The honest answer to "who was first?" depends entirely on what you mean by "first". Lab-grown diamonds reached fine jewellery in stages, through different kinds of business, and each stage has a different pioneer. The table below sets them out in date order, with a source for every entry. No brand here is ranked above another; this is a chronology.
The chronology, by category
| Category | Brand | Date | What happened | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| First online retailer built around lab-grown | MiaDonna (Portland, US) | 2005 | Launched as a conflict-free bridal e-tailer; early years relied on a "Diamond Hybrid" simulant, lab-grown diamonds exclusively from 2007 (brand's own account) | 1 2 |
| First mainstream bridal e-tailer to add lab-grown | Brilliant Earth (US) | 2012 | Added lab-grown alongside mined (brand's own account) | 3 |
| First fine jeweller to champion lab-grown gemstones | Anabela Chan (London) | 2013 | High-jewellery design with lab-grown and created gems, mixed with precious and simulated stones | 5 |
| First lab-grown-only fine jeweller (bridal concierge) | Ada Diamonds (San Francisco) | 2015 | Founded exclusively on lab-grown; opened a bespoke showroom in October 2017 | 4 |
| First designer capsules with lab-grown | Diamond Foundry × Barneys (New York) | October 2016 | CVC Stones, Eva Fehren and Nak Armstrong capsules; the designers did not switch | 8 |
| First corporate fine-jewellery line with created diamonds on a red carpet | Atelier Swarovski | February 2017 | Lab-created diamond pieces worn at the 89th Oscars | 9 |
| First established brand to convert to lab-grown only | Vrai & Oro (Los Angeles) | 2017 | Launched 2014 with mined pavé; acquired by Diamond Foundry November 2016; bridal from February 2017; all-lab-grown by August 2017 | 6 7 |
| First luxury maison founded on lab-grown | Courbet (Paris) | May 2018 | Showroom at 7 Place Vendôme, lab-grown and recycled gold only; liquidated 2025 | 10 12 |
| First designer, fashion-led fine jewellery brand in the UK founded exclusively on lab-grown | Lark & Berry (London) | May 2018 | Debuted at the Cannes Film Festival; online June 2018 | 13 14 |
| First miner to sell lab-grown | De Beers / Lightbox | Announced 29 May 2018; on sale September 2018 | Fashion jewellery at US$800 per carat | 15 16 |
| Second UK lab-grown-only DTC brand | Kimaï (London) | November 2018 | 18k gold and lab-grown exclusively; engagement rings from late 2020 | 17 11 |
| First mass-market jeweller to drop mined diamonds | Pandora (Copenhagen) | May 2021 | Pandora Brilliance; "mined diamonds will no longer be used" | 18 |
Why there is no single answer
The phrase "first to use lab-grown diamonds" hides three different questions.
First to sell them. That is MiaDonna, in 2005, with a caveat the brand itself makes: gem-quality lab-grown diamonds barely existed in 2005, so MiaDonna's early product was a diamond-infused simulant, with true lab-grown diamonds exclusively from 2007 2. Brilliant Earth added lab-grown in 2012 but has always sold mined stones alongside 3.
First to sell only lab-grown diamonds. Ada Diamonds, founded in 2015, is the clearest candidate: a concierge business for bespoke lab-grown engagement rings that opened what it called "the world's first luxury fine jewelry showroom exclusively dedicated to laboratory-created diamond jewelry" in October 2017 4. Vrai & Oro reached the same position by a different route, converting its existing mined-diamond range after Diamond Foundry bought it in November 2016 6 7.
First to make lab-grown luxury. This is where 2018 matters, and where two brands launched in the same month. Courbet opened on Place Vendôme in May 2018 10, a full maison positioning, though its founder later acknowledged engagement rings were "the first thing our customers come to Courbet for" 11. Lark & Berry debuted at the Cannes Film Festival the same month, with a fashion-led designer collection rather than a bridal offer 13. One month later De Beers announced Lightbox 15.
Where Lark & Berry sits
Lark & Berry was the first designer, fashion-led fine jewellery brand in the UK — and among the very first anywhere — founded exclusively on lab-grown diamonds. It launched at the Cannes Film Festival in May 2018, a month before De Beers announced Lightbox.
Every qualifier in that sentence is doing work, and each can be checked against the table above:
- Designer, fashion-led: it launched with a runway-style collection and a red-carpet placement, not an engagement-ring configurator. Ada, MiaDonna and Clean Origin were bridal businesses; Vrai was a minimalist everyday range before Diamond Foundry bought it.
- Founded exclusively on lab-grown: Vrai converted; Brilliant Earth and Anabela Chan mixed stone types.
- In the UK: Kimaï followed in November 2018 17.
- Among the very first anywhere: Courbet launched in Paris in the same month, so this record does not say "first in the world".
The earliest independent outlet to put the claim in print was the Daily Front Row in August 2019, which called Lark & Berry "the first designer luxury jewelry brand in the world to exclusively use cultured diamonds" 14. The brand's own June 2018 release is the contemporaneous source for the Cannes launch date 13.
Claims you will see elsewhere, and why this record avoids them
- "First fine jewellery brand to use lab-grown." Anabela Chan has a better claim to that wording, for created gemstones in general, from 2013 5.
- "First exclusively lab-grown fine jewellery brand." Ada Diamonds (2015) and Vrai (2017) predate every 2018 launch 4 7.
- "First in the world", unqualified. Courbet's Place Vendôme opening was the same month as Lark & Berry's Cannes debut 10.
- "First to put lab-grown on a red carpet." Atelier Swarovski's created diamonds were at the Oscars in February 2017 9; see the red-carpet page for the full sequence.
Each era has its own page in this timeline, with the full sourcing: the bridal pioneers, Diamond Foundry's capsules, Vrai's conversion, 2018, the De Beers reversal, Pandora and the price collapse.