Video Podcast: Back to the (Diamond) Origins

Do consumers want to know where a diamond is from, and how can traceability help secure the future of the industry? These were among the questions that came up in the latest video episode of the Rapaport Diamond Podcast, featuring Sean Dunn, vice president of J.R. Dunn Jewelers.

Dunn explained how the one-store retailer in Lighthouse Point, Florida, planned to use the De Beers Origin program, which provides provenance information to the consumer, as well as other traceability initiatives to help boost demand.

“My prediction is…that blockchain trace diamonds [will be] the standard,” said Dunn. “How many iterations of branding and strategies have we gone through with diamonds that didn’t work? But I truly believe this is here to stay.”

He also related how the advent of blockchain piqued his interest in diamond origin and the benefits of the industry for Botswana in particular.

After researching and posting about the topic on LinkedIn, he asked members of a Reddit Botswana forum what diamonds meant for them and the country’s economy.

“Nobody said anything negative other than obviously [that] they need to diversify [and] not solely rely on diamonds, but the feedback that I got was so incredibly positive. It blew me away,” said Dunn. “That really is what started my passion.”

This led to a nascent collaboration with Zoe Diamonds, a manufacturer based in Botswana, which will enable it to offer blockchain-traced diamonds from a single known origin.

Dunn explained why his company dipped its toes into lab-grown diamonds, sourcing stones from Leonardo DiCaprio-backed Diamond Foundry. J.R. Dunn has since reduced its lab-grown segment to around 1% of the total business.

In a September 9 conversation, he shared with Rapaport’s Joshua Freedman how the US tariffs had impacted the jewelry industry and why higher-end independent jewelers such as his were selling strongly.

Listen to the audio version of the podcast here:

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