Inside NYC s Diamond District Exclusive

So what, like, happened? They particularly took this booth to rip me off. This is the Diamond District. How much did that go for? Millions. We sold it to Sheikh in Saudi Arabia. 7.5 million dollars. The New York City block with multi-million dollar rocks. Viral characters like tracks in a hidden world that we sought to uncover. These pieces are very, very, very rare. Brand new, 2025. Whenever jeweler's people are in power, things prosper. My favorite customer is Mr. Beast. He's the best. Even celebrities can't get this watch. Only 200 pieces out there. We take you to the most important street for jewelry on the planet for an inside look with the perfect roster of people. Tracks, the viral sensation. Benny the jeweler, the celebrity plug. Mike Necta, the engagement ring king. Vukom, the TikTok negotiator. House of Diamonds, the high-end dealer. And finally, the lab-grown Indian shop who's now a villain on the street. So come with us to the Diamond District for one of our most surprising eye-opening videos yet. The Diamond District is a single block in New York City and it's where 90% of all the diamonds imported into the U.S. pass through. About 2,500 shops are on 47th Street between 5th and 6th Avenue. The importance of the Diamond District is hard to overstate. About 90% of all diamonds imported into the U.S. pass through New York City's Diamond District. One super interesting thing about the Diamond District is some of the stores here look like they sell I Heart New York t-shirts and yet inside of them are rocks going for hundreds of thousands, sometimes billions of dollars. But it's sometimes very unassuming stores and then sometimes you have really nice markets like this one that just looks like luxury. Obviously in the Diamond District and something we're going to be talking about with experts today has a huge ultra-Orthodox Jewish population and so you're going to see a lot of restaurants like this one right here. The district was founded in the 1940s by Orthodox Jews who fled Europe during World War II. That makes all the social media comments about, Yes, while Orthodox Jews maintain a lot of control in the industry, it's largely because of historical persecution, both ancient and modern. Well the Jews that came from Antwerp in Belgium after World War II were bringing the diamond trade here, which was over there, and they brought it over here and they bought the, it used to be on Canal Street, but they got offices right on this street and they founded the Diamond District because the diamond trade and the gem trade is going back thousands of years to the Jewish people since the destruction of the temple to now. So in Soviet Union, Jewish people weren't allowed to become lawyers, become bankers, become doctors. They were allowed to buy and resell, whether it's cigarettes, whether it's gold, whether it's watches. Grandfather used to resell in the Soviet Union raisins by the kilos. That was how he was making money. It's like when we put our minds to something, I believe we have a high success rate, in my honest opinion. Maybe I'm going to get a lot of hate for that, but that's just the truth, you know. Everybody always says, I need a Jewish lawyer, I need a Jewish tax accountant. Why? Because they are Jewish doctors. Why? Because those people have a high success rate at getting things done. Okay, so enough history. Let's talk about the Diamond District today. And the place to start is with its biggest business, engagement rings. And to understand them, we talked to the ring expert, Mike Necta. Two million bucks in the palm of your hand. Can you do that with anything else? 40 carat fancy yellow. This is the same video, the same one I had in the Mr. D's video. So that adds to the diamond's pedigree. Oh my goodness. And how much did that go for? Millions. Millions. 40 carat, GIA certified, fancy yellow, VS, earth mind. The ring itself is a work of art. If I put this in your hand, you'll feel like some heaviness. Oh my goodness. This has some weight to it. Put it on your pinky. Wear it on your pinky. Oh my goodness. Who wants to kiss the ring? Check it out. Boom, baby. Let's go. Two million bucks in the palm of your hand. You can't do that with a lab-grown diamond. Third generation. So I was born into this business. My grandfather started about 50 years ago in the United States repairing watches with his two teenage sons. Then moved into gold chains. Became one of the main gold chain importers into New York City from manufacturers in Italy. Then slowly moved into adding diamonds to those gold chains. Then slowly moved into bridal jewelry like engagement rings and wedding bands and stuff like that. This generation, we're making the most interesting and sought-after diamond engagement rings and bridal jewelry in the world. In our culture, is it cool to flash your car around the same way as you flash a big diamond? No. Nothing you do is cool, but the diamond ring, it's like I'm engaged and she's literally like in everyone's face. No one's thinking, whoa, why is she acting like that? And I get a chance to create it over and over and over. The diamond engagement ring is also the piece that's the start of two people getting together and starting a family. And a whole bunch of babies are born from that. And