cz stone

Cubic Zirconia or CZ for short was discovered in its natural state in 1937 by two German mineralogists, von Stackelberg and Chudoba. It was in a highly metamict zircon given to them by B.W. Anderson. The Zircon contained tiny crystals that were determined to be the cubic form of zirconium oxide by x-ray diffraction. The two mineralogists thought so little of their discovery that they did not even give it a name. That is the reason why it is still known by its scientific name Cubic Zirconia. It wasn’t until the 1970’s, however, that Soviet scientists learned how to grow the crystals / Cubic Zirconia in the laboratory. In 1977, it was first marketed under the trade name “Djevalite”. But Cubic Zirconia really took off in the 1980’s when Swarovski & Co., a world-renowned Australian producer of leaded Crystal , began producing Cubic Zirconia for mass consumption.