Diamond Engagement Rings Specialist

Diamonds are truly the most revered of all gems. Diamonds could be purchased as a part of a jewellery set, or stand along gems. Many prefer to buy loose diamonds, as they can be used to make jewels of their liking. Loose diamonds have a huge market with many famous auction houses offering them for sale.

Diamond Rings: Colours, Shapes and Sizes of Diamonds

Loose diamonds come in a variety of colours, shapes and sizes. These diamonds can now be purchased safely online. However, one must make sure that the vendor one selects is trustworthy. The biggest advantage of buying loose diamonds online is the price factor. Jewellers will always levy some overhead charges on the basic charges of the diamond, and hence, the price of the diamond increases by around 30%. While shopping online, you will be relieved of the overhead charges and thus, you will end up getting a much cheaper bargain.

While purchasing loose diamonds, a good option would be online shopping as opposed to thronging the jeweller’s stores. However, a jeweller’s shop is not a bad idea either. One must make sure that the jeweller is reputed and provides a certificate with every diamond sold.

Diamond Rings: Diamond Tutorial

Loose diamonds come in a variety of sizes, shapes, colours and hues. For those who wish to make an investment in them, a basic ‘diamond tutorial’ is a must. You must have a good idea about what the four ‘Cs’ of a diamond stand for. While buying loose diamonds, one must bear in mind that the only aspect of beauty is the stone itself, while in a piece of jewellery, many things like the type of setting used, the setting metal, the embellishments, etc. make the entire piece beautiful. So, it pays to be especially careful as regards to the overall quality of the diamond.

A good advantage of purchasing diamonds online is in the wide range of availability. You can choose diamonds coming from different regions as well as diamonds that your pocket can afford. A local jewellery store may not offer so many, so that for the picky customers, a long wait to lay your hands on your dream stone may be required.

One important reason why investing in loose diamonds is such a good idea is that you actually get to ‘see’ the diamond before it is put to any use. You will have all the freedom to check the diamond for any flaws before you actually buy it. Loose diamonds allow you the freedom to design your own jewellery. However, before buying loose diamonds, do make sure that you get the special ‘presentation box’ along with the stones. These boxes have specially cushioned sides that will protect the brilliance and beauty of your diamond.

Through the course of history, anything that is rare is coveted and it commands a high price. Once something becomes expensive, the logical thing to do is to connect it to some kind of festivity in the family. This is what seems to have happened with diamonds. Considering you just cannot go out and buy them any time you want to, it has become something you pick up on an occasion, something to celebrate with.

Diamond Rings and Engagements

This is probably the happiest time in a couple’s lives. So a diamond engagement ring just says it all. Rings and especially diamond rings as a token of betrothal have been around a long time and with the famous diamond campaign by DeBeers, it has become synonymous with them. A diamond engagement ring is so much a part of the ritual in the Western world of the man going down on one knee and asking a woman to marry him. The most common design for an engagement ring is perhaps a solitaire in a gold or platinum setting though people are getting a bit adventurous with designs today.

Diamond Rings and Weddings

Time was when most wedding rings were the simple, classic gold band that adorned the woman and the man’s hands. No longer is this true as more and more people are experimenting with wedding rings. So you can have diamond encrusted wedding rings for men and women today as people seem so much more inclined to flaunt their jewellery. No longer is a wedding ring just a functional thing to wear.

Diamond Rings and Anniversaries

It’s an anniversary present that is most welcome. A dazzling diamond ring to celebrate special anniversaries like the tenth, the twenty-fifth, the fiftieth, etc. Of course, if you can afford it, a diamond ring every anniversary would be a good idea too. Any anniversary is lit up with the gift of a diamond ring.

Diamonds for Mums

What better way to thank your wife for the gift of a new born baby than a diamond ring? It’s the best coming home present you can think of for a new mother. It makes a woman feel warm, protected and cherished especially those new days as a mother.

Diamonds for Graduation

Graduation Day is a great time to gift your little one who is growing up with diamonds. Delicate, small and young would be the way to go when you choose a diamond for this occasion.

Diamonds to say ‘I love you’

There is probably nothing quite like a dazzling diamond to say ‘I love you’ on Valentine’s Day. A diamond brings all the love you have for each other rushing to the fore. Of course, you can go ahead and get a diamond to say those special three words on any day – it need not be a special day. Any day you gift a diamond becomes special.

They were engaged sixty years ago and then they lost touch and though both loved each other, fate kept them apart. They both married others but never forgot each other. Till one day, 60 years later, they got in touch with each other over the Internet, reconnected and got married.