I had something to do with that. I see comments in the comment section, diamonds are a scam. Or why would someone spend $100,000 on a diamond ring? It's just a different mindset. I had folks fly in from Virginia today. They're ready to spend $150,000. They know lab-grown is available. They're not interested. I have a question. What are the biggest ethnicities involved here? Obviously, there's a big Orthodox Jewish presence on- Really? So I've heard. You literally have every type of ethnicity in the diamond industry. Name an ethnicity, I'll point at least one out. And I don't think it's mostly Orthodox Jewish. Really? Yep. Well, you've walked up and down the block. You walked into shops. I'm Orthodox Jewish. I don't even think half are. I can argue I'm one of the best in the country at what I do. And anyone who knows what they're doing can come and operate in the diamond industry. It's not like a controlled thing. It's not closed off. We are ready to work with anybody who is honest and does good business. And you have that in any nationality, any ethnicity. After Mike, we went to House of Diamonds and took an elevator to visit this high-end dealer. But before you come with us to the House of Diamonds, let's first travel to the epicenter of the diamond industry today, India. India has arguably become the most important country when it comes to the diamond industry. Roughly 90% of the world's polished diamonds are cut and processed in India. And most of this happens in the city of Surat. So how it works is that India imports rough diamonds from Africa and Russia and the other big diamond mining countries. And then Surat cuts and processes those diamonds and then sends them all around the world, including to the biggest market, the US. And of those diamonds, almost all go through New York City and the diamond district in particular, like this one right here. So here, you can see what it feels like. You would not know. It does not look like a diamond. If this was on the street, you would not know it's a diamond. I would, I would like probably chuck it. So we are an 8th generation family business. We started with color stones in Jaipur. So we actually used to be the Jaipur royalties jewelers. Eight generations ago, we moved into diamonds and we haven't looked back. Now we're one of the largest diamond wholesalers in the world, specializing in three carat and up fancy shaped diamonds, as well as very beautiful designer jewelry. Most of the diamonds come from Africa, but they're mostly all polished in India in this small town called Surat. So basically rough diamonds, they come from Africa, Canada, Russia, etc. What is like the most expensive you all have sold or you hear about? The most expensive ring we have sold is a three carat vivid pink diamond for exactly $7.5 million. Yeah, we sold it to a Sheikh in Saudi Arabia. He didn't even ask us the price. Now, not all of us are selling jewelry in the diamond district and have the ability to make cash by flipping watches. Some of us have to save money other ways, and that's where we bring in today's sponsor of the video, American Financing. If you're a homeowner and have credit card debt, there's no better time than now to call American Financing and wipe out that debt. Now that interest rates are lower, American Financing can help you access that equity in your home at an interest rate in the low fives. You heard that right, in the low fives. That's way better than the average 20% or more credit card rates. American Financing is saving their customers an average of 800 a month. They're closing some customers in as fast as 10 days and even delaying two mortgage payments. So call America Financing today at 866-889-1994, 866-889-1994, or visit americafinancing.net slash Roka news. Make some smart money moves like tracks and book them back to the diamond district. So these are models of rough diamonds. So as you can see, this is an 18 carat rough diamond that was crafted into a 6.15 carat round polished diamond. So we lost about 12 carats of weight to make that. So here you can see what it feels like. See, it does not look like a diamond, right? You would not know. It does not look like a diamond. If this was on the street, you would not know it. So this is what the rough diamond looked like. And this is the actual natural rare diamond. And you can just see. Oh my goodness. How do they get? The beautiful cutters. They cut this into this. And yeah, I feel very strongly in natural diamonds. People don't realize it, but it's powering a whole continent. It's powering a large chunk of India's economy. It's powering a large chunk of America's economy. So it is doing good for a lot of people. Okay, so not everyone is selling shiny rocks to sheiks like Ariat House of Diamonds. Another part of the diamond district is the bling market. We wanted to talk to a celebrity jeweler. So we visited the famous Benny the Jeweler, whose brother was working when we stopped by. So what are these? What are these pieces here? These pieces are very, very, very rare. We have a Tiffany Daytona here. Brand new, 2025, very rare. How much is that going to run you? About $120,000. Wow, that's a big boy. Then we have the AP Frosted Off-Catalog. Even celebrities can get this watch. Only 200 pieces out there. Casanova was like our first