Pandora is the largest jewellery company in the world by volume, and in May 2021 it became the first company of that size to say it would stop using mined diamonds. The announcement was widely reported as a turning point. The numbers behind it are smaller than the headlines suggested, and the industry reaction was unusually fierce. Both are part of the record.
4 May 2021: the announcement
On 4 May 2021 Pandora announced Pandora Brilliance, its first collection with lab-created diamonds, and stated that "going forward, mined diamonds will no longer be used in Pandora's products". The collection launched in the UK on 6 May 2021, priced from £250, with stones from 0.15 to 1 carat, and was certified CarbonNeutral. Pandora said the diamonds were grown with more than 60% renewable energy on average, with a target of 100% by 2022. Chief executive Alexander Lacik's line was that diamonds "are not only forever, but for everyone" 1. Retail Jeweller and Fortune reported the launch the same day 2 3.
The UK was chosen as the pilot market; global roll-out was promised for 2022.
The scale of the switch
Pandora made about 85 million pieces of jewellery in 2020 and sold around 50,000 diamonds, as CBS News and others reported in the days after the announcement 4. Diamonds were a rounding error in Pandora's business. Lacik told CBS that lab-grown cost "a third of what it is for something that we've dug up from the ground" and framed the move as part of the company's sustainability agenda 4.
So the honest description is that Pandora did not convert a large diamond business; it chose lab-grown as the basis for building one. The announcement's weight came from Pandora's reach and its position as the world's biggest jeweller by volume, not from the number of stones involved.
7–11 May 2021: the industry pushes back
Within days, five trade bodies, the Responsible Jewellery Council, the World Diamond Council, CIBJO, the Natural Diamond Council and the International Diamond Manufacturers Association, issued a joint statement. They welcomed Pandora selling lab-grown diamonds but called on it to "issue a public statement retracting the false and misleading narrative" that positioned lab-grown as the ethical choice over natural, arguing that tens of millions of people depended on the natural-diamond industry, particularly during the pandemic 5. The Natural Diamond Council's chief executive, David Kellie, called Pandora's sustainability positioning "very misleading" 6.
This was the first time the natural-diamond trade had mobilised publicly against a single retailer's lab-grown messaging, and it set the template for later disputes; JCK was still reporting NDC objections to Pandora's carbon claims in May 2026 8. The argument was never about whether Pandora could sell lab-grown. It was about the word "ethical".
25 August 2022: the US and Canada
Pandora took the collection to North America on 25 August 2022, through 269 stores and online, from US$300, with 100% recycled silver and gold. The release gave product-level carbon figures: 2.7 kg CO2e for an entry silver ring with a 0.15-carat stone, 10.4 kg for a one-carat gold ring 7. The UK launch was described as a successful pilot.
Where Pandora fits in the timeline
| Date | Event | Source |
|---|---|---|
| 4 May 2021 | Pandora announces end of mined diamonds; Brilliance unveiled | 1 |
| 6 May 2021 | UK launch, from £250 | 1 |
| 7 May 2021 | CBS reports 50,000 diamonds sold in 2020 | 4 |
| 11 May 2021 | Five trade bodies demand retraction | 5 |
| 25 Aug 2022 | US and Canada launch, from US$300 | 7 |
Pandora was not early. By May 2021 lab-grown-exclusive brands had existed for six years (Ada), and founded-on-lab-grown designer and luxury brands for three (Courbet, Lark & Berry, Kimaï); De Beers had been selling Lightbox for two and a half. What Pandora added was mass-market legitimacy: a high-street brand with a global store estate saying, in public, that it saw no reason to use mined diamonds at all. Eighteen months later the price of lab-grown diamonds began to fall in earnest; that story is on the next page. For who came before Pandora, and in what order, see who was first.