Then tragedy struck this romantic old couple in America. When she came back to her hometown to pack and move in with him in Los Angeles, he disappeared without a trace. Till now, his body has not been found. While she suspects foul play because he was well off, his children say that maybe he just went away because he felt shocked by what he had done on an impulse. For her, it’s a double tragedy as she sits waiting for news of him – wearing her new white gold wedding ring and her 60 year old platinum diamond engagement ring which has never left her possession.

There have been many famous names that have been associated with diamonds and their designing for years. Let’s take a look at some of them.

Diamond Rings: Harry Winston

Harry Winston’s name is synonymous with diamond jewellery. Based in New York, with stores in the major capitals of the world, Harry Winston is an international name associated with famous diamonds such as the Jonker, the Star of the East and the Hope Diamond, to name a few. His unique skill and flawless craftsmanship are well known and diamond rings designed by Harry Winston are worn by royalty and celebrities the world over.

Diamond Rings: Laurence Graff

Laurence Graff, sometimes called the “new Harry Winston”, started as an apprentice in a jeweller’s shop at the age of 15. Admitting to having no “artistic talent” himself, he certainly has the eye, and has bought some of the most beautiful diamonds in the world. He was the first to open a retail store in London’s Hatton Garden, and his diamond cutting facility in Johannesburg, South Africa cuts and polishes diamonds sourced from around the world. Laurence Graff’s impeccable taste reflects in his jewellery with its quality workmanship and exquisite settings.

Diamond Rings: Tiffany’s

Charles Lewis Tiffany and Teddy Young founded Tiffany & Young in Manhattan in the year 1837. They began by selling costume jewellery but by 1845, the store was successful enough to discontinue paste and began to sell real jewellery. In 1853, Charles Tiffany took control of the store, renaming it Tiffany & Co. (as it is still known), and firmly established their line of jewellery. Their designs were modern, art nouveau followed by art deco and very popular, often featured in novels and the films of the day. Jean Schlumberger, Elsa Peretti and Paloma Picasso have all introduced their jewellery at Tiffany’s. Tiffany’s jewellery has clean and classic lines, yet it is always modern.

Diamond Rings: Cartier

Louis-François Cartier founded Cartier in 1847, beginning with retailing jewellery made by other manufacturers. His son Alfred expanded this to repairing and improving jewellery for a few clients. This inspired them to start designing and making their own jewellery. Alfred’s sons Louis, Pierre and Jacques expanded the business, with Louis in charge of Paris, Pierre opening the New York branch and Jacques running the London operation giving the Cartier name worldwide recognition. Cartier have long been the jewellers of choice for Indian and European royalty, as well as the rich, famous and wealthy from across the Atlantic.

Diamond Rings: Royal Asscher

Joseph Isaac Asscher established the I.J. Asscher Diamond Company in 1854. His grandson, Joseph Asscher designed the original Asscher Cut – a cut so innovative and so desirable, that the Asscher Company patented it. Their skill and expertise was acclaimed and his brother Abraham was charged with cleaving both the Excelsior, 997 carats and then the Cullinan, 3,106 carats. Both the cuts were successfully accomplished, and today, Cullinan I resides in the Sceptre of the British Royal Family as the Star of Africa, and Cullinan II has pride of place as the centre stone in the Imperial State Crown of Great Britain. In 1980, Her Majesty Queen Juliana of Holland bestowed a royal title on the Asscher Diamond Company. Edward and Joop Asscher, present day owners and descendants, created the Royal Asscher Cut in 2001. Run by the fifth and sixth generation of Asschers today, the jewellery created by them is as classic, as exquisite and as original at is has always been.

What is it about a diamond that sets your pulses racing, your heart beating faster, your eyes widening? There’s a certain magic about diamonds that beckon and captivate and there’s nothing you can do about it. At the heart of every diamond, of course, beats the rhythm of romance. Maybe it’s what perception and advertising has built up but it has happened and today, a diamond stands for romance – and romance that has grown bigger than just engagements – but the romance of life itself.

Diamond Rings: A Gift from the Heart

If diamonds could speak, they would speak of love. That’s why they have grown to become the symbol of betrothal and engagements. It is the gemstone that is most suited to become the symbol of commitment. When a man buys the woman of his dreams a diamond engagement ring and offers it to her while he proposes, he is, in fact, giving her his heart for self keeping. Maybe nothing quite says ‘I love you’ like a diamond does.