client, and then he recommended us the Pop Smoke, and then so forth and so forth. They just kept coming in. Who are some of the biggest names that have come in here? We go from Usher, Pop Smoke, Ice Ice, Cardi B. Wow. Nicki Minaj, Mayweather. Skarner. I saw that figure. Yeah, I saw Skarner. Saquon Barkley. Wow, so many. Yeah, probably hard to keep track. What's the history of the business? Well, my father started a business about, I would say, 25 years ago. He used to use a diamond setter. They started going to the retail, and he got into the business. There was no social media. There was no WhatsApp. It was word of mouth. And then he brought me and my brother to the business, and then we just took it from there. I see you've got some bling on that watch. Yeah. That's bedazzling right there. API style. Very nice rose gold. It's a very beautiful watch also. Very nice. What do you say to the people who accuse the diamond industry or jewelry industry of price mixing? I disagree with that. I think we're overcharged. I think we're at much better prices than all of the name brands out there. Tiffany has the same diamond for 10 grand. I sell it for 15 grand. We're much, much cheaper. So this street is going to be cheaper than a lot of his name brand stores. Oh, yeah. 100%. All right. So we're right now in the Tracks office here overlooking the store, and he's got a great new piece of art. Check it out. You know, things have been a little bit more touched up. I'm getting a lot more attention than I'm used to. Let me just start off right here with... So what happened? What happened is that they particularly took this booth to rip me off. You know, that was my feeling of it. They didn't even have their sign at the top for a while. So they could say that they're me, you know, Lord over me, rip me off, do whatever they wanted. So for years, I was, you know, dealing with it. And then in the end, I had to fight them off. So basically what happened was you had them kind of leveraging your brand because your name's all over the front of the doors, but they were making the money for themselves. Right. In the most nastiest way possible. Yeah. So this is the receipt from this disgusting company that pretends to be me, sells my customer a bracelet, rips them off. Oh my God. What happened? Oh, they bombed me. Have a good one. So, all right, what's your story? How'd you get into the jewelry business? I started my jewelry business in 2004 by photographing jewelry on Canal Street and putting it up on eBay. And then when I would sell it, I would buy it. And I would be taking pictures from different people, you know, jewelry from their counters. Yeah. And try to make a sale until I learned how to manufacture, get to the wholesalers, things like that. And you just did that by hustling. You went from Canal Street to here just by slowly working your way up. Yep. Why'd you start posting on social media? I mean, it's for my business. I like media more than I like jewelry. Yeah. We're going to be shooting the world's first diamond tip bullet. One carrot is being fired out of a desert eagle with a clean shot on this bar. Why is there such a large Orthodox Jewish presence here? Well, the Jews that came from Antwerp in Belgium after World War II were bringing the diamond trade here, which was over there. And they brought it over here. And they bought the... It used to be on Canal Street, but they got offices right on this street. And they founded the diamond district because the diamond trade and the gem trade is going back thousands of years to the Jewish people since the destruction of the temple to now. How do you respond to some of those like... the shittiest comments you get on your video? I know you're blocked. I know you're blocked, but... I'm trying to use it to the advantage, okay? Yeah, I understand where the shitty comments for the Jewish people are coming from. I'm not here to deny it. I'm here to give guidance to my people on how to act, okay? So they can have a positive experience with the world and they should be loved, not hated. Also, there's a big mix. I know there are some Italians, some Lebanese. It's all over the place, right? Absolutely. What is the breakdown? How would you say on 47th Street? I mean, it's Jewish. It's Korean. It's Hispanic. Everybody's here now more than ever. You've obviously sold to some big names. Can you share some of those names? My favorite customer is Mr. Beast. He's the best. Have you... YouTube, have you heard of him? I don't know. Look him up, but he's somewhere on there. But wow, he's bought from you? Yes. That's insane. We make pieces for his videos. Mr. Beast challenged us to make a play button, so we made it. What's going on in this store? Are these all part of your ecosystem or this is the main shop here? This is my shop right here and these are all beautiful businesses around. I have watches, jewelry, and everything else. What do you... What's your favorite thing to sell? My favorite thing to sell is gold chains. Why? Because they're going to pay for themselves with money printing. You obviously have a lot of fans now. What's it like now going from... You already had millions of followers, but come on, now you're the most viral video in 2026. How'd that change your life? It changed it a little bit. It got it more hectic