Every stone in this index has a color that defines it. Sapphire is blue. Ruby is red. Emerald is green. Then there's the one that refuses to pick a side.

Padparadscha is technically still a sapphire, same mineral, same hardness, same family as the Kashmir stone that anchors the top of our index. But it isn't blue, or pink, or orange. It's a specific, contested blend of both, and the trade has spent decades arguing over where the line sits. That argument is exactly why it's worth understanding this week.

Key Takeaways

→ A second quiet week on the auction calendar. No new realized colored-stone print has landed since our last edition. The index holds across all eight rows.

→ Gemfields' audited H1 2026 results land September 25. The company has confirmed the date for its full interim results, including EBITDA and free cash flow, the first real look at whether this year's auction revenue recovery is actually profitable. (Gemfields; Discovery Alert)

→ Trend coverage keeps circling the same three names. Industry roundups for 2026 keep naming alexandrite, Paraiba tourmaline, and padparadscha sapphire together as the category's growth story, alongside a broader unheated premium of 30–50% now showing up across fine sapphires generally. (Reuven Veksler market guide)

The index tracks 8 reference stones, weekly. Each row holds until a new dated transaction moves it. Two weeks without a realized print is unusual but not unheard of, late summer is a thin stretch on the auction calendar before Geneva's autumn sales.

Auction prices realized, not retail. Sources: Christie's, Sotheby's, Gemfields, Bonhams, GemGuide, Pala International.

Notable this week: padparadscha doesn't have its own row in this index, and that's deliberate. It's a fancy-color variant of the same sapphire row already at the top of the table, priced on a completely different curve than the blue reference stone. The Focus below is why that distinction matters more than it looks.

A color the trade still argues about. Padparadscha takes its name from the Sinhalese padmaraga, lotus blossom, and the definition has stayed almost as specific as the flower: a delicate, even blend of pink and orange, with neither hue dominant. Tip too far toward pink and a lab calls it a pink sapphire. Tip too far toward orange and it's an orange sapphire. The window is narrow by design, which is exactly why so few stones clear it.

The rarity is structural, not marketing. Trade estimates put genuine padparadscha at under 1% of all sapphires mined, some sources describe it as one or two qualifying stones for every thousand blue sapphires out of Sri Lanka's Ratnapura district. Unlike a Kashmir sapphire, where the scarcity comes from a mine that closed a century ago, padparadscha's scarcity comes from color chemistry itself. Vanadium and chromium have to combine in almost exactly the right ratio, in the right light-absorbing structure, for the blend to land inside the window. Heat treatment can nudge a stone toward the color. It cannot manufacture it from nothing.

Trade guide ranges, 2025–2026. Individual sources vary by 20–40% depending on origin weighting and how strictly “fine” is defined, treat these as a band, not a quote.

Origin still does most of the pricing. Sri Lanka remains the benchmark source and the only one most labs will certify at a premium. Madagascar produces padparadscha too, generally pinker and less orange, trading at roughly 20–30% below equivalent Sri Lankan material. Tanzania is a minor third source. As with every other stone in this index, the lab report carries the origin claim. A dealer's word does not.

The untreated premium here is unusually wide. Most padparadscha reaching the market is heat-treated to nudge the color into the window, standard, accepted, and disclosed on any credible report. But because the color is so chemistry-dependent, an untreated stone that lands naturally inside the definition is treated as a different category entirely. Multiple trade sources put the gap at 2 to 3 times the heated price for comparable size and saturation, wider than the 30–50% unheated premium typical of blue sapphire.

1. This is a color-window trade, not a size trade. A well-cut 2-carat padparadscha with a balanced pink-orange blend beats a poorly matched 4-carat stone every time. Grade the hue before you grade the weight.

2. The untreated premium is the widest in the sapphire family. A 2–3x gap between heated and unheated material, versus 30–50% for blue sapphire generally, means the treatment line on the report changes the price bracket entirely, not just the number inside it.

3. Sri Lanka origin is still the pricing anchor. Madagascar material can look nearly identical and trade 20–30% lower. If a seller can't produce a lab report naming the origin, you're pricing the stone on trust, not data.

→ September 25, Gemfields' audited H1 results. The first look at whether this year's revenue recovery across ruby and emerald auctions actually reached the bottom line.

→ Geneva, November. The autumn Magnificent Jewels sales are the next real test of demand across the board, and historically one of the more reliable venues for a padparadscha lot to surface.

→ October's Gemfields Mixed-Quality ruby auction. Still the next figure that can move the ruby row on a basis comparable to February's print.

If you're ever shown a stone described as padparadscha, ask to see it next to a plain pink sapphire and a plain orange one before you look at the price tag.

If it doesn't sit visibly between the two, balanced, neither dominant, the color argument hasn't been won yet, whatever the listing calls it. The definition is narrow on purpose. That's the entire reason the stone is worth what it's worth.

— Carat Brief

Carat Brief is editorial. Nothing here is investment, legal, or tax advice. Gemstones are illiquid and require certified verification before purchase. Work with credentialed labs: GIA, AGL, SSEF, Gübelin, Lotus Gemology.

Sources: Gemological Institute of America; International Gem Society; Gemfields Group; Discovery Alert; Reuven Veksler 2026 market guide; Crestonne; Gemdaia; CeylonGemHub. Per-carat ranges are trade benchmarks and vary by color balance, origin, size, and treatment.