Diamond Rings: Because Diamonds are Forever

When you want to say that you love will live on forever, it’s a diamond that fits in ever so well into those sentiments. Hard and long lasting, a diamond is millions of years old and it will go on for millions more. It figures high on the hardness scale which is why it has such longevity. Diamonds cannot be destroyed and they need something as hard or harder than them in order to cut and polish them to a dazzling brilliance.

Diamond Rings: Love in all its Glory

When you are in love, it’s the loveliest time of the year, so the old song goes. It seems as though the whole world is lit up around you. That’s the magic of love and that’s the magic of diamonds too – so that is why they go so well together. A diamond shines so brilliantly, reflecting all the light around it and like love, your eyes are drawn towards that dazzle. You just cannot hide the shining of a diamond – no matter what you do, it sends out its sparkle for all the world to see.

The best of romances end with a ‘happily ever after’ and in most cases, there’s a diamond in the picture. Big, small, a solitaire, whatever the size or price depending on what the man can afford, the brilliance of the diamond tells the world that the couple is in love. You just cannot hide your love when there’s a diamond glistening on your left hand ring finger. It’s the best way to tell everyone that you two are on the way to becoming one.

In 1498, when Vasco da Gama found a direct sea route from Lisbon to India, trade with India opened up considerably, making Lisbon a major seaport. One of the major imports was, of course, a large quantity of rough diamonds now flowing freely into Europe. Antwerp, located on the right bank of the Scheldt River, had good trade relations with Lisbon and diamonds soon flowed into Antwerp as well.

There were many Jews in the diamond trade, and in 1497, when the persecution of Jews began in Portugal, many families fled to the more liberal city of Antwerp. Lodewyk van Berken, a Flemish diamond jeweller and polisher in Antwerp in the late 15th century introduced the concept of cutting a diamond with perfectly symmetrical facets. He invented the Scaif, a polishing wheel coated with diamond dust and olive oil that systematically ground away at each facet producing a brilliant shine. Jewellery became popular and Antwerp was soon the centre of the diamond industry, with many skilled craftsmen creating innovative cuts and patronized by the royalty and aristocracy of Europe.

Diamond Rings: How it Was

From 1576 to 1585, the Spanish laid siege on Antwerp. This was religious persecution and saw many of the Jewish diamond merchants and jewellers relocating to Amsterdam. Antwerp then went through a series of highs and lows for the next 400 years, never really regaining its former position as diamond capital of the world. Just before the Second World War, many Jews, seeing what was coming took as many diamonds as they could and fled the country. With the help of Antwerp’s mayor and the British, two enterprising diamantaires, Romi Goldmuntz and Herman Schamisso set up the COFDI, the Correspondent Office for the Diamond Industry in London, where diamonds could be registered and stored until the war finally ended. Only about 5,000 of Antwerp’s over 35,000 strong diamantaires survived the war and the diamonds lying safely with the COFDI were returned to their rightful owners. 80% of the diamonds mined during the war years was in the Congo, which was a Belgian Colony. With COFDI advising the Belgian Government, the contract to distribute the diamonds through the De Beers Company in London was signed with the clause that large amounts of gem quality diamonds in De Beers’ stock, suitable for cutting should be reserved for the diamantaires in Antwerp. The Belgian Government adopted a liberal attitude with its rules in the diamond industry and soon many of the diamond traders, jewellers and cutters who had emigrated overseas to all corners of the globe started returning home.

Diamond Rings: How it is Now

There is a large area of the city of Antwerp called the Antwerp Diamond Square Mile. There are four bourses (trading and exchange houses that deal in diamonds), three of which deal in gem quality stones and one which deals in “boart” or “bort”, industrial quality stones. Over 1500 international diamond companies have their headquarters here. The Diamond High Council (or HRD, Hoge Raad voor Diamant) was set up in 1973 as a regulatory body to co-ordinate all activities of the Belgian diamond business. Now known as the Antwerp World Diamond Centre or AWDC, it is the official representative of the diamond sector, playing a vital role in setting standards, offering quality training, issuing certificates, and promoting the Belgian diamond industry.

Today, about 85% of the world’s rough diamonds and 50% of cut and polished stones (at an estimated worth of over £11 billion) pass through Antwerp’s Diamond Square Mile in a year, easily restoring Antwerp to its former glory as Diamond Capital of the World.

It’s probably the most prized gemstone. So what is this tiny piece of brilliance that captures people’s hearts and imaginations all about? What exactly is it made of? All said and done, it’s just a piece of carbon. However, it is carbon that has been through a lot and that perhaps is what has elevated it to such great heights.

