown, VS-clarity, prong-set diamond mounted to a disc-shaped sterling silver base.



With only 300 units available, fans of MSCHF's quirky products were ready to pounce on the opportunity to buy a Rock Candy ring when it became available at 2 pm EST on February 6 at the special promotional website called LickTheRock.com. The company promised to deliver the rings in time for Valentine's Day, February 14.



Within moments of the official release, shoppers were reporting on social media that the rings were sold out.

“Every kiss begins with M," MSCHF wrote on its Instagram page in the lead-up to February 6. "Rock Candy is a sterling silver band set with a 0.75-carat lab-grown diamond encased in seven grams of sugar. Lick The Rock; Candy melts in your mouth — diamonds are forever.”

Founded in 2016, MSCHF is a company that likes to shake things up by poking fun at societal norms and consumer capitalism. Its viral releases have spanned many product categories, including food, cologne, handbags and trading cards.



In 2023, for instance, MSCHF 3D printed a replica of a Louis Vuitton OnTheGo tote that was so small it could pass through the eye of a needle. Measuring 657 x 222 x 700 microns (less than 0.03 inches wide), the fluorescent yellowish-green bag was eventually sold at auction for $63,000.



Back in 2021, the company created a buzz with its release of "Birkinstocks" — a line of sandals intentionally misspelled to spoof the fact that they were fabricated from deconstructed Hermès Birkin bags.

Credits: Images courtesy of MSCHF.

US jewelry consumers are choosing larger, higher-priced diamond center stones for their engagement and fashion rings, according to a newly released report produced by the Natural Diamond Council (NDC) and Tenoris, a company specializing in trend analysis.



According to "Natural Diamond Trends, A 2024 Overview," this past year saw a significant increase in demand for engagement diamonds in the 2.00-to-2.24-carat range. Sales for that category grew 18% and accounted for 10% of the market. The 1.50-to-1.59-carat range experienced a healthy sales increase of 9% and accounted for 11% market share.

Engagement diamonds from 1.00 to 1.04 carats remain the most popular, accounting for 15% of sales, but that range saw a drop-off of 8% compared to the previous year.

The average price of a wedding set in 2024 was $6,750, an increase of 31% compared to 2023. The NDC attributed much of the increase to the demand for larger center stones.

The most popular shapes for an engagement diamonds are round (62%) and oval (16%). The most common color grade is H and the most common clarity is SI1.

Bridal jewelry accounted for 33% of all the diamond jewelry sold in the US. The remainder is classified by the NDC as "other fine jewelry."

In the discussion of "other fine jewelry," NDC reported that round diamonds accounted for 82% of center stones, followed by ovals (7.7%), princess (2.2%), marquise (1.6%), emerald (1.2%), cushion (1.0%) and other (2.7%). The "other" category includes Asscher, radiant, heart, baguette, trilliant and other cuts.

While the popularity of the round shape was down ever so slightly (-0.4%), oval was up 3.5%, emerald was up 6.4% and marquise was up 8.6%.

"Ovals are trending right now, but, as one of the oldest diamond shapes, they’re anything but a fad," the NDC explained. "This cut first appeared in the 1700s when the brilliant faceting style was introduced. Ovals’ popularity surged again in 1957 with the creation of the modern ideal oval cut by Lazare Kaplan. There was also a resurgence in the late 1990s as consumers sought alternatives to round brilliant solitaires."

“It’s easy to see why oval diamonds have finally come into their own," added Marion Fasel, author of The History of Diamond Engagement Rings: A True Romance. "Ovals stretch elegantly across a finger, giving the illusion of elongating the hand. They are the proverbial classic with a twist that is so hot in fashion. Versatile in design, ovals look good in any style of engagement ring, from elaborate to a prong setting."

When it comes to diamond clarity, the trending is toward high-quality stones. While SI-clarity has been the staple of the US market for decades, and still accounts for more than half of all purchases, a greater portion of consumers are now opting for VS-clarity stones, noted the NDC.

Demand for VS1-clarity center stones grew 15%, and VS2 rose 8% compared the prior year. In contrast, sales of SI1 clarity stones increased 1%, SI2 fell 11% and I1 declined by 14%.

The average price of jewelry across all product categories rose 2.7% to $2,360, reported the NDC.

On the GIA (Gemological Institute of America) color scale, diamonds with a grading of G to I have consistently been popular with American consumers, with very minor fluctuations in preferences over the years. Combined, these colors accounted for 52% of the market in 2024.

"Natural Diamond Trends, A 2024 Overview," was developed by the NDC in partnership with Tenoris and examines US consumer preferences for natural diamonds based on sales data collected from more than 2,000 independently owned jewelry stores across the United States.

Credit: Image by BigStockPhoto.com.