Hi all,

Today is the big day! I'm very excited to show you something that few people on the planet have ever seen, literally.

What we are debuting today however, is not simply a new H&A cut.

The bigger part of the debut is this - the Amora Gem. An entirely new crystal that has never before been available for jewelry consumers.

We're debuting this new crystal with our H&A cut...so the true picture of the debut is actually The Amora H&A Gem.

And now you know why the Amora H&A is debuting at the Hungarian Natural History Museum, alongside the worlds oldest crystals (4.4 Billion years old) in the "Oldest and the Newest" crystal feature exhibit....because the Amora gem is a new crystal that has never been offered as a gem for consumers...not just because it is a new H&A cut

So, with that large secret unveiled, if you've got about 10 minutes to digest a lot of new and exciting information, lets get started and talk about Amora H&A - The Ultimate Gem.

What is the Ultimate Gem?

If I asked most people today, what is the 'ultimate gem', 99% would probably immediately reply 'Diamond'.

And the main reasons for that are:
1 - Brilliance
2 - Fire
3 - Durability
4 - Available on Planet Earth.

The 'available on planet Earth' is of course a big point...so lets expand our search beyond Earth and if we visit a number of large stars, we find a number of exceptional crystals present as stardust. One of these is Moissanite as you know, but another is the Amora gem.

The Amora gem is born and grows in temperature extremes that would vaporize diamond - and hence why it is found naturally around very large stars that can support those kind of extreme temperatures and not on planet Earth. (See Astronomy & Astrophysics, April 1988).


Like Moissanite, the Amora gem is composed of Silicon and Carbon - so it is in the 'family' of Silicon Carbide crystals, of which there are over 200. Each type of Silicon Carbide forms different crystal structures with their own unique optical, physical and electrical properties.

Now within the family of Silicon Carbide crystals, the Amora gem structure actually rates as the most brilliant of them all. (Moissanite by Charles and Colvard is #4 for comparison).

The difficulty of course in producing a star-born crystal here on planet Earth lies in actually growing it here. And compared to Moissanite, the Amora gem grows about 2x as slow, is much more prone to defects and generally all around a lot harder and more expensive to grow. Which is of course a big reason its never been available to date for jewelry lovers.


Today, however, that changes - our goal at BetterThanDiamond is to truly offer the world's Universe's most stunning lab gems that are 'Better Than Diamond', and thus we chose to go for the very best crystal possible, growing cost and difficulty simply being challenges to conquer in exchange for being able to produce the ultimate gem.

So lets go into the details of the Amora lab gem itself and compare it to Diamond.

1 - Amora is 10% more brilliant than diamond (refractive index)
2 - Amora has over 200% more fire than diamond (dispersion index)
3 - Amora has greater physical stability than diamond. Recall that it grows in conditions that would vaporize diamond.
4 - Amora is F Color - True near Colorless on the GIA Diamond grading scale. This is on the upper end of natural diamonds.
5 - Unlike Diamond, Amora is not 'oleophilic' or 'grease loving'. Basically, it does not attract grease or oils the way diamond does, meaning it can go long periods of wear between cleanings while keeping its intense sparkle.

And compared to other gems:
1 - Amora is more brilliant than Moissanite by Charles and Colvard.
2 - Amora is much better color grade than Moissanite (F color vs. K-M native color) and due its compact crystal structure, will never display green tinting (i.e. the cloudy day phenomenon).
3 - Amora is 23% harder than Sapphire.
4 - Amora is more brilliant than CZ or Sapphire.

With all that, I think you are starting to see why the Amora Gem truly is 'The Ultimate Gem'.


Now combine its exceptional physical properties with our extensive research into the optimal cut for it (including computer modeling, prototyping and optimizing it for absolute maximum brilliance and fire) and you have the Amora Hearts and Arrows gem.

Recognize that cutting controls 98% of the brilliance within a given material (which is why H&A diamonds are much more brilliant than a regular round cut diamond), and you can add another diamond comparison:

6 - Amora has 100% H&A Cutting - better cutting than 99% of all round diamonds.

Finally, do all the cutting via robot to ensure super-human precision for each and every Amora H&A Gem - an industry first in fact.

And what you have is...