and there's a lot more attention, but I don't want to think about myself. I want to think about other people. I want to do stuff for other people, so... My last big question, how's your neck? My neck is actually surprisingly not as good as I thought it would be by now. Really? I still feel pain when I swallow and it's... Are you mentally good? I mean, you obviously have a big personality, like you're able to get fired up and you handled that. 21 years, I've been through a lot of bullshit, so I'm good enough. Yeah, you know how to talk. Well, hey, thank you so much for talking to us. We appreciate it. This is an awesome store. Everybody check it out when you're in New York. 64 West, you're invited. By the way, if you're enjoying this video, please make sure to hit subscribe. We go all around the country and world to capture it without bias or fear and love to highlight fascinating places like the Diamond District. If you support our mission and want to help us out, hit subscribe. It does wonders for us. Now back to the Diamond District. The scene around Trax was insane. Everyone wanted a picture with him, but some of the nearby vendors aren't thrilled. We've been a neighbor with Trax for already like six or seven years. We're always good and God willing, we're still good. You know, I just think it's not right how it all went about, you know, from their end and that end. But, you know, things happen. Now we got here, you know, obviously it's not right that they use his name. I think that's not right to anyone. Yeah, in my opinion, it's, especially when you're dealing with like luxury items, you don't want to act, you want to be professional. These are not cucumbers and tomatoes. So when people coming in here, obviously those people nine out of 10 times have also money or big corporations, big company. And they want to feel like they're being treated in a hospitable environment. You know, like Friday when it all happened, I had two clients that were cashing out on a 300K Richard Mille and the whole thing happened. They ran away. And now I called them. They don't even want to pick up, even though we had nothing to do with that. Just the environment of that whole mess and everything. They said, you know what, I'm sorry. Also you're spending 300K on a watch. You wouldn't want that type of experience. Now Trax is one of the many viral sensations in the diamond district for better or worse, but he's not the only one using social media to grow his brand. There are others like Vukom, who has 3 million followers on social media, mainly because of his watch negotiations. 41 minus 50. I'll give you the 50. I got into the business at 18 years old. Now a friend's dad taught me. Just was interested in making money. And I dropped out of college. How'd you build this business out? Basically just all on social media. Once I hopped on social media, everything just started taking off at a rapid speed. What do you do that made you popular? I started doing live Rolex negotiations on TikTok. I sell a lot of watches that are anywhere from like $5,000 to $15,000. So like a lot of people would consider that entry level. I mean, obviously that's very expensive for a watch, but when you're talking about watches that are upwards of $100,000, $200,000, $500,000, that would be considered an entry level watch. Who's your favorite customer to walk in? Is it like a Dubai tourist or Russian businessman? Is it someone who's a rapper? No, because my favorite customer, a lot of other guys will say, it's the celebrities that come in or other influencers or guys that look rich or are rich. But I honestly really enjoy it when like a young guy's coming in, maybe he just got his first job, you know, he's in college or he's graduating high school and his parents are buying him a watch and he wants that first starter watch. I just like it because it's just like, it's cool. You're never as excited to buy a watch as you are if you're buying your first watch. Exactly. Like the excitement that comes out of them, it's like, it's just, you can pick it up. It's awesome. What do you make of the thing that happened at Trax? It's unfortunate that that happened. You know, he handled it, you know, how a lot of people would have handled it. And he went over there and stood up for his business. Do you kind of think he was in the right on that? I mean, from what we're seeing online, from what the story is online, yeah, absolutely. While Vukom has gone from 18-year-old college dropout to a highly successful jeweler, social media is not popular with everyone. Some even look down on it. How is social media viewed by jewelers here? You'd be surprised. I think some of the most successful people on the industry, they have the lowest profile. They do not want to be on social media. They think of it as a distraction. On the retail side, I think now it's become a necessity to be on social media because if you're not there, you're not going to be able to reach the younger crowd. But as far as wholesale, it's not required to have a social media presence at all. But at this point, we have to talk about the elephant in the room, the lab-grown diamond. Lab-grown rings have taken the industry by storm. In 2012, they were roughly 1% of the engagement ring market in the US. By 2019, they jumped to 12%, then 46% in 