Choosing By Price

There are three key words in selecting diamonds: Price, Quality, and Authenticity. If you elect to choose a diamond by PRICE, you have two possible scenarios: (1) You already know what diamond shape,color, clarity and carat size you want. Now you can concentrate on price when shopping. Or, (2) You have already established a budget and the shape of the diamond you want; now, you can shop for a diamond that will fit in your budget with the goal of maximizing the size and quality.

Diamond Sources: Every diamond in the world comes from just a handful of places. These diamond producing enterprises usually agree on the price of the un-cut diamonds. They establish their price according to the stone's color, rough shape, clarity and carat weight. By the time the diamonds reach the diamond cutter, they have all been classified into thousand of different categories and priced uniformly. This is a very important point to consider when you come across a diamond that has been priced in a way that does not match its carat weight or quality. Why does this diamond have a lower price than every other diamond you have seen or researched with the same carat weight and quality? Unfortunately, when something seems too good to be true, it usually is. This is why we highly recommend that you rely on an gemologist's expert opinion and guidance when selecting a diamond, since much of what determines the price of a stone is not easily descernable to the untrained eye.

The relationship of Cut Proportions, Weight and perception of size:

Not all 1.00 carat diamond would look the same on your hand. Most consumers would expect that the relationship of carat weight to the diamond footprint (the perceived diameter size of the diamond when observed from above) to be the same.

However, diamond cuts are not equal. A round brilliant cut diamond can be cut following a plethora of criteria that would affect the actual dimensions and its diameter. The diameter of the stone is the one we can measure from side to side of the stone on your hand.

For example. When master diamond cutters study a rough diamond, they would have to make an important decision. The cutter can choose (1) quality of the brilliance or (2) maximize the weight retention of the rough diamond. If the diamond cutter wants to maximize the weigh they would probably choose a shallow or a deep cut and it would greatly sacrifice the brilliance of the cut diamond.

Example:

In the following table 1, you can see the relationship of proportions to size and weight in diamonds. All diamonds are actual diamonds and all are 1.01 carats in weight

table 1

Therefore, when you request a diamond by its weight, we suggest to consider its proportions. Often, you save lots of money by selecting a smaller carat weight with the larger diameter of an ideal cut diamond.

The relationship of Cut Proportions to Value:

The relationship of diamond Cut or Proportions to its value is critical for all who evaluate and appraise diamonds. When diamonds are defined solely by its Color, Clarity and Carat Size, most diamond dealers don't factor in the first and most important "C"; that is CUT or Proportions.To better understand this relationship, we must realize that all diamonds are priced by the diamond producers on the rough mostly based on the Color, Clarity and Rough weight. Therefore it is the job of the cutting industry to take those rough diamonds and shape them according to what they want.

Since they already have their rough already classified and priced accordingly, their goal is to make cutting decisions for the market. Two general approaches can be seen:

(1) If the Diamond Cutter want quality or brilliance, most likely they would cut a round brilliant close to the following Ideal Proportions:

This formula implies a loss of prime quality rough of approximately 60% of the original weight.

(2) If the diamond Cutter want to retains weight, then he would cut the rough tall and high to retain most weight in the single largest possible stone inside the skin of the diamond rough. This way the cutter would expect to retain up to 70% of the original weight.

Example: Rough diamond sold by De beers (hypothetical)

table 2

table 3

Price per carat of finished Diamond

table 4

Conclusions:

(1) When you ask for a diamond of a certain color, clarity and weight, you can get a wide ranges of prices. Assuming that the color grade and clarity grade and weight are true, these prices are affected only by the variations in cutting preferences by the Cutter. These variations can amount up to 75% of the price of a diamond.

(2) Table number 3 also show you the relationship between carat weight and proportions. In this example, one 1.20 carat diamond have the same foot-print as one 2.10 carat diamond as viewed from above for each has the same diameter. However, the 2.10 carat diamond is far less brilliant.