Fred Jewelry, a revered Parisian luxury brand under the umbrella of LVMH, has unveiled a groundbreaking creation. This new jewelry piece is a lab-grown diamond of stunning Riviera blue, aptly named the “Fred Audacious Blue.” It marks a significant milestone as “the very first blue lab-grown diamond in the maison’s history.”
Fred Jewelry, renowned for its exquisite and unique creations, has recently been immersed in the captivating hue of blue, reminiscent of the vibrant French Riviera. This color holds special significance for the brand, as it served as a cherished memory for Fred Samuel, the brand’s founder, who had a deep connection with the sea and associated this hue with his childhood and the ever-changing shades of the Mediterranean Sea.
The color, known as “Riviera blue,” has been skillfully incorporated into the “Happy Blue Shades” collection, unveiled this summer. This collection features a selection of gemstones, including aquamarine, blue topaz, sapphire, lapis lazuli, turquoise, and amazonite, with the intention of capturing the glistening essence of the sea.
The color was seamlessly woven into pieces from four of the brand’s renowned collections: “Force 10,” “Chance Infinie,” “Pretty Woman,” and “Pain de Sucre.”
The Fred Audacious Blue is an extraordinary creation weighing 8.88 carats, a meaningful figure symbolizing Fred Samuel’s birthday in August 1908, and a tribute to the first store’s opening in the eighth arrondissement of Paris.
In addition to the Fred Audacious Blue, the brand has introduced four smaller diamonds of the same captivating color, each weighing 0.5 carats. These precious gemstones have been thoughtfully incorporated into four new pieces belonging to the exclusive high jewelry set named “Force 10 Duality.” This collection draws inspiration from the brand’s original Force 10 collection, uniting the blue lab-grown diamonds with natural white diamonds, creating a harmonious “union between tradition and technology.”
Each of these remarkable stones has been graded by the Gemological Institute of America (GIA) and skillfully cut into the brand’s proprietary 36-facet “Hero Cut,” chosen for its symbolism that evokes both a boat sail and a shield, and as a nod to the brand’s founding year, 1936.
The Fred Audacious Blue and the Force 10 Duality set will be showcased by appointment exclusively at the Parisian jeweler’s flagship store on Rue de la Paix before embarking on a trunk show-style tour in Seoul, South Korea, scheduled for November.
Creating the lab-grown blue diamond was a meticulous process that involved a blend of traditional craftsmanship and advanced technical expertise. The final 8.88-carat diamond was produced from a sizeable rough stone weighing approximately 36 carats. It took several years of dedicated research and collaboration with European and American experts to create the diamonds using the chemical vapor deposition process (CVD). Fred Jewelry has emphasized that the diamond is “fully traceable,” although the company has not disclosed the identity of its partners.
Replicating the stunning Audacious Blue hue required 18 months of technique development to perfect and stabilize the color.
While LVMH has not provided an official response to inquiries regarding the pricing, it has been widely reported that the lab-grown blue diamonds created by LVMH are graded as fancy vivid greenish-blue with a clarity grade of VS or higher.
It is essential to understand that while natural colored diamonds are graded on a D-to-Z scale to measure the degree of colorlessness, fancy color diamonds are graded differently, based on the intensity of their color. Blue diamonds are especially rare, with a very limited number found among mined diamonds. In fact, blue diamonds are among the rarest of the colored diamond varieties, accounting for just 0.02 percent of all mined diamonds.
Colored diamonds get their unique hues from impurities or structural defects in the gemstone’s chemical composition. In some instances, colored diamonds may exhibit secondary colors, which are indicated using a modifier. For blue diamonds, secondary colors such as gray, green, or violet can be present.
The pricing of colored diamonds, including blue diamonds, depends on factors such as the size, strength of color, and the presence of modifiers. Typically, stones with fancy intense and fancy vivid grades command the highest prices, particularly in larger sizes, where the cost can reach millions per carat.
However, it’s important to note that lab-grown colored diamonds, like their colorless counterparts, are available at significantly lower price points than their natural counterparts. In a recent example, a lab-grown colored diamond collection presented at JCK offered a range of hues and sizes, including blue diamonds of up to 13 carats, with retail price points between $2,499 and $65,000.
Fred Jewelry’s CEO, Charles Leung, has revealed that the four pieces in the Force 10 Duality set are priced at
a total of 540,000 euros, equivalent to $569,808. This price aligns with the cost if the brand had used natural white diamonds as center stones.
As for the 8.88-carat loose lab-grown blue diamond, it is yet to receive an official price tag. When questioned about the potential price comparison between the Fred Audacious Blue and a natural 8-carat fancy vivid greenish-blue diamond, experts in the field note that a naturally mined diamond of this size and color distinction is exceedingly rare and may never exist. If it were to exist, it would command an extraordinarily high price.