2023, and a large survey last year found that 52% of engagement rings were grown in a lab. As a result, while everything else in America has become more expensive, average ring prices have dropped. In fact, according to one report, the average ring price in the US has gone from $5,822 to $5,523 all the way to $5,224. We met with one of the lab-grown pioneers to find out why lab-grown diamonds have changed the game. All right, so we are with Lab-Grown Diamonds USA. Check them out. When did lab-grown diamonds become popular? So the lab-grown diamond basically started in somewhere around 2013, 2014. Okay. On a very, very minuscule level. Yes. And then it started going up and it really became popular in 2017 and 2018. And why do you think it's become so popular? Because the product is the same as diamond. People usually used to buy the cheaper diamonds because they didn't have the budget, but the cheaper diamonds would come very bad quality, no resale value of them. So there is no point in wearing a jewelry or the diamond which is not shiny. Now, this lab-grown diamond are all shiny, beautiful, inexpensive. So people are just buying left and right. So how do they make lab-grown diamonds? There are different ways. There are two basically ways. One is HPHT and one is CVD. HPHT is, you know, like a specialty of China and CVD is the specialty of India. So CVD diamond, they take a wafer, thin wafer of the diamond. Yes. Put it in a chamber with the high pressure, high temperature. The gases are thrown into the chamber and slowly, slowly it settles onto the diamond wafer. Yeah. And it grows and grows and grows and grows. So longer the time, the bigger the diamond. Why, if they're cheap to produce, do they cost a lot, the lab-grown diamonds in retail stores? I would say the margin for the store to survive. They have to make certain kind of margin because the expenses are there. So here's the thing. I don't care what consumers buy, but they should know the truth and they should buy products at ethical prices. You can buy a one carat lab-grown polished diamond for $25. And I do not think that's romantic to give to your wife. $25, that, like, my lunch today cost $25, right? So that's why I think natural diamonds are the only lasting symbol. They actually have some value you can give to your wife. Lab-grown diamonds, any seller, they write on their invoice, this, as soon as you buy this, this has no resale value. One thing natural-made diamond jewelers told us today is that natural diamonds, they retain a lot of their value after someone buys it and they say that doesn't happen with lab-grown. What's your response to that? So, I mean, for example, let's say a diamond is a natural diamond and it costs somewhere around $10,000. The similar diamond would cost around $700, $800 in the leperon diamond. Now, natural diamond, it retains the value. But when you go back to sell that, you will receive only, I would say, 60% of the amount. Lab-grown diamond is costing you about $800. Three, four years back, I had a customer, a retail jeweler. His daughter was getting married and we were looking at 10 carat, big chunk of stone and that would cost in a natural diamond millions plus. All right. So, the daughter said that what if I buy the lab-grown diamond, which that time would cost about $70,000 and the rest of the money I invest in my house. Father did not agree, but the daughter went anyway, bought the lab-grown diamond and put the money for the down payment. Today, that house is valued two times. I was one of the initial person to start this business. Like a big lab-grown business? Yes. At that time, nobody was willing to even look at it, not to entertain me in their stores, anything. Do other jewelers who sell natural diamond, do they not like you because you threaten their business? Do you feel that at all? Initially, it was like that. But now, with the natural diamond business going so much down, they are happy that they have the lab-grown diamond to survive. And particularly the stores. Stores are making like out of 10 cells, they are making 8, 9 cells of the lab-grown. And another thing with the lab-grown diamond, you are not excavating the earth. You are not damaging the earth. You are not using the natural resources of water and electricity. You are not using the diesel equipments, which harms the environment, which throws out a lot of pollution in the air. That's fascinating. And they use tons of water to clean up the dirt to get the diamond. It was fascinating to learn how Surat has overtaken the diamond industry, processing both real diamonds and manufacturing fake diamonds. And so many of those diamonds, both real and fake, ended up on this very street. Inside all these stores and in the hands of all these characters. From its history, to its viral personalities, to its high-end dealers and its incredible storefronts, the diamond district is about as dense with content as the diamonds it sells with carbon atoms. And while it faces surmounting pressures like the rise of lab-grown diamonds, the district can take solace in this. In the diamond industry, we like to say pressure makes diamonds. Pressure does indeed make diamonds, and there's no street in the world that knows more about those than this one. Thank you for watching and please make sure to subscribe.