This article first appeared in the JNA July/August 2024 issue.

In February 2023, Gübelin Gem Lab unveiled Gemtelligence, its artificial intelligence-powered platform that could determine the country of origin of rubies, blue sapphires and emeralds as well as recognise heat treatments in rubies and sapphires.

For over a year now, the groundbreaking system has been assisting the lab’s gemmologists by evaluating analytical data from the stones submitted for testing.

Building on this powerful breakthrough, Gübelin Gem Lab is making its expertise available to a wider section of the market through its new Gem Passports.

Powered by Gemtelligence, the service provides country-of-origin determination and a simplified form of treatment detection for rubies, blue sapphires and emeralds. Gem Passports are available for smaller stones from half-a-carat to 3 carats for CHF 200 (around US$224).

“Gemtelligence enables a shortening of the testing procedure, particularly reducing the amount of time that human experts spend on the microscope documenting the stone. This lowers our costs, thus allowing for the significant reduction of the fee for Gem Passports,” explained Daniel Nyfeler, managing director of Gübelin Gem Lab.

The lab’s Lucerne, Hong Kong and New York branches have been offering the Gem Passport service since June 1, 2024, with a turnaround time of around 10 working days.Nyfeler added, “Thanks to our Gemtelligence platform, dealers of smaller gemstones of lower commercial value now have the chance to get a Gübelin document for their stones. This will be particularly welcomed by brands, which need confirmation on the authenticity and origin of their stone, issued by a trustworthy lab for an affordable price.”

Thailand presence

The Gem Passport service will also be offered onsite at Gübelin Gem Lab (Thailand) when the facility opens on the 29th floor of the Jewelry Trade Center Building in Bangkok this September.

Clients can still submit coloured gemstones bigger than 3 carats or request for traditional laboratory reports at the Bangkok lab. These stones will be sent internally for processing in Hong Kong or Lucerne, with a longer turnaround time than the two weeks required for Gem Passports.

“Bangkok has proven to be one of the most important trading centres of coloured gemstones, and we have an established and loyal customer base in Thailand,”
remarked Nyfeler.

Officially Gübelin (Thailand) Co Ltd, the lab will be manned at first by two local staff. Employees from the Hong Kong and Lucerne laboratories will train the first members of the Bangkok team and help build up the branch’s processes and structures.

Nyfeler expects the Bangkok lab to start with an initial processing capacity of hundreds of stones per week.

Further possibilities

The Gem Passport service and the soon-to-open Gübelin Gem Lab (Thailand) are but two of the significant initiatives enabled by the Gemtelligence deep-learning software.

The system draws on Gübelin Gem Lab’s reference stone collection that comprises over 28,000 gemstones from all commercially relevant mines. This is supplemented by analyses of thousands of high-grade customers’ stones that the lab has analysed since 1970.

In the past year, the lab has added some 2,000 additional datasets and retrained the algorithm multiple times. And Gemtelligence still has plenty to offer, according to Nyfeler.

Since the system can process analytical data from external laboratories, it can eventually be provided to third parties as a service. Nyfeler said several labs have expressed interest in the technology, and Gübelin Gem Lab is currently defining the requirements their data need to fulfil to qualify for evaluation by Gemtelligence.

Tracking growth

The Gübelin Gem Lab-initiated Provenance Proof initiative has gained traction too, becoming the undisputed leader for traceable and trackable coloured gemstones. According to Nyfeler, the Provenance Proof community now includes more than 700 participants along the value chain, including more players in the midstream sector.

In addition, the number of stones on the Provenance Proof Blockchain has ballooned to 20 million, compared to some 8 million in 2023. “We observe greater awareness downstream, with retailers and brands pushing the trade to supply traceable gemstones,” he said.

Looking ahead, Gübelin Gem Lab is eyeing greater visibility and easier access to its services in markets such as China and India. It already operates a permanent take-in window in Shanghai.

“All our developments aim to empower the final customer to make educated buying decisions with peace of mind,” Nyfeler said. “The gemstone rating was a major step towards reaching this goal, reducing the complexity inherent to coloured gemstones and giving orientation and direction for both the trade and the end-consumer.”