How does a gemstone known only to collectors rise in value from $60 to $5,000 in just a few years?
Unlike diamonds or sapphires, demantoid has never been driven by fashion. Its remarkable rise has been fuelled by something far rarer: limited supply, growing recognition and an appreciation that took more than a century to arrive.
For me, demantoid is not only a gemstone. It is connected to the Ural Mountains, the place where I was born, and to the quiet geological stories that shaped my understanding of beauty long before Dune Workshop existed.
The stone was first discovered in the Urals in the nineteenth century, and for many years it remained a collector's secret: bright, green, fiery and difficult to find in fine quality. It did not become famous through campaigns or trends. It remained important because gemologists and collectors understood what it was.
At Dune, that history feels personal. We often work with tiny Ural demantoids in bespoke pieces, especially wedding bands, where a small stone can carry a private meaning known only to the person who wears it.
Ural demantoids are often considered the most desirable because of their vivid green colour, strong brilliance and the rare inclusions that can appear inside them. The most famous of these are horsetail inclusions: delicate, radiating fibres that curve through the stone like a natural signature.
In many gemstones, inclusions reduce value. In demantoid, the opposite can be true. A beautiful horsetail inclusion can help confirm origin, identity and rarity. It is one of the few cases where an internal feature becomes part of the stone's poetry.
The price rise has followed a simple but powerful logic. Fine material is limited, older sources are difficult to replace, and international collectors have become more aware of the stone's importance. What once moved quietly through specialist circles now appears at major jewellery exhibitions, in the hands of serious dealers and increasingly in the language of high jewellery maisons.
Its appeal is easy to understand once you see a fine demantoid in person. The green is sharp but not cold. The fire is lively, sometimes almost diamond-like, yet the stone remains less obvious and more intimate than the traditional precious gemstones.
Value emerges when rarity meets recognition.
At Dune, demantoid has quietly become our own symbol. We often set tiny Ural demantoids inside bespoke wedding bands, hidden from view and known only to the people who wear them. It is our way of carrying a small piece of the Ural Mountains into a deeply personal object that is meant to last a lifetime.
Perhaps that is why I never grow tired of looking at demantoids. Their beauty extends far beyond colour or brilliance. They carry millions of years of geological history and remind us that the world's greatest treasures are not always the most famous.
