Archive
Columns
Essays, scene reportage, and opinion verdicts. Sorted most recent first.
What a one-carat diamond really costs in SA, 2026
Five South African sellers quote a one-carat at wildly different prices in 2026, a price anatomy of what the certificate hides and why retail costs double.
South African diamond statistics: a 2026 reference
Fifty working figures on the South African diamond trade in 2026: production, pricing, certification, lab-grown, Kimberley Process, retail and wholesale market structure. Sourced.
Bespoke in Bedfordview: a four-week commission, documented
Thirty days inside a Bedfordview workshop, watching a 1.4-carat oval-cut bespoke commission come together from brief to handover.
The Cape vs. Johannesburg buying experience
Two cities, two operating models, two sets of trade-offs. The honest comparison the marketing on either end of the country will not write.
Where Johannesburg’s diamond money actually goes
A scene piece on Bedfordview, the suburb where most of South Africa’s working diamond trade actually lives, twenty kilometres east of Sandton.
Lab-grown in 2026: a position
Lab-grown diamonds are real diamonds. They are also, in the South African wholesale context, not the right purchase for most buyers. The argument, in plain terms.
The case for buying wholesale: a South African primer
Wholesale-to-public diamond buying in South Africa: how the model works, what the trade-offs are, and which dealers actually run it.
Why ideal-cut still matters when the trade has moved on
Most of the South African trade has settled for very-good cut grades. The case for paying the small premium for ideal cut anyway, in 2026.
A reader’s guide to South African diamond certificates
GIA versus EGL versus SGL versus the in-house certificate. What each one guarantees, what each one does not, and which to insist on.
What the Kimberley Process actually requires
The Kimberley Process documentation a South African dealer must produce, and what compliance does and does not guarantee a buyer.