“Will De Beers’ lab-grown diamond brand help protect the prestige of the ‘real thing’?

“Will De Beers’ lab-grown diamond brand help protect the prestige of the ‘real thing’? - Telegraph.co.uk” plus 1 more

Will De Beers’ lab-grown diamond brand help protect the prestige of the ‘real thing’? - Telegraph.co.uk

Posted: 30 May 2018 12:00 AM PDT

Weeks after sustainable and lab-grown gemstones lit up the red carpets at Cannes Film Festival, the 'created diamonds' industry has received another boost with the launch of Lightbox: a new 'demi-fine' jewellery brand by De Beers.

Launching in the US later this year, Lightbox is targeting a millennial audience with everyday studs and pendants featuring lab-grown white, blue and pink diamonds. Sold exclusively online at first, the pieces start at $200 (£150) for 0.25 carat, and go up to $800 (£600) for a one-carat diamond, plus $100 for a silver setting and $200 for 10ct gold.

In comparison, a one-carat diamond engagement ring set in platinum at De Beers Diamond Jewellers would cost upwards of £11,400, depending on the colour and clarity of the stone. Pink and blue diamonds are much rarer and therefore many times more expensive.

Lightbox, the new demi-fine jewellery brand by De Beers, will sell everyday pendants and earrings featuring lab-grown white, pink and blue diamonds Credit: Lightbox

Such an aggressively low pricing strategy not only sets Lightbox apart as a serious player in the growing market for lab-created gemstones (other lab-grown diamond brands such as Diamond Foundry price them at just 30 to 40 per cent less than mined stones) - it also aims to protect the prestige of De Beers' traditional diamond brands.

Lightbox's marketing approach hammers home the difference between lab-grown diamonds and natural stones. "Nature created diamonds over a billion years ago...each one is unique, like a snowflake," runs the new brand's website. "But we can make laboratory-grown diamonds every day of the week." Regarding its pricing, it explains, "because [lab-grown diamonds] are not inherently rare, they're priced more accessibly."

Lightbox is targeted at millennials Credit: Lightbox

Lightbox also distances itself from the engagement ring market, which is where most lab-grown diamond jewellers have focused. "We're for lighter moods and lighter moments, like birthdays and beach days and just because days," the breezy copy continues. "We're for everyone you love in life, not just the love of your life." The 'Lightbox Moments' section of the website depicts groups of women and girls - running along the beach, a child hugging her mother, a teenager celebrating her sweet 16th - but there's not a romantic couple in sight.

Engagement rings make up the majority of business for the likes of De Beers Diamond Jewellers and Forevermark, which is also owned by De Beers. The company, which once held 90 per cent of the market share for rough diamonds, famously coined the phrase "a diamond is forever" in 1947: an advertising campaign held responsible for the cultural custom of buying diamond engagement rings.

Lightbox diamonds are, it says, for "lighter moods and lighter moments" Credit: Lightbox

Launching a created diamond brand might seem a surprising move for a company that has built its reputation on the rarity and natural beauty of its stones. De Beers is part of the Diamond Producers Association, which in 2016 launched an advertising campaign targeted at millennials with the tagline "Real is rare. Real is a diamond".

But De Beers has been experimenting with lab-grown stones for over 50 years. Its Element Six Innovation Centre in Oxfordshire has long created diamonds destined for industrial use, and the company has plans to invest $94 million (£71 million) in a new plant in the US, which will produce half a million carats of rough diamonds a year.

De Beers has grown diamonds up to 25 carats - a process that took six weeks - by subjecting a diamond 'seed' to intense heat and pressure, mimicking the conditions that lead to their creation underground. As well as this 'High Pressure High Temperature' approach, Element Six also uses Chemical Vapour Deposition (CVD), where chemical reactions cause layers of carbon to build up and create a stone - akin to 3D printing a diamond.