In a diamond the carbon atoms are bonded together so strongly that it makes the diamond one of the hardest known substances. It is transparent and it can allow many wavelengths of light to pass through it – that’s why it appears so brilliant. It does not react to any other substance chemically and it can hold an electric charge as well as being a great semiconductor and electrical insulator.

Diamond Rings: The Birth of Diamonds

How did diamonds happen? It all began a billion years ago way below the earth’s surface where pressure and heat came together to turn carbon into a brilliant transparent form. With pressures of 5 to 6 GPa and temperatures ranging from 900º to 1400ºC, liquid carbon magically transformed itself into these stones of such beauty. Then, when there were underground volcanic eruptions, they were pushed up closer to the earth’s surface in rocks called kimberlite and the last of this kind of activity was around forty seven million years ago. Kimberlite is igneous rock which is ultramafic and ultrapotassic and it contains many trace substances and they have a carrot-shaped or champagne flute formation.

Diamond Rings: Structure and Chemistry of Diamonds

The structure of carbon in a diamond is unique and though it is an allotrope of carbon like graphite, the carbon atoms are closely bound together, giving it a 10 hardness reading on the Mohs Scale. Thanks to it being crystalline, a diamond grows in a very systematic way. The presence of trace inclusions determines the shape and the colour of the diamond.

When a diamond is subjected to extreme heat, there is the presence of graphite that is seen inside and on its surface. This also causes features of internal stress in the diamond and could lead to feathers or fractures inside it. Diamonds conduct heat well and at room temperature, they have the highest rating when it comes to thermal conductivity – up to 2500 W/m-K which is around five times as much as copper. Little wonder it has found use in semiconductors so they do not overheat. Who knows, we might see electronic circuits being manufactured very soon with diamonds!

Some other figures: The Fermion Index is 0.011, the Boson Index is 0.989 and the radioactivity measured by the Gamma Ray American Petroleum Institute is 0 so it is not radioactive.

The word diamond has been derived form the Greek word ‘adamas’ meaning ‘ unbreakable’ or ‘ untamed’. Diamonds find application in many areas of life - the most popular being the usage in jewellery. Besides this, diamonds are used as abrasives and are used in many different industries. The magnificent shine of the diamond is attributed to the fact that the diamond has a high dispersion of light. The wide spectrum usage of diamonds makes them one of the most expensive gemstones. However, it is as a gemstone that it is most widely known and it owes its fame to. The most expensive and exclusive diamonds are auctioned by famous auction houses when they are put on sale to get the best possible price for them.

Diamond Rings: Christie’s Auction House

Christie’s auction house was founded by James Christie in the year 1766. It held auctions in the 18th, 19th as well as the 20th century and today, continues to auction the beautiful and most revered artifacts, paintings, photographs, furniture as well as jewellery. With its presence in 43 countries, Christie’s has branched successfully into auctioning of diamonds. Quite a few strikingly beautiful and rare diamonds have been sold at Christie’s. At a popular show organized in New York, the largest diamonds on record were sold at a cumulative price of six million dollars! The Wittelsbach diamond that was auctioned at the Christie’s London house fetched a huge amount of nine million pounds. Christie’s also offers a number of jewellery pieces like watches, necklaces and the like in addition to solitaire diamonds.

Diamond Rings: Sotheby Auction House

Sotheby’s was founded by Samuel Baker in the year 1744. Sotheby’s has an impressive worldwide presence with its offices nearly spanning the entirety of the globe. Sotheby’s holds seasonal auctions of diamonds that bring together rich aficionados from all over the world. The ‘Magnificent Jewels’ auction, held in the year 2007 saw some exquisite variants of diamonds like coloured diamonds. Sotheby’s has also auctioned other diamonds like a pear shaped blue diamond as well as 62 jewels from the jewellery box of Lily Marinho, the widow of Brazilian media emperor Roberto Marinho. Sotheby’s brings together the elite and the rich to savour the display of some of the most beautiful jewels collected from the nooks and corners of the world.

Diamond Rings- Saffronart Auctions Diamonds

Saffronart is India’s largest art auction house that was founded in the year 2000. Saffronart has a tradition to preserve the trust of its loyal band of customers by offering them the numerous benefits of online auctions. Primarily a contemporary and modern Indian art auction house, Saffronart has now diversified into jewellery auctions. Together with Forevermark, Saffronart allows for easy and safe auctions online. The first diamond to be auctioned off at Saffronart was the Forevermark fancy yellow diamond, a beautifully crafted yellow oval stone weighing 42.02 carats.

