DiamondTrack™
The diamond industry faced a growing demand for traceability and transparency, including tracking (from mine to market) and tracing (from market to mine) of diamonds in the jewellery industry. Some solutions already exist, but they are mainly based on declarative documents because of the current impossibility of determining the geographic origin of diamonds.
The Swiss Gemmological Institute SSEF is a leading authority in the science of gemstone testing and in providing solutions to support the supply chain integrity and maintain consumer confidence in rare natural gemstones. Therefore, in addition to our existing services, new and combined gemmological and spectroscopic techniques (based on unique features within a stone) are being developed to enhance the documentation of stones as they journey from mine to market. As a result, the Swiss Gemmological Institute SSEF has decided to launch the DiamondTrack™ in January 2026 as a new service to the trade.
The SSEF DiamondTrack™ is a versatile document that offers a solution to track the journey of a diamond from the rough to the final polished diamond.
A DiamondTrack™ document links a polished to a specific rough diamond using gemmological and spectroscopic techniques.
Diamond Track™ is based on a combination of microscopic and spectroscopic analyses, including one of the most sensitive techniques available in gemmological laboratories, allowing detection of impurities or defects at the ppb level (part per billion): the photoluminescence at liquid nitrogen temperature (-196°C). All the collected data create a unique characterisation and fingerprints of a rough diamond. The same features are then investigated on the final polished diamond.
A Diamond Track™ document can only be issued if sufficient spectroscopic characteristics are detected in the stone. SSEF reserves the right not to issue a DiamondTrack™ document if characterising evidence is insufficient.
What claims does a DiamondTrack™ document make?
DiamondTrack™ provides expert scientific opinion linking a rough diamond to a polished diamond. All the legal documentation concerning the transit of rough diamonds has to be provided with the rough stone when submitted to SSEF. Mention of origin is only possible when complete documentation, along with the rough, is provided by the mining company. In that case, SSEF may state the origin of a diamond based on the provided documentation from the mining company. Diamond Track™ is an SSEF document that presents data of a specific diamond in its rough and polished state and is only issued in accompaniment of a diamond grading report of the final polished diamond.
What are the requirements to issue a DiamondTrack™ document?
To be able to offer the DiamondTrack™ service for a specific gemstone, SSEF has to analyse a stone twice. First, the diamond is submitted to the Swiss Gemmological Institute as a rough stone for detailed analysis, along with the available documentation. Once the stone is fully characterised, SSEF assigns a unique number to the rough diamond and sends it back to the clients for cutting and polishing. No document is issued at this time by SSEF. Later, the clients resubmit the polished diamond with the unique identifying number (the number that was given to the rough). The stone is then meticulously analysed by SSEF for the second time to confirm that the cut and polished stone is coming from the previously submitted rough. The DiamondTrack™ document and the coupled diamond grading report will be issued if the data comparison between the rough and the final polished diamond is positive.
Laser engraving of the SSEF report number can be performed on the girdle of the final polished diamond.
A possible update of the DiamondTrack™ document can be made if the stone is later mounted on a jewellery item and resubmitted to SSEF for checking, hence offering a unique document able to track the stone from the mine to the jewellery.