De Beers' research arm, Element Six, has been growing diamonds in laboratories for decades Credit: Lightbox

Whichever process is used, these lab-grown diamonds are chemically and physically identical to mined stones. While De Beers' research arm previously experimented with creating gem-quality stones so that it could better detect so-called 'synthetics' on the market, it will now use them in Lightbox jewellery. Man-made stones currently account for two per cent of all diamonds sold globally; Citibank forecasts that this could rise to 10 per cent by 2030.

Proponents of lab-grown gemstones argue that they are more ethical, as the supply chain is completely transparent, and more environmentally-friendly, with a carbon footprint much lower than that of a mined stone. But in an interview with the New York Times, Lightbox's general manager Steve Coe labels these claims "misleading and bogus," due to the pressure required to create lab-grown stones. "If you look at the detailed numbers, the energy consumption levels between natural and man-made diamonds are in the same ballpark," he says.

Lightbox offers lab-grown diamonds starting at just £150

Avoiding the sustainable standpoint is an interesting approach for a brand so squarely aimed at the millennial market - the generation believed to be far more concerned with transparency and ethics than their parents or grandparents were. In recent years, De Beers Fine Jewellers has made more overt attempts to woo younger consumers with its 'My First De Beers' line of tiny everyday diamonds, which start at £700 for a 0.07ct diamond in rose gold - about the same price as a one-carat Lightbox stone.

For now, Lightbox is concentrating on the "diamonds are for every day" message. "Synthetics are fun and fashionable, but they are not real diamonds in my book," Bruce Cleaver, De Beers chief executive, told the New York Times. "They aren't rare or given at life's great moments. Nor should they be."

Lightbox will be available from September at lightboxjewelry.com

The emergency codes you're not supposed to know about - The Telegraph

Posted: 06 Feb 2018 07:45 AM PST

Some announcements, in airports and on cruise ships, signal a serious emergency. Others inform staff that a queasy passenger has thrown up on the top deck. Here we reveal the meaning behind the codes.

Cruise ship codes

As our Travel Truth - What happens when someone dies on a cruise? - reveals, the announcement "Operation Bright Star" signals a medical emergency. "Operation Rising Star" means a passenger has passed away.

Of less concern would be a warning about a "PVI", which stands for "public vomiting incident", or "30-30", which is used by some cruise lines to ask for staff to assist with cleaning up a mess.

You might also hear one of these other coded announcements on your next cruise or ferry trip (but hopefully not). They will vary according to your operator.

Code Red - Outbreak of norovirus or illness. It means the ship must undergo deep cleaning and sick passengers should stay in their rooms. Code Green and Code Yellow indicate less severe problems.

Mr Skylight; Alpha, Alpha, Alpha; Code Blue; or Star Code, Star Code, Star Code - Medical emergency

Mr Mob or Oscar, Oscar, Oscar - Man overboard

Charlie, Charlie, Charlie - Security threat

Echo, Echo, Echo - Possible collision with another ship, or in other cases a warning of high winds.

Red Parties, Red Parties, Red Parties; Alpha Team, Alpha Team, Alpha Team or Priority 1 - Possible fire on board

Bravo, Bravo, Bravo - Fire or other serious incident.

Delta - Damage to the ship.

Papa - Pollution or oil spill.

A cruise ship sails past Venice Credit: 2016 James D. Morgan/James D. Morgan

Sierra - Call for a stretcher.

Priority 2 - Leak.

Kilo - all staff to report to emergency posts.

A fire or emergency may simply be indicated by a ringing of the general alarm bell. Seven or more short blast of the ship's whistle, followed by one long blast, means passengers should assemble at their muster stations.

London Underground announcements

The best known code is "Inspector Sands", or simply "Mr Sands", which refers to a potential emergency such as a fire or bomb scare. It is used on the Tube, as well as the wider UK rail network and at theatres ("Sands" because buckets of sand would be used to put out the fire).

