Editor’s Note
This article highlights the sustained demand for large diamonds and the growth of specialized platforms like Auctentic, which leverages a long-established professional network to facilitate trust and transparency in the high-value secondary market.
The goal of Auctentic can be summed up in one sentence: to leverage a network of over 2000 professional buyers built over 20 years and a serious, transparent service for private sellers, ensuring trust in a high-value market. Founded in the Netherlands and present in Italy, in France since April, and soon in Spain, the platform has recorded over 10,000 appraisals since its creation three years ago. While Italy sees over 1,000 sales per year, the entity’s ambition is to reach 2000 annual sales across all these regions.
Auctentic does not accept diamonds under 0.5 carats. Priority is given to diamonds of 1 carat or more, where demand is quite strong due to their standard and commercial size. Large diamonds, which are rarer, are also sought after to meet the needs of certain brands, particularly in high jewelry. In France, the most prestigious stone ever sold by Auctentic was 8.86 carats. In Italy, a 10-carat diamond found a buyer for 200,000 euros.
While the appeal for large stones persists, the market has faced significant fluctuations in recent years. As explained by Anna Paris, Country Manager France and Gemologist at Auctentic, the diamond sector saw its prices decline before Covid-19, before rebounding during the health crisis. However, this recovery was short-lived, as activities gradually declined again.
Given this decline, as Anna Paris indicates, private clients are selling more than before, notably family jewelry, which are targets for theft and harder to wear as they are often bulky and from another aesthetic era. For their part, buyers are more attuned to market prices, even though diamonds remain a long-term investment in the collective mind.
According to several analyses, the diamond universe, encompassing the jewelry and industrial sectors, still presents balanced growth prospects, even slightly upward. According to a 2023 report by Allied Market Research, the diamond market is expected to reach over $155 billion by 2032, representing an annual growth rate of +4.5% compared to 2023.
This figure encompasses both natural and synthetic diamonds, with lab-grown stones (which are energy-intensive) capturing an increasing market share. Indeed, specialized analyst Paul Zimnisky told AFP that the global market share, by value, of synthetic diamonds rose from 3.5% in 2018 to 18.5% in 2023. This year, this percentage could exceed 20%.
Although Auctentic focuses solely on natural diamonds, as well as other stones and pearls, it is difficult not to take into account this booming synthetic market. For Anna Paris, the important thing is to distinguish the narratives associated with these two types of diamonds.
mentions the specialist. A strategy of differentiation rather than opposition, aiming to educate the public about the characteristics of natural and synthetic stones while more precisely targeting potential buyers and sellers.