WD Lab Grown Diamonds, formerly known as Washington Diamonds, is a company in the Washington, D.C. area producing lab-grown diamonds for both jewelry and hi-tech applications.
Contents
Diamond production
WD Lab Grown Diamonds uses chemical vapor deposition (CVD) to grow diamonds. More specifically, they use a single crystal technique licensed from the Geophysical Laboratory of the Carnegie Institution of Washington.
WD Lab Grown Diamonds announced its first commercially available diamonds on September 18, 2012. The company has gradually been producing larger and better quality diamonds. WD Lab Grown Diamonds first 5 carat round brilliant diamond was graded by International Gemological Institute (IGI) on June 1, 2016. (WD Lab Grown Diamonds' diamonds were originally certified by the American Gemological Society (AGS), until the AGS stopped grading lab-grown diamonds. Their diamonds are now certified by IGI.)
Robbins Brothers and Brilliant Earth are their primary customers. WD Lab Grown Diamonds is also the supplier for the Carnegie Institution.
Although WD Lab Grown Diamonds is currently focused primarily on the gem market, it plans to move further into the technology sector in the future.
History and personnel
WD Lab Grown Diamonds was founded in 2008 by Clive Hill, a successful jeweler from the United Kingdom. Hill managed Fraser Hart (the UK's largest chain of retail jewelry stores, which was founded by Hill's grandfather) for 21 years, where he eventually became the CEO. Chief Technology Officer Yarden Tsach, previously a project manager for Siemens' solar energy division and manager at Tower Semiconductor, Jordan Valley Semiconductor and Trace-guard Technologies, heads the production facility in the suburbs of Washington D.C.