The numbered codes are nothing to be alarmed about, and simply refer to cleaning jobs.

Code 1 - Blood

Code 2 - Urine/Faeces

Code 3 - Vomit

Code 4 - Spillage

Code 5 - Broken Glass

Code 6 - Litter

Code 7 - Anything that doesn't fit into these categories

Code 2? Don't ask Credit: AFP or licensors/DANIEL LEAL-OLIVAS

Airport emergencies

Code Bravo is the code for a general security alert at an airport. Security officials will typically yell it at travellers, and may order them to "freeze!", to deliberately scare them and make it easier to pinpoint the source of the threat. More often than not, it will probably be a drill - as this amusing account explains.

Code Adam may be used to alert staff of a missing child.

Changi: hands down, the world's greatest airport Credit: ALAMY

Aircraft emergencies

We've all heard of Mayday, which means an aircraft or ship is facing imminent danger. Fewer will know about pan-pan (from the French:panne, meaning a breakdown), which refers to a slightly less grave danger.

7500 is a transponder code which means an aircraft has been, or is threatened with, hijacking.

7700 is a more general emergency code; 7600 indicated a radio failure.

Cabin crew jargon

On a lighter note, Charlotte Southcott, a flight attendant at Monarch Airlines, recently revealed to Telegraph Travel some of the curious lingo used at 35,000ft:

Arm and crosscheck - Prior to departure, the plane exits are put into emergency mode. If an "armed" door is opened, the emergency slide will inflate. The cabin crew will "crosscheck" to ensure that the opposite doors have been armed. Upon arrival, you're likely to hear "doors to manual".

Debrief - Every little detail of every flight is recorded on the "debrief" - including medical situation, disruptive passengers or a catering problem.

Hat bin - Another term for the overhead bins ("Why are these called hatbins? Surely they're not used for hats? Well, in the 1960s, when flying was extremely glamorous, they actually were.")

Hot bit - The heated part of an in-flight meal.

Gash bag - The rubbish bag. ("Another military term, apparently if you were the gash man in the navy you got all the rubbish jobs").

Landing lips - "That last slick of lippie we apply to look fresh as a daisy before we land."

Plonkey kits - A bag of essentials carried by flight attendants. ("Apparently this originates from the ships' galleys. Ours tend to contain ice tongs, oven gloves, small clippers, a sewing kit and a clothes brush".)

Starburst - "You'll see this happen when a service is started in the middle of the cabin and the trolleys work out towards the galleys."

Pilot speak

Patrick Smith, pilot and author of Cockpit Confidential, a book on air travel, reveals all:

All-call - "A request that each flight attendant report via intercom from his or her station - a sort of flight attendant conference call."

Last-minute paperwork - "The flight is ready for pushback - then comes the wait for 'last minute paperwork'. Usually it's something to do with the weight-and-balance record, a revision to the flight plan, or waiting for the maintenance guys to deal with a write-up and get the logbook in order."

What's our EFC time? Credit: Nikolai Sorokin - Fotolia

Flight level - "A fancy way of telling you how many thousands of feet you are above sea level. Just add a couple of zeroes. Flight level three-three zero is 33,000 feet."

Ground stop - "This is when departures to one or more destination are curtailed by air traffic control, usually due to a traffic backlog."

EFC time - "The expect further clearance time, sometimes called a release time, is the point at which a crew expects to be set free from a holding pattern."

Deadhead - "A deadheading pilot or flight attendant is one repositioning as part of an on-duty assignment. This is not the same as commuting to work or engaging in personal travel."

Gatehouse - "An idiosyncratic way of saying the gate area or boarding lounge."

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Ramp - The aircraft parking zones.

Alley - A taxiway.

Apron - "Any expanse of tarmac that is not a runway or taxiway - areas where planes park or are otherwise serviced."

At this time - "Example: 'At this time, we ask that you please put away all electronic devices'. Meaning: now, or presently. This is air travel's signature euphemism."