Premiere of the world’s first DNA-marked piece of jewellery with a faceted diamond
On Thursday, 13 June 2024, we unveiled the world’s first piece of jewellery with a DNA-marked diamond and 100% proof of origin to the Swiss media in our Zug studio. Transparent supply chains are not a given in our industry. As you may already know, Kobler Zug, based on the ‘mine to customer’ concept and in collaboration with Provenance Proof, now carries over 700 coloured gemstones and the world’s first diamonds with full proof of origin.
DNA marking for diamonds
It is virtually impossible to trace diamonds back to their place of origin. That is why we at Kobler Zug have taken on this very issue. Our personal relationships in Namibia are paying off. As a result, the journey of the precious diamond from the rough stone in Namibia to Zug can be traced in its entirety. From the Kimberley Process Certificate to the jewellery certificate, including DNA labelling for a transparent supply chain, Kobler Zug provides you, the end customer, with the complete gemmological package.
As pioneers in Switzerland, we are setting a milestone and have now marked well over 700 high-quality tourmalines in the Provenance Proof blockchain, which is visible to customers.
Two completely DNA-marked pieces of jewellery – a transparent supply chain
The world’s first DNA-marked diamond is a premium five-carat yellow Asscher-cut diamond. The official colour designation, Fancy Vivid Yellow, resembles the colour of desert sand at sunset in its country of origin: Namibia. Kobler Zug was contacted in the spring of this year when the discovery of the rough diamond crystal, which at that time weighed just under 10 carats, came to light.
We also crafted two fully traceable pieces of jewellery with DNA-marked diamonds from Namibia:
An uncut, yellow, DNA-marked diamond was used for the leopard ring. The leopard is a very common animal in Namibia and watches over the precious diamond within this ring.
The highlight of the media event was the presentation of the first ring on the market with a faceted diamond that incorporates blockchain and DNA technology throughout the entire piece of jewellery. This means that the entire jewellery creation and the diamond are fully traceable via the blockchain.
In the following, we would like to tell you more about the creation of the world’s first DNA-marked ring with a faceted diamond and give you deeper insights into the philosophy behind its creation.
Design Concept:
With the special design of the ring, we once again placed our own core message at the centre of the craft. The focus of the ring design is on absolute transparency. The requirement we set ourselves was to implement this in the design. The result is a piece of jewellery that brilliantly and clearly highlights the diamond in all its uniqueness, in keeping with the proud statement: ‘I – the diamond – know where I come from, who found and cut me, how I entered the gemstone trade and was finally acquired by Kobler Zug and integrated into a ring design.’
Design Inspiration:
The design focus on an eye that watches over the entire traceability process was an obvious choice due to the beautiful longitudinal oval shape of the diamond. Once again, the gemstone is the actual designer. Implementing this design idea to perfection and keeping it as simple as possible requires a sense of form that only an experienced goldsmith and designer can consistently apply. Design is the reduction to the essentials – this is often more difficult to achieve than lavish, even overloaded creations without a ‘real’ message.
Material Information:
Kobler Zug is a certified holder of the Oekogold label – we do not use precious metals that come directly from a mine in the manufacture of our jewellery.Our semi-finished precious metals come from a source that has been certified by the Responsible Jewellery Council (RJC) in London, which guarantees that only recycled precious metals are used. This is a significant step towards sustainable jewellery.
‘Provenance Proof’ for greater transparency and trust
The Provenance Proof Institute, based in Lucerne, specialises in checking and documenting the transparency of gemstone supply chains. An additional certification is then awarded to the scientific report on the gemstones, which uses the latest blockchain technology to provide evidence of the responsible business practices of jewellers, especially their suppliers. This includes the verifiable origin of the jewellery, its traceability and ethical authenticity.
The selected precious stones are treated in a specially developed process with physical DNA nanoparticles that attach themselves specifically to the gemstones. Recorded in the Provenance Proof blockchain, these nanoparticles provide their future owners with digital and irrevocable information about their traceability, similar to a register of origin. The exact time of discovery is recorded, the working conditions during the mining process, the transport route, the entire processing and production history, and the exact time of arrival at the end customer. In addition, the blockchain records all gemstone criteria, such as carat weight, colour, shape and treatment. This is the world’s first and most secure method of creating transparency for the gemstone value chain.
Kobler Zug – Your specialist for gemstones and diamonds
As certified gemstone specialists, we offer our customers a wide range of valuable gemstones. Thanks to our many trips to the countries of origin and sites where gemstones are found, Kobler Zug has established contacts that enable us to present unique gemstone creations. In the classic category, we have high-quality and extremely rare specimens of sapphires, rubies, emeralds and diamonds in stock. These include large, naturally coloured rubies, sapphires and emeralds that are perfectly cut and have a correspondingly high colour saturation. As experts, we also have a large stock of extremely rare, deep blue tourmalines, known as indigolites, from Namibia. As passionate specialists, Kobler Zug offers an extensive range of other gemstones in addition to these treasures, such as aquamarines from Brazil and Africa, opals from Ethiopia, and spinels from Myanmar and Tajikistan.
In summary, we believe that investing part of your assets in diamonds/precious stones makes sense in terms of preserving value, as they are considered to be very stable in the long term. Particularly in countries whose currencies have depreciated significantly in recent years due to inflation (e.g. GBP, EUR), at least part of the loss in purchasing power could be mitigated by investing in precious stones. However, it is regrettable when unique pieces of jewellery or beautiful gemstones have to be sold.
In the gemstone sector, we recommend an investment of CHF 500,000 or more, exclusively in very valuable individual stones such as rubies, emeralds, sapphires and, of course, diamonds.
We hope that this newsletter has given you a deeper understanding of the gemstone sector and at the same time opened your heart to our ‘work behind the scenes’.
So wear your gemstones and diamonds, enjoy their unique brilliance, knowing that you own something valuable. Both in terms of monetary value – but above all in honour of the love of the person who gave you this stone as a gift!
Outlook for the next market report: The next articles will focus on gemstones, which are much rarer and, due to their limited quantities, have never been able to establish a globalised and thus regulated market. Instead, the focus is on small traders and direct relationships with the countries of origin, which make access much easier for us personally. Stay tuned for our report on tourmalines.