The iDiamond? Apple with Bite Reaches GIA

RAPAPORT… We’ve seen diamonds fashioned as stars, horses and even swords, but a new shape is now on the market: the Apple logo.

The Gemological Institute of America (GIA) recently received a 1.13-carat, fancy-yellow diamond with the unusual cut at its laboratory in Carlsbad, California, the organization reported in the latest edition of its journal, Gems & Gemology.

Someone had submitted the stone for the GIA’s color origin and identification service, which tells the customer what the diamond’s color is and whether it’s natural or artificial. The piece had a “striking resemblance” to the famous symbol that appears on the back of iPhones and MacBooks, according to the lab note.

The GIA believes the manufacturer chose the bitten-apple style “as a novelty” and to retain weight, wrote senior staff gemologists Maryam Mastery Salimi and Najmeh Anjomani in the journal’s Winter 2021 issue, published this week. The special cut eliminated inclusions, or at least helped make them as invisible as possible.

It showed significant windowing, meaning that the stone was so shallow that an observer could see through it. This feature reduces the brilliance and efficient light return of a diamond.

Similar specimens the GIA has seen in the past include a sword-shaped diamond and a “seated Buddha,” the authors noted.

“This unique shape for a faceted diamond is a welcome addition to the wide range of novelty cut diamonds currently available in the trade,” they wrote.

Update, February 10, 2022: An additional explanation of the reason for cutting the diamond in this shape has been added to this article.

Image: The diamond resembling the Apple logo. (Diego Sanchez/GIA)