...drumroll here...:

The Amora H&A Lab Grown Gem - The Ultimate Gem:



(Note: Ipad/Iphone users can view here)


And here is what happens when you submit the Amora H&A gem, the most brilliant gem on the planet, for independent grading at a gem lab:



Thus, I think you'll see why "The Ultimate Gem" succinctly captures the inherent beauty, especially compared directly to diamond, of our new Amora H&A lab gem

The 4C's breakdown:

Some additional details of the Amora H&A lab gem using the often promoted Diamond 4C's:

1 - Color - F color
2 - Clarity - VVS-VS
3 - Cutting - H&A cut, 100% robotically cut
4 - Carat weight - The Amora H&A lab gem will be available in sizes 2.00ct and higher initially, expanding into 1.5ct after that.

The 5th C - Cost:

This C is one diamond does not like to talk about.

I know you are likely thinking "hey, I can set aside a few million to buy this spectacular Amora gem" but hold off on your off-shore wire transfer.

Here's what something close to the Amora H&A gem would run in Diamond:
2.01ct (8mm), F color, VS2 clarity, H&A cut, No Flourescence, Excellent Polish, Excellent Symmetry:

$41,667

(source link - BlueNile )

or, another way, $20,730/per carat.

Now recall that the Amora gem out-performs diamond in terms of brilliance (10%) and Fire (200%+) and compare:

Amora H&A Gem - F color, 2.00ct equivalent, VVS-VS clarity, H&A cut, No Fluourescence, Excellent Polish, Excellent Symmetry:

$995


Or in other terms, $500/ct. Effectively, a 40:1 cost advantage for the Amora H&A, plus greater overall beauty. Note that we will not refer to the Amora H&A as an 'imitation diamond' since imitation implies similar but not as good. Under that definition, diamonds are now imitation Amoras since their brilliance and fire are similar, but not as good, as the Amora H&A.

Plus, I'll add on last data point on the diamond comparison:
7 - Purity: Amora H&A gem is purer than diamond - Atomically, Ethically, and Environmentally. One slogan we have reserved is "The Purest Form of Love" and that covers several broad areas.

The Amora H&A lab gem is of course, lab grown and thus no mining (its grown from gas) and no ethical concerns in terms of humanitarian issues.

Those issues don't show up on a grading report, but they remain valid points.

Here's an image of a full grading report for a sample Amora H&A gem so you can see all the details of how it grades (this is a 7mm):




Availability:

We are just starting production of the Amora H&A gem now and so we expect the true launch (meaning available for sale) to be in early 2012.

We have filed for a US patent, and have about 10 other patents in international countries underway, so the Amora H&A is patent-pending.

However, please realize that even though it is a different crystal structure than Moissanite, because the Amora gem is in the family of 'Silicon Carbide', it falls under the same C&C patent that we are working to invalidate in the US and that applies to a large number (27) of countries.

Thus, availability of the Amora H&A does not equate to when you can purchase. (And to clarify, you can get a patent and then have to potentially wait to 'practice the invention' while a conflicting patent expires).

Customers in India, Taiwan, New Zealand, Mexico and many others can purchase as soon as we launch, but many consumers will have to wait until 2015 as the worst case scenario. We have published a list of the countries where the Amora H&A will be a 'forbidden gem' on our site. Amora H&A - banned country list

Regardless the quantities per month will remain small but we are working on expanding that in the future.

We do have our official Amora H&A page up on our site and that is where you can track broader updates as we move towards the 2012 launch and sales of the Amora H&A gem.
Official Amora H&A page - inventory, pricing, etc.

I'll also continue with our 'Amora blog' and the weekly Friday updates if you want more 'inside' details as we roll out the Amora H&A gem globally.

That concludes the debut! I hope you have enjoyed seeing our new Amora H&A - The Ultimate Gem.

OM frickin G!!! That is AMAZING!! and F colour grade!!! Less, Congratulations!!!! That is a beautiful, beautiful stone, and I WILL have one...or more.

UNBELIEVABLE!!! It is amazing!! I want one now!!!!!

So gorgeous!

Less, you and the BTD team are geniuses!

F color!

And only $995 for a 2 carat!

OMFG!! IT IS INCREDIBLE!! Even BETTER than I anticipated, and I had high hopes! It's absolute perfect, Less! I am already planning new jewelry with these amazing stones! That video is blowing my mind and I keep playing it on repeat, lol.

The new logo is awesome, too! Great design!

Just....Wow!!

**muppet flail**

it's SO PRETTY! and just so, so incredibly amazing!

OOOMMMGGG!!! I totally half to have one of these...

OMG I HAVE HEART PALPITATIONS !!!! *DIES*

Oh. My. God.
Wow.