April 2009
Everyone’s heard of the four C’s – clarity, cut, color and carat weight. But if you’re shopping for an engagement ring, there is an unspoken fifth C, cost. At heart, every man wants to buy something that his beloved will be proud to wear for the rest of her life.
He also doesn’t want to be “that guy”. You know him – the one who didn’t know that he was buying a style she would never put on her finger (and had to start the process all over again), who didn’t really understand the tradeoffs between the four C’s and ended up buying a stone that didn’t sparkle, the guy who bought a beautiful ring but paid too much and went to the poor house.
What’s said “guy” to do?
- Do your research on her style or have someone do it for you. This is a one-time event with a big impact. A little detective work will pay big dividends.
- Find someone who knows his or her stuff. If the person you’re working with can’t explain fluorescence without getting flustered, you need to go somewhere else. If they say it doesn’t matter, then definitely go somewhere else. GIA-certified diamond specialists are typically the most qualified because they have undergone the most stringent and extensive training.
- Of all the four C’s the most complex is cut. Research and understand cut, or find someone who really understands it and can explain it to you. Cut is not just about the shape of a stone – it’s about the dispersion of light and the amount of brilliance and fire that a stone emits. For those who are physics-minded, it’s about the angles of reflection and refraction created by each facet within a stone.
- Understand the different certifications for stones. Any stone worth its weight (pun intended) will have a certification. But not all certifications are created equal–some have more authority because those laboratories grade much more stringently. Did you know that an EGL certification can be up to two color and clarity grades higher than a GIA certification for the same stone? That means that you could pay a big premium on a stone if you don’t understand that an EGL-graded stone should be discounted more than a stone graded by GIA. I make one exception to this rule, and that is for Old European cuts, which are so hard to come by, especially in the large sizes, that it isn’t worth it to wait for a GIA-certified stone.
- Get access to custom design. You may have something very specific in mind, or ideas from different pieces you have seen in the past. Find someone who can lift the ideas out of your head and make them come alive.