Many couples in the US are donating their engagement and wedding rings to a charity organisation called ‘With this Ring’ where the proceeds go towards digging fresh water wells in Africa. It’s an easy process. All one has to do is to go to the nearest jeweller and get the ring you want to donate appraised. Then, you go to their website and follow their easy to follow instructions on how to donate the ring.

Once the ring is sent to them, they will auction it and couples who want to help by buying the rings will bid for them. The auctions that go on for Valentine’s Day will send all the proceeds this year to the earthquake affected in Haiti. The website also encourages people to share their story with its members.

Thanks to high-focussed and high intensity advertising, diamonds, especially the classic solitaire design became a preserve of engagement rings. Yes, diamonds shone from necklaces, brooches and bracelets but when it came to rings, it was usually used for engagement rings or sometimes wedding bands. That is all changing now.

Diamond Rings: A Right Turn

More and more women, led no doubt by celebrity tastes, are flaunting engagement-style diamond rings on their right hands. Suddenly, women power is coming into its own with the possibility of rings on your fingers not being chosen by someone else but something where you can show off your choice and taste, not to mention your means. Maybe it’s an assertion of confidence and power for a woman, an opportunity for her to express herself. It can be anything a women wants it to be – conventional or glitzy, funky or formal, classy or flashy. It does not need to adhere to the usual issues of secure settings because in all probability, you will wear it and then take it off when you get back home, unlike an engagement ring that stays on the finger for usually a lifetime.

Diamond Rings: Wearing them for no Reason

When you get yourself rings to wear for no reason at all except that you love to wear them, then you can really let your imagination run wild. With so many women being single – marrying later or getting divorced – this is an opportunity to enjoy wearing rings without any sentiments or rituals attached to them. Rings can just be worn to match your clothes or make you look good and feel good. You don’t have to worry about pairing them with anything like a wedding ring – they are just so carefree and stand alone.

The trend seems to be the bigger, the better when it comes to right hand rings. The designs are more open, the stones bigger and it seems to be more flaunting. Of course, there’s no rule to say these rings should not be small and delicate. The whole point of right hand rings is that there are no rules – you wear what you want, when you want to and where you want to. It’s a glorious sense of freedom.

Diamond Rings: Celebrity Connection

There are so many celebrities today who have made right hand diamond rings popular. You can see a lot of brilliance and dazzle on the right hands of many of those gorgeous women walking down the red carpet at glittering functions like awards ceremonies. Julia Roberts, Sharon Stone, Victoria Beckham, Cameron Diaz and many more are fast becoming converts and leaders in the trend. They are scripting a new song of female freedom.

The first mention of the diamond or the ‘adamas’ as it was called by the Greeks was in the writings of Pliny the Elder where he referred to this hard substance as being the jewels of kings with the capacity to cut through any hard substance. The Romans used it a lot for engraving – so did the Chinese while in India – from where it came, it was also worn to ward off evil, get rid of the ill effects of poisons and soothe the mind. So there was obviously a regular trade of diamonds between India and Rome and India and China in those ancient days.

The earliest diamond trading centre in the West was Venice in the 14th century and it was here that diamond cutting began. From here, the trading began expanding to Bruges and Paris. In the latter part of the 14th century, all roads led to Antwerp when it came to diamond trade. With the sea route to India opening up with Vasco da Gama, diamonds found their way from India to Lisbon and from there to Antwerp.

Diamond Rings: Diamonds as Jewellery

Soon there grew a demand for these wonderful stones as jewellery. Such beautiful stones had to be flaunted and men and women were seen vying with each other to set off these dazzling stones to their best advantage. In the beginning, small stones were used to embellish pearl jewellery but very soon, diamonds got bigger and were the main focus rather than one among other stones. This also coincided with the fact that diamond cutting was getting better and the diamonds shone more brilliantly. This increased the demand for diamonds even more and the diamond route through the sea to Europe became a part of a thriving trade. When Louis IX reserved diamonds as a preserve of the royal family, its fate on the road to fame was established. Royal families all over Europe coveted and ensured that they got as many of them for their collections.

Diamond Rings: From Europe to America

Once diamonds were discovered in South Africa, the trade route was between Africa and Europe. With the DeBeers campaign in the late thirties hitting the American market however, the sale of diamonds skyrocketed in America and there was no looking back. The diamonds still came to Europe to be cut and polished and from there, many of them were transported across the Atlantic. Today, while a lot of the diamond centres are still concentrated in Europe, the diamond trade has spread its tentacles far and wide across the world.