Diamond Engagement Rings Specialist

It was great for Sri Lanka that the Duchess of Cambridge accepted the sapphire and diamond ring because what a rush of orders it has seen since then! As soon as the engagement was announced, way before the wedding, that royal engagement ring became the most famous ring ever. There were so many duplicates made all over the world, some of them selling for a song. However, there were many other wannabes who wanted the real thing and sapphires and diamonds became the order of the day for many when it came to engagement rings.

The Sri Lankan jewellery trade did a very good marketing campaign soon after the engagement and this saw a spurt in the export of gemstones from the country. There was a huge demand for sapphires from the Gulf countries and it was as though they couldn’t get enough of these beautiful blue stones. According to the Sri Lankan National Gem and Jewellery Authority, exports went up 37% to cross £49 million.

For Sri Lanka, this is a huge boost because the country has been struggling to cope because civil war has been raging there for so many years. China has helped out by financial port building and measures are being looked at to increase exports. With the royal engagement ring making Sri Lankan gems popular thanks to the famous sapphire having been mined there, things seem to look rosy as far as exports go for the tiny island country.

Anything to do with the royal engagement ring makes news and now, to match that incredible sapphire and diamond ring, the Duchess of Cambridge has been spotted wearing sapphire and diamond earrings to match. Yes, they are Diana’s earrings but they have been redesigned and set from the studs that Princess Diana was so fond of wearing. They are such a perfect match for the ring that spawned a whole industry of lookalikes all over the world.

Obviously, Prince William has inherited some of his mother’s jewellery and knowing how fond he was of his mother, it’s quite understandable that he should want his wife to wear something that means so much to him. So Kate has a number of heirlooms that were Diana’s and now that she is officially a part of the royal family, one can no doubt expect to see her wear them on different occasions. Considering that Prince William carried the famous ring around with him all over Kenya
in his rucksack for two weeks before he proposed, it goes to show just how important his mother’s possessions are to him. Maybe it feels like it’s keeping her memory alive.

In many ways, Kate seems to have stepped into Diana’s shoes – she even dressed like her a few times. Maybe it’s because both are beautiful and such wonderful icons for the royal family. So if Kate is slipping into her own version of Diana’s style, maybe it’s because they are alike in many ways when it comes to making style statements and looking glamorous.

Kate Middleton’s finger is obviously a bit too slender for the ring of rings that has been the inspiration for so many jewellers and designers today. The famous sapphire and diamond ring which belonged to the late Princess Diana had been slipping around her finger and she was terrified in case it slipped off and she lost it. It doesn’t even bear thinking about.

So she approached the jewellers, G Collins & Sons to come up with a solution. Instead of getting the engagement ring resized, the jewellers came up with a wonderful idea – putting in two platinum beads which were fixed to the inside of the ring so it stops the ring from turning around on the finger or slipping off. It’s a lot better to adjust the ring so it stays firm on the finger and feels comfortable without having to turn it around all the time so the stones stay in front.

According to jewellery experts, this is a common problem with rings that have heavy stones in them. They tend to keep twisting around on the finger if they don’t fit absolutely perfectly and this can be annoying as well as uncomfortable. This is why fixing platinum beads on the inside is such a good idea because it just keeps the ring in place and there is no need to adjust or resize the band. In this case, the huge sapphire as well as all those diamonds around it must be heavy to manage if the fit is not perfect. Well, it hopefully is now and when she walks down that aisle, we’re hoping that ring feels that a part of her.

David Jones Goldsmiths and Jewellers have a special contest on from today to commemorate the royal wedding. The jewellers are situated at Friargate and have been designing wedding rings and engagement rings for over three decades. And now, they have made a replica of the royal engagement ring which will be won by one lucky person.

The winner will be a reader of the newspaper, The Lancashire Evening Post because the jewellers and the newspaper have joined hands in this contest. The ring has been valued at £2000 and it is set in white and yellow gold of 18 carat. In the centre is an oval sapphire, surrounded by fourteen flawless diamonds. The sapphire has a clarity that is flawless and the ring has been specially hand made in their factory.

The contest goes on till the 21st of April and till then, the sapphire and diamond ring has been prominently displayed at the centre of a fabulous window display at their store. So by the time the royal wedding takes place at the end of this month, some lucky person will be the proud owner of this ring. The newspaper has details of the contest.

The moment Prince William slipped that sapphire and diamond engagement ring on Kate’s finger, the frenzy started – there were so many people who wanted a ring just like that. In no time, there were thousands, maybe millions of look-alike rings being churned out and sold at really rock bottom prices. All the women wearing them seemed to want was a ring that looked just like the royal engagement ring.

It had to reflect in the online search engines too and ever since the engagement, there’s been a sharp increase in the search for anything to do with the royal wedding, mainly the engagement ring. Well, there has also been a sharp increase in searches for flights to London so maybe people don’t just want to wear a look-alike ring – they want to be there for the event as well! However, sapphire engagement rings seem to top the list and no doubt even the ones who wouldn’t settle for cheap rings that are made to look like the real thing, want to share in the flavour of the season – sapphire and diamond rings. Years ago, the same ring was a matter of such great interest to everyone around the world but there was no Internet then and today, the search for this ring has surpassed all expectations.

According to Google, the search results show signs of a frenzy and this has meant that advertisers have had to re-look at their campaigns to be a part of where the action is. This must be especially so if they are selling memorabilia or collectibles. Maybe a royal wedding is always reminiscent of fairy tales and princes and princesses and it looks like this royal couple has set a trend in the interest of the world in royal affairs. Unlike other weddings around the world, a British royal wedding is such a public event and maybe that also keeps the interest going.

Prince William’s and Kate Middleton’s engagement caused so much excitement not just here at home but all over the world and it looks like when it comes to their engagement ring, imitation is really the best form of flattery. Let’s take a look at how this sapphire and diamond engagement ring is affecting people and business in China.

The royal engagement ring is worth a lot today, having been valued in 1981 when it was slipped onto Diana’s finger as £28.000. You can imagine how much more it must be worth today. The sapphire is all of 18 carats and it is a perfect oval and encircling it are fourteen round diamonds set in a cluster.

So what does this have to do with faraway China? Well, their largest online mall is offering these look-alike rings at less than a hundred yuan – that’s less than £9 and the cheapest one to be offered on sale is less than £2! Of course, to get over the copyright problems, there are small changes being made like the number of zircons, the shade of the blue stone, etc.

Does anyone know? Well, they do but they are not telling. So many years after Princess Diana’s engagement and her death, there are very few people who know how much that incredible sapphire and diamond ring is worth and they have been sworn to secrecy. The then Princess of Wales’s engagement ring was insured for its actual worth with an insurance firm but no one outside of those few people know for how much.

Ted Mission who is 80 and lives in New Zealand is one of them and he won’t tell. The engagement ring was insured years ago when he was a broker in Bain Dawes, one the leading insurance companies in London, underwritten by Lloyd’s. Today, he lives in New Zealand, in Maungaturoto.

The insurance firm he worked for has insured a lot of the Queen’s personal effects and once at Lloyd’s, when she had come to speak to the people in the underwriter’s firm, he actually met her. That was around forty years ago and he still remembers her asking how long he had worked for the company and if he had a family. One wonders just how much the sapphire and diamond engagement ring is worth today!