FCRF to give exclusive pricing data through Cutwise

Finally, color diamonds pricing at the planning stage

For the first time, color diamond wholesale prices will be provided for rough planning alternatives to Cutwise users, empowered by FCRF. This closes a longstanding gap for manufacturers between production and sales.

The Fancy Color Research Foundation (FCRF), together with Lexus TechnoMist, Octonus and its Cutwise platform, today announced the release of a combined functionality that allows Cutwise users for the first time ever to obtain wholesale pricing, calculating all visual nuances for their fancy color diamond planning alternatives, fully integrated with the platform’s functionality. Users will operate under strict confidentiality that doesn’t allow them to share prices outside their organization.

Until now, manufacturers have operated with a pricing black hole at the center of their planning process, where every value assigned to a planning alternative was in practice pure estimation. With this launch, manufacturers only will be able to confidentially retrieve an actual wholesale price tag for the first time, attached to each iteration of the planning options generated within Cutwise. This will transform the planning process from one guided by visual and weight optimization alone, into one grounded in real and current market economics.

The diamond technology market offers a number of sophisticated solutions to help manufacturers plan the polishing of a stone. The Cutwise platform excels in placing particular emphasis on visual assets for diamonds of color, which are the source of their value. Through this new integration, FCRF enables manufacturers of fancy color diamonds using Cutwise to optimize their polishing plans not only for visual outcome and yield but also for the price each outcome is positioned to command in the marketplace.

This breakthrough is made possible by using the vast market input of the FCRF and the cutting-edge technology Octonus-Lexus TechnoMist has engineered into the Cutwise platform.

“Manufacturers have always had to choose between cutting for beauty and cutting for yield, without ever truly knowing what that value was in real market terms. This integration closes that gap. For the first time, manufacturers can see, at every stage of planning, exactly what each alternative is worth in real wholesale market terms and plan accordingly. Manufacturers are the custodians of goods entering the fancy color segment, therefore it is important for the FCRF to support them.” said Roy Safit, CEO of the Fancy Color Research Foundation.

Closing a Longstanding Pricing Blind Spot

Many manufacturers have long been exposed to a pricing blind spot rooted in organizational structure: a gap separates the team responsible for polishing a stone from the team responsible for selling it. By embedding live wholesale pricing directly into the planning process, this new capability gives both teams a shared objective reference point, bridging that gap and allowing production and sales functions to plan collaboratively around a common understanding of value and market needs.

“Price has always been the missing piece at the planning stage. Now that it can be included with each planning alternative we can make better decisions at the most critical point. For a business where margins matter at every step, this is exactly the kind of tool we have been waiting for.” said Vishal Shah, Managing Director of StarGems Group.

This gap can be significant in certain instances. As an example, since manufacturers instinctively respect the shape of the rough they would favor a 1.15-carat radiant cut with medium visual assets over a 1.01-carat pear shape with a perfect color dispersion, given the higher carat yield of the former option. However, a true value comparison reveals the opposite to be the more profitable outcome. The new combined capability surfaces that kind of insight at the planning stage and not after the rough has already been cut.

Built on Confidentiality and Market Rigor

Recognizing the sensitivity of pricing information, FCRF is upholding the highest level of confidentiality with this launch, ensuring that pricing data generated through the feature remains strictly within the manufacturer’s own view and follows in turn with the manufacturing.

With this feature, the focus for manufacturers shifts decisively toward maximizing manufacturing returns in conjunction with raw material utilization, ensuring that every carat of rough is planned not only for yield, but for value.

“Building the engine to optimize for beauty and yield was only half the challenge. Bringing real wholesale pricing into that same engine, in real time and with the confidentiality our clients require, is the piece that was missing for manufacturers. Partnering with FCRF made that possible, and we believe it sets a new standard for what a planning platform is expected to deliver,” said Janak Mistry, Managing Director of Lexus TechnoMist.

The wholesale pricing that powers this capability is derived from various FCRF data sources, one of them being its quarterly index apparatus. This is a thoroughly developed and widely tested methodology built on continuous, ongoing input from key market participants and an array of market outlets. The methodology ensures that prices presented to manufacturers reflect current and up-to-date wholesale market conditions.

This marks the first time that real wholesale market pricing has been made directly available within a fancy color diamond planning environment, a milestone the two organizations describe as a fundamental shift in how fancy color manufacturers plan, polish, and sell their production.

About the Fancy Color Research Foundation (FCRF)
The Fancy Color Research Foundation (FCRF) provides fact-based support for Fancy Color Diamonds as an asset class and empowers sellers with the unparalleled proficiency that the field demands. As a non-trading organization, the FCRF promotes transparency and fair trade through the Fancy Color Diamond Price Index, rarity data, auction analyses, commercial research, and objective evaluations. To learn more, go to https://fcresearch.org.
About Octonus-Lexus TechnoMist and Cutwise
Octonus and Lexus, both founded in 1992, joined forces in 2000 to develop and supply high-end diamond processing technologies, and have since become among the industry’s leading technology developers — helping the trade maximize the value of every rough. In 2007–2008 they established Lemon TechnoMist to bring these capabilities directly to manufacturers, transforming the cutting of fancy color diamonds from an art into a precise science of color. Today, Octonus-Lexus is a global leader in diamond technology, delivering the most profitable solutions for working with every stone — while showcasing planned solutions through rendered images and videos through the Cutwise visualization platform. Cutwise is also popular among diamond companies in showcasing their added value diamonds, including fancy color diamonds.