Why are pink diamonds so popular? From multimillion-dollar sales with Sotheby’s Williamson Pink Star and Harry Winston’s gem to Graff – one of the rare jewels is even named after Grace of Monaco

Dec 2 , 2022

The 1.79-carat square-radiant-shaped Grace Diamond, inspired by Grace Kelly. Photo: Maison Mezerea

Jewellery 2022

Pink diamonds have long been revered for their rarity and beauty – but when Sotheby’s sold its record-breaking Williamson Pink Star for US$57.7 million, ears pricked up

The pretty gems are now on every maison’s radar, with top-quality ones growing exponentially in the past decade amid the closure of the Argyle diamond mine in Australia

Pink diamonds have long been associated with love, romance and femininity. This, plus their great rarity, has given them revered status in the world of fancy coloured diamonds – just consider the flurry of bids from around the world when one appeared at auction in Hong Kong this autumn.

It didn’t hurt that it was the Williamson Pink Star, “one of the purest, pinkest diamonds”, according to Sotheby’s. The 11.15-carat stone fetched an eye-watering US$57.7 million in October. But no one seemed surprised. “We estimate that only one in every 10,000 diamonds found is a coloured diamond, but not necessarily a pink,” said Arnaud Bastien, president and chief executive, Graff Diamonds, Asia.

The Williamson Pink Star diamond sold for an eye-watering US$57.7 million at auction. Photo: Sotheby’s

Driven by a limited supply and rising demand, the prices for top-quality large pink diamonds over five carats have increased exponentially over the past decade, said Wenhao Yu, chairman of jewellery and watches at Sotheby’s Asia. “The discovery of a gem-quality pink diamond of any size is an extremely rare occurrence – something that, with the recent closure of the Argyle mine, seemed until recently, highly improbable,” Yu added.

The Graff family, for one, has spent many years seeking out collections of coloured diamonds. In 2010, Laurence Graff bought an exceptionally important 24.78-carat fancy intense pink emerald-cut diamond at a Sotheby’s auction for US$46.2 million. Previously owned by American celebrity jeweller Harry Winston, it had not been seen on the market for more than six decades. Once faceted, it made a 23.88-carat internally flawless fancy vivid rechristened the Graff Pink.

The Spirit of the Rose (14.83 carats), named after a famed Russian ballet, is considered to be “the world’s largest vivid purple-pink diamond ever to appear at auction”. Cut from the largest pink rough ever mined in Russia, the gem was sold at Sotheby’s in Geneva in late 2020 for US$26.6 million.

The discovery of a gem-quality pink diamond of any size is an extremely rare occurrence

Wenhao Yu, chairman of jewellery and watches, Sotheby’s Asia

So why are collectors paying extraordinary amounts for pink diamonds? And why are they on every maison’s radar? Is it the beauty? Or is it the scarcity?

Certainly, owning a rare pink diamond is a privilege. Unlike other colours of diamond produced by trace elements, pinks are formed from intense heat and pressure distorting their atomic lattice.

A multi-shape pink and white diamond flower brooch. Photo: Graff