Cubic Zirconia Booming : Look-Alike Sells at Only Fraction of Diamond Cost

Diamonds still may be a girl’s best friend, but many of the fine-cut stones adorning fingers, necklines and ears these days are fakes.

Joseph Wenckus, president of Ceres Corp., says so and he should know. His company grows artificial diamond crystals known as cubic zirconia.

“We make the material as though it were fertilizer,” said Wenckus, a chemical engineer whose 10-year-old company churns out synthetic stones at a rate of four tons a month. After cutting and cleaning, the production works out to 20 million carats of diamond look-alikes.

Although fake diamonds have existed for centuries, experts say cubic zirconia is the first substance to approximate a diamond’s brilliance and other characteristics.

Accepted Worldwide

“Optically, it is most difficult to say ‘yes, it’s a cubic zirconia,’ or ‘yes, it’s a diamond,’ ” said Bruce Fischer, gemologist at Tilden-Thurber, a Providence, R.I.-based jeweler.

Unlike cut glass, sapphires, strontium titanate and other man-made materials that have enjoyed brief heydays, cubic zirconia has gained worldwide acceptance among jewelers as the leading diamond imitator since its introduction 10 years ago.

It looks so much like the real thing that Wenckus’ firm invented a “diamond probe” in 1979 to help experts tell them apart.

Stores ranging from novelty shops to major retailers sell the fakes as imitation diamonds in settings that can range from inexpensive to fashionable.

“Everybody doesn’t drive a Rolls-Royce; a lot of people drive a Chevrolet. I would put CZ in the category of a Chevrolet,” said Fischer, whose store started stocking the product several years ago.

Discovered 50 Years Ago

Cubic zirconia was discovered as a natural mineral 50 years ago. In the early 1970s, Soviet scientists developed a high-heat technique called “skull-melting” to make large quantities of the mineral.

Wenckus brought the process to the United States in 1976, opened up his crystal-growing business, and saw demand for the sparkling crystals skyrocket.

“The volume is now 10,000 times the volume we started out with,” he said.

He hesitates to speculate how much more the market will boom.

“All we know is that we have a commitment from our buyers to buy 40% more than last year,” he said.

Experts credit the current appetite for fake diamonds in part to improved production techniques. Kurt Nassau, a scientist who writes on synthetic gems, figures 500 million carats of cubic zirconia will be made this year worldwide.

Since 1980, “production has gone up by 10% and the price has gone down by 10%,” he said. “It’s a very low-priced product now.”

For example, a cut and polished one-carat stone of cubic zirconia sells at wholesale for about $1. In an engagement ring setting, it might retail for about $100. A flawless diamond ring of the same size can sell for as much as $10,000.

‘Schmaltzy Look Is In’

“The market will develop because the schmaltzy look is in,” said Martin Rapaport, publisher of a New York diamond industry newsletter. He recommends it “if you want to have flash for the cash.”

While cubic zirconia is popular in costume jewelry, it also offers a solution for those who are afraid to show off their real rocks.

“People who buy large jewelry pieces also make up copies of the pieces in CZ so they can wear the jewelry,” Rapaport said.

Diamond industry experts say cubic zirconia is used mostly for earrings, pendants and other fashion accessories, not rings. And they see two distinct markets--one for fakes and one for the genuine stones.

“How many women want a CZ engagement ring? Zilch,” said market analyst Rapaport. “You must understand the emotional makeup of the purchase.”

DeBeers, which controls 80% of the world’s diamond market, is unfazed by the low-cost competition.