THE REAL MEASURE OF CHANGE
As the five-year transition to the revised System of Warranties comes to an end, a reflection on what it really takes for an industry commitment to become everyday practice.
SEPTEMBER 21, 2026
On 21 September 2026, the five-year transition period for the revised System of Warranties comes to an end.
Five years can sound like a long time. But people do not change simply because a document has changed. They need time to understand what is being asked of them, to question it, to adapt it to the reality of their business and, eventually, to make it their own.
That was the purpose of these five years.
When the World Diamond Council revised the System of Warranties in 2021, we expanded its scope to incorporate principles relating to human and labour rights, anti-money laundering and anti-corruption. We knew that introducing those principles was only the beginning. For them to mean something, they had to find their place in the reality of an extraordinarily diverse global industry.
The World Diamond Council begins promoting the revised System of Warranties in September 2021. The first industry leader to endorse the mechanism is Feriel Zerouki, then WDC’s Vice President and a senior De Beers executive.
Real change rarely happens at the moment it is announced. It happens afterwards, more quietly, through thousands of decisions made inside businesses. Procedures are adapted. Questions are asked. Habits change. What initially feels new gradually becomes familiar. Eventually, it simply becomes the way business is done.
And that matters particularly because the System of Warranties is an act of industry self-regulation.
Self-regulation means deciding that certain principles matter not simply because somebody requires them of us, but because we believe they are necessary for the integrity and future of our own industry. That requires something more than compliance. It requires ownership.
A warranty statement on an invoice cannot create trust by itself. It is the visible expression of something much larger: the decisions, systems and behaviours behind it. Its credibility ultimately depends on what each of us chooses to put behind those words.
Over the past months, we have invited people from across the diamond community to share what the revised SoW means to them. They came from different businesses, different generations and different parts of the value chain. Yet one idea returned again and again: trust.
Trust between businesses. Trust across borders. And ultimately, the trust of the consumer who chooses a natural diamond.
That trust is not something any one organisation can create for an entire industry. It is built transaction after transaction, company after company, through the choices we make every day. That is both the strength and the responsibility of self-regulation.
The System of Warranties’ first key deadline came on September 21, 2024, three years after the revised version was launched. That was the date by when rough diamond transactions were required to include the revised SoW declaration. In anticipation, WDC launched its “Counting Down” social media campaign.
What comes next
On September 21, the transition ends. The responsibility does not.
The revised System of Warranties now becomes the sole SoW reference. The question is no longer whether the industry has had enough time to transition. The question is what we choose to do with what we have built.
Responsible business has no finish line. Expectations will evolve. Risks will change. Regulation will change. Our industry will change. And the System of Warranties will need to continue evolving with that reality, as it has before.
Our responsibility now is to keep its principles alive in the way we conduct our businesses, and to remain willing to question, improve and adapt as the world around us changes.
Because the real measure of the System of Warranties will never be the statement we place on an invoice. It will be the practices that give that statement meaning.
Five years gave us the time to get here.
What we do from here is what matters.
The final deadline for the revised System of Warranties, on September 21, 2026, by when all rough diamond, polished diamond and diamond jewelry sales should include the updated declaration, has been preceded by a social media campiagn in which a variety of industry representatives explain why they believe it is important.
Elodie Daguzan
Executive Director
World Diamond Council