Cape Town Diamond Works
10 Christiaan Barnard St., Cape Town
Part jewelry store, part diamond workshop, the Cape Town location of The Diamond Works has been wowing visitors to South Africa since 2001. The shop offers diamond, tanzanite, and gold jewelry, plus polished stones and the option to design your own bespoke pieces. But it’s the workshop that’s the star attraction for most travelers.
The Diamond Works’ Sparkling Tour, its signature experience, lets you discover the craft of cutting and polishing stones, either diamonds or tanzanite, as you sip a glass of South African bubbles while watching gem cutters in action. At the jewelry-making workshop, you create a piece of your own design, while enjoying bottomless bubbly and chocolate truffles; the gems used vary from session to session.
Visit the Diamond Works independently, see it on a city tour, or pair it with other gem-shopping destinations on a Cape Town diamond and jewelry tour. You can also see it as part of a day trip that includes the Cape Winelands, Table Mountain, or Kirstenbosch National Botanical Garden.
This attraction is a great choice for jewelry lovers and anyone who’d like to try their hand at design or to create a unique gift.
The Diamond Works used to have stores in the Stellenbosch and Franschhoek wine regions, but now the Cape Town branch is your only option in the Cape area; it has another location at Johannesburg’s O.R. Tambo International Airport.
The building is wheelchair accessible.
The Diamond Works sits in the Cape Town city center, about 1 mile (1.6 kilometers) southwest of the Victoria & Alfred Waterfront, and 2 blocks back from the ocean. It’s about a 5-minute walk from the Civic Centre, which you can reach by bus, such as the T01, T02, T01X, T02X, or 118. There’s also parking in front of the store.
The Diamond Works Cape Town is open from morning to evening every day. Visiting midweek and during the working day is usually quieter than at peak shopping times.
Around 1867, a teenage boy stumbled on a diamond on his father’s farm in what was then the Cape Colony. The find transformed the global jewelry industry and shaped South African history. More than 150 years later, the nation is still an important diamond producer, and Cape Town a world-class diamond shopping destination. In addition to The Diamond Works, you can learn about diamonds at the Cape Town Diamond Museum, shop for loose gemstones at Jewel Africa or for jewelry at Shimansky, or create custom pieces at Uwe Koetter Jewellers.
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