Quick answer: Lab-grown (synthetic) crystals are the same mineral as natural ones, with identical chemistry and structure, grown by methods such as hydrothermal growth (quartz), flux growth, or Verneuil flame fusion (ruby and sapphire). They are not fakes: imitations made of glass or plastic are. Synthetics are fine to buy as long as they are clearly labeled.
A lab-grown emerald and a natural one can share identical chemistry, identical crystal structure, and be genuinely difficult to tell apart without specialized equipment. Calling the lab-grown version “fake” misses what’s actually happening: it’s the same mineral, grown deliberately instead of by geological accident.
Same chemistry, controlled conditions
Synthetic crystal growth methods recreate, under controlled laboratory conditions, the same basic processes that occur in nature, just compressed into weeks or months instead of thousands or millions of years. Hydrothermal synthesis grows quartz in heated, pressurized mineral solutions, mimicking the same hydrothermal chemistry behind natural hydrothermal veins, while flux and flame-fusion methods grow corundum and other gem minerals from molten or dissolved raw materials cooling under tightly controlled conditions. The vast majority of quartz used in electronics and watch oscillators today is synthetic, grown specifically because industrial applications need chemical purity and dimensional consistency that natural material can’t reliably guarantee.
Where the real distinction lies
The meaningful difference between synthetic and natural isn’t authenticity, a synthetic ruby is genuinely, chemically ruby, it’s origin and, usually, price: natural material carries the scarcity and geological history that collectors and the gem trade pay a premium for, while synthetic material offers the same physical properties at a fraction of the cost. The real ethical and practical concern is disclosure, synthetic material sold without being identified as such, a different problem from the treated-material questions covered in our dyed, heated, and coated guide, though both ultimately come down to a buyer knowing exactly what they’re purchasing.
Reputable dealers disclose synthetic origin as a matter of course, and doing so doesn’t diminish what a synthetic stone actually is, genuine mineral material, just made on a human timeline instead of a geological one.
Deeper dive: the history nobody tells you
The fake rubies that came first
In 1885, synthetic rubies of unknown origin appeared on the market through a merchant in Geneva. Judged artificial at the time, these “Geneva rubies” are now believed to be the first rubies made by flame fusion, years before the method had a name (Wikipedia, Verneuil method).
Verneuil’s flame, and the industry it built
French chemist Auguste Verneuil announced his flame-fusion process in 1902 and published the details in 1904. Powdered alumina, with a pinch of chromium oxide for red, is dropped through an oxyhydrogen flame of at least 2,000 °C; the molten droplets land on a rod and build a single crystal called a boule. Output grew from about 1,000 kg a year in 1907 to roughly 250,000 kg by 2000. The method was also used to make synthetic star sapphires from 1947 to 1974 (Wikipedia, Verneuil method).
World War II and the quartz crisis
Military radios and radar depended on quartz oscillators, and nearly all suitable natural quartz came from Brazil; the U.S. treated it as a strategic material. Wartime shortages pushed research into growing quartz instead. By 1950, Bell Laboratories had a commercial-scale hydrothermal process, and by the 1970s virtually all quartz in electronics was synthetic. Around two billion quartz crystal units were being made a year by 2003 (Wikipedia, Crystal oscillator). Natural quartz still has a niche: pressure sensors in deep wells.
The diamond race
General Electric’s Tracy Hall grew diamond on December 16, 1954, and GE announced it in February 1955. But Swedish company ASEA had quietly made small diamonds in a secret project called QUINTUS on February 16, 1953, and never announced it until after GE’s press conference (Wikipedia, Synthetic diamond). Today lab diamonds are grown two ways: HPHT presses at about 5 GPa and 1,500 °C, or CVD, which builds diamond from a methane-hydrogen plasma. By 2023, lab-grown stones made up about 17% of the diamond jewelry market.
How labs tell them apart
Because chemistry and structure match, detection relies on growth clues: curved growth lines and gas bubbles in Verneuil rubies, trace elements and fluorescence patterns in diamond (De Beers’ DiamondView uses UV fluorescence), and spectroscopy. Major labs laser-inscribe the girdle of lab-grown diamonds to identify their origin (Wikipedia, Synthetic diamond).
Sources: Wikipedia articles “Verneuil method,” “Synthetic diamond,” and “Crystal oscillator.”
