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Engagement Rings: What's Most Important?

S

Spooner

Lifer
There seems to be love in the air, as I am one of seemingly many currently in the market shopping for one.

Budget is likely around $10k, and it seems like my woman likes the cushion shape with some sort of pave band.

But when it comes to the diamond itself, which area is the most critical to maximize and which area is okay to go lower grade in order to find value?

Carat?
Color?
Cut?
Clarity?
 
sparkle


edit: a sparkly diamond will appear larger and more noticeable than a non sparkly diamond. unfortunately there is no real measure for that. cut is the biggest indicator but even the 'ideal' or 'signature' lines allow for more variance than can be allowed for the maximum amount of sparkle. and so there is basically no way of determining which diamond is better just looking at numbers from a web page. and you can't even really do it in a jeweler's showroom because they've got chemicals and lights that make a even a crappy diamond sparkle more than it will in real life.

edit2: using an idealscope is the closest you can get to figuring out sparkle, and that's going to be comparing chart to chart. http://www.ideal-scope.com/1.using_reference_chart.asp
 
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When it comes down to it, women only care about the size. Go bigger at the expense of the other Cs. Then Cut, then Clarity.
 
I believe the 4C of diamond purchasing are....
1) Carat
2) Cut
3) Color
4) Clarity
(in that order - could be wrong)
 
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Depends on the woman. My wife wanted several small stones as she has small hands. Though in general I would imagine size is nearly everything so they can show it off to their friends/family.
 
The entire point of an engagement ring is for the woman to raise her social status among her friends by showing them that she was able to get a man who could buy such an impressive ring. Therefore, the ring has to look impressive, which usually means a big rock.

(Of course, no woman would ever admit this, as it would make them appear to be shallow.)
 
Spooner said:
how low would you go in color and clarity?

i've been told K and SI2
Click to expand...

I went down to I and SI1. You can't even tell with eye going down to J and SI2. If you look closely and shop around you could find an SI2 that is borderline SI1 or an SI1 that is borderline VS2 and save money.
 
How low you go depends totally on what looks good to IMHO. Goto a store and compare.

From a distance color/clarity don't matter as much but get up close and it makes a huge difference. Also, jewelry store lighting is designed to make lesser stones look great. Under most any other type of lighting it can look quite different.
 
go for a synthetic diamond. Unless you want to risk buying a blood diamond. Not only will your girl be able to show off her ring, but she can have a moral superiority as well.
 
However, it must be stated that if you expect to just pass off a synthetic diamond as real you're just asking for trouble.
 
The ring I bought had these settings: Ideal-cut, E-color, VVS1-clarity, .75 carat. luckily my wife has small hands so she didnt want a large rock.

In terms of pricing, you can save some money if you get away from Round cut.

Do you know where you're going to buy your ring? I got it a Blue Nile and was quite happy.
 
cut is first. Never sacrifice it. Do not go below very good. Clarity, then color, then carat weight.
 
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Spooner said:
how low would you go in color and clarity?

i've been told K and SI2
Click to expand...

Depends on the person. Some people can see the color difference, some are blind to it. You need to go to a jewler an take a look.

Also, you cant tell a person to just get an si1. You need to specify eye clean or else you could get an Si1 where you can see the inclusion without a scope. Most people can see inclusions on an si2, but in rare cases eyeclean ones exist. Higher clarity grades are eye clean insurance.
 
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ichy said:
THe most important thing is to spend as little money as possible.
Click to expand...

+1. It isn't worth going into debt for a ring. I paid $2,749 for the ring that I bought and it is no slouch.

Gibson486 said:
cut is first. Never sacrifice it. Clarity, then color, then carat weight.
Click to expand...

+1 if you are buying a round diamond. If you're not buying a round diamond, there are plenty of factors that come into play.
 
dmoney1980 said:
are you bying from a dealer or from a retail shop? 10k will get you a lot less diamond if you plan on going to a retail shop.

For color I would'nt go lower than J. With SI2, imperfections can be seen with a trained eyed, but the average Joe (or Jane in this case) can't.

are you looking for something like this (diamond only) http://www.bluenile.com/diamond-search?track=bbt#diamonds_pid=LD02242498
Click to expand...
I will likely be buying from a dealer or online. I have no interest in going retail.

Something like this:
http://www.jamesallen.com/diamonds/K-SI1-Ideal-Cut-Cushion-Diamond-1417916.asp
 
Damn what's with all the engagement ring threads lately 😱

Anyway I'd say importance should go in this order:

size
cut
color
clarity

size is where you start. i wouldn't go with anything less than VG cut, preferably ideal or as bluenile calls it "signature ideal". They really do look a LOT better than even a VG cut and I can tell you from personal experience the sparkle is much much greater. Then get as colorless as you decide. For clarity I like VS1 or better but some go for SI's as they don't notice the difference. I do...
 
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