Buying a Proposal Diamond Ring

Image via WikipediaIt was more than 2 years ago when I started looking for a ring for my proposal project.

You can see my ring here! 

Knowing that it would be one of my bigger investments for wedding, I wanted to do some due diligence in researching for the most perfect ring (relative to the price *chuckles*) I can get for Addy.

I'd thought I'd relive some of that by writing down my learnings from that experience.

Buying a diamond ring can be helluva easy thing to do. Just saunter into LeeHwa or SooKee and there're a plethora of diamond rings you can pick from. Or for the rich, just head out to Tiffany&Co and choose one blindly.

HOWEVER, if you truly want to choose a GOOD diamond ring, be prepared to invest in lotsa time and effort into it. (The reference links at the btm of the post will demonstrate so).

Since I was not in the "rich" category and I was quite particular in paying good money for good stuff, I did quite an extensive lookup on the web and walking into jewellry shops to get a "feel" of their products. I would suppose that the effort that goes into doing all these matter more than the ring itself.

Basically, selection of your diamond ring (more specifically, your diamond itself) can be summarized into the famous 4 Cs - Clarity, Cut, Colour and Carat. Let's briefly go through each of the 4 Cs.


Carat
The most spoken about yet I would say, the least important. (Hope that did not throw you off your chair). Needless to say, the larger the carat, the higher the diamond costs due to rarity. The best deals falls just under the "magic numbers" where a little carat increase will pose a quantum jump in pricing.


Clarity
Clarity indicates how flawed the diamond is. Flawless diamonds cost more, cloudy (included) diamonds cost less. Simple?
How clear a diamond is can only been differentiated by a loupe (magnifying glass for diamonds)

Colour
Basically, different colours cost differently especially when it comes to the types of cut as well. The most common "colour" is colourless and the more colourless the diamond is (or less tinted), the more expensive it is.

Cut
This is actually the most important and most complicated aspect of selecting a diamond, not the carats! The cut will determine how much light is reflected/refracted. With that, diamonds can "look" bigger too. There are different aspects of a "cut" - polish, symmetry and proportion. For simplicity, go for GIA Excellent or AGS Ideal cuts. They are certified. Or even better, just go for diamond that are "hearts and arrows" which are excellent/ideal in its category.


Here are some more detailed references of selecting a diamond ring that you might want to refer to.
www.proposalring.com - this site provides a good overview of diamonds from a Singaporean guy (the prices are pretty dated)
www.pricescope.com - this is a good forum where diamonds are discussed
www.goodoldgold.com - this is a reliable New York based jeweller (a friend's friend got a diamond from here)
www.whiteflash.com - this is another reliable USA based jeweller.

James Allen - this is where I got my proposal ring! :)