Now, Icontacted Cartiers client services via email and phone to check out the prices of Cartiers diamond engagement rings. How much does a cartier engagement ring cost if it were on a second hand market? So, I did the next best thing and searched for Cartier rings in the secondary market. 
If you are spending that little the advantages Cartier has wont apply. I had sat through similarsales presentationscountless of times and I know better than to blindly believe whatever a sales person says. Mind you, these are NOT hallmarks of what a truly well cut diamond should have. Why go to Mercedes to buy a Honda? From a consumers point of view, its easy to understand why they dont go below VS2 sinceCartier wants to maintain eye-cleanliness. Just dont expect the best of the best even when you are paying top dollars for the product because you are paying for the brand name. .jpg?1503248900)
Basically, its some marketing stuff abouthow much their diamonds sparkle and how they are different from diamonds you see in other stores. Regardless of whatever crown/pavilion angles the diamond has, the maximum cut grade it can achieve is only a Very Good. Most of the round diamonds I had examined have a girdle range between thin medium slightly thick. Authentic Cartier Diamond Engagement ring "1895". With limited selection choices, we also had tocompromise on our initial specifications. Besides round diamonds, I also did an inquiry into princess cut diamonds to see if theabsurd margins were similar across the board. For beginners who find it difficult to discern cut differences in glaring spot lightings of jewelry stores, I recommend using an ASET or Idealscope. With a choice of setting, the sales staff can help youselect a diamond from Cartiers loose diamond inventory and get a ring custom made. If I can find someone to do a beautiful design, and excellent craftsmanship with a wholesale diamond, I cant care less about the brand name. Since the objective of the visit was to shop for a diamond engagement ring, its good to haveundivided attention fromthe sales staff. On a side note, the private room offers a more conducive environment for selecting diamonds as the lighting was significantly softerand less glaring compared to those used in the showroom. For example, a 0.54 F VS2 diamond was available for around $8,000 but thiswas way over our initial budget of $6k. This means you can buy 2 rings for the price of 1 branded ring! Besides the Solitaire 1895 you reviewed, what about the other engagement ring designs like the Cartier Destine, Cartier dAmour, Trinity Ruban, Ballerine, C de Cartier and Honeymoon designs? Based on my previous experiences with Cartier, I knew there probably wont bea widerange of diamond selections for any given specificationsof the 4Cs. A round diamond with a large table size (> 60%) will typically experience some degree of light leakage and impact its overall brilliance. Before I continue with the review on Cartier, I want you to be fully aware that Im a person who couldnt care less about branding when buying jewelry. Paul! Casted in platinum, the Cartier 1895 setting features a sturdy 4 prong solitaire design which doesnt catch onto clothing or lining easily. Harry Winston only carries D-F colored diamonds with VS2 or better clarity in their inventory. 
Personally, I feel that this standardization makes the wax seals lose itsauthenticappeal. You clearly know what the premium is for and whos to say you are wrong. Its going to be hard to get finger sizes or ask questions out of the blue without her raising any suspicion. However, the presence of Very Good cut diamonds will tell any trained gemmologist worth his salt or any slightly more educated shopper otherwise. However, when shopping at Cartier, the available options would probably boil down to a measly 2-3 diamond options if you are super lucky. Thanks for this fantastic and detailed article. You can also make use of the ASET reference charts here for comparison. Given the limited selectionsavailable, Im very sure there are many other customers who face the same problem we had encountered. Ill talk more about their diamond quality in the later paragraphs. It depends on how much sparkle you expect to get from a diamond. I wish I had found your website a few months ago! The Truth About GIA Triple Excellent Diamonds, Table Of Ideal Proportions For Choosing Round Diamonds. So, lets put things into perspective and performside by side comparisons against some of my recommended vendors. Their name, story, history.someone might find this inspiring and related, you can pass this ring to the next generation For example, if a GIA Very Good diamond is polished to excellent proportions and receives a rating of excellent for both polish and symmetry, this means the diamond FAILED the visual inspection tests for brightness, fire and scintillation for an excellent rating during the grading process. Compared to the cost for a Cartier ring with similar diamond quality, thats a stark difference. I have the GIA certificate and receipt for it. And because the wax seals are pre-moulded, each of them comes in a generic cookie-cutter shape. With these kinds of standards, its no surprise you probably wont find exceptionally well-cut diamonds at Cartier. 
You need to understand that jewelry store lightings are ALWAYS designed to flatter and enhance appearances of diamondsregardless of how well cut they are. To be quite frank Paul, sounds like you need to spend some faria holmez or make more money my friend. Can i ask your opinion with regards on Lee Hwa destinee diamond? Once the sales attendant knew about our intentions to buy an engagement ring, we were quickly ushered into a private room where we could comfortably sit, sipa cup of coffee and had the selections brought over from the showroom for our viewing. This was such an interesting read and finding out how much are cartier engagement rings compared to other retailers. During our visit to the store, we were recommended a GIA Very Good cut grade diamond by the sales staff and this diamond was based in Paris. Imagine going on the Antiques Roadshow with a branded ring, and one that was ordered online. For brilliant cut diamonds under 0.30 carats, Cartier allows a cut grade of Good to Excellent. Its about perspective. Someone listed the ring for sale and it has all the relevant certificates of authenticity from Cartier and GIA. If youre budget is 4-6000 Cartier is not the place for you. I will go in-depth into discussing their diamond cut quality standards in a moment. 
Guess how much the proposal ring atBrianGavinDiamonds.com cost? 
how?). GIAs cut grade is determined based on a combination of measured parameters (e.g. Maybe we can exchange emails? The cost of grading is going to be 10 times more than the cost of the melees if they were graded individually. Again, this method of buying a ring isnt suitable for people in a rush. The sales staff (incidentally whos also the boutique supervisor) thought GIA only graded a diamonds cut based on proportions. So It was a great way for me to look for the specific specs and price I wanted. Do you have any idea what it would retail for and what I could get for it in term of trying to sell it? Unlike you, I didnt actually get to enjoy a bottle of champagne! They told us that it is free clean, free resize, also free sparkling water lol (this one every place can offer, however, we dont stay still in one place, so international clean and resize are a good bonus to us not necessary to everyone) For non-famous pieces of branded jewelry, I would say that most pre-owned jewerly shouldnt cost more than half its original price. The proportions arent fantastic and the diamond runs a heightened risk of chipping due to its Very Thin girdle. If you buy into the history and story behind the business, then by all means go with Cartier! At Cartiers jewelry boutique, we were shown 8 diamond rings with GIA Excellent cut grades. I am about to pull the trigger on a Harry Winston 2 carat ring but would LOVE your opinion on it before I buy it. They merely hand pick diamonds from their suppliers and when it comes to diamonds (like anything else in retail businesses), just because a brand name is attached to a piece of jewelry doesnt necessarily means that it is of better quality. Cartier isnt the only one that makes fine settings. Thank you for the article! If I purchased my jewelry from an over priced branded establishment I would be too embarrassed to tell anyone, which would defeat the reason for over paying in the first place. Heres a GIA grading report for a Very Good cut diamond from Cartier which I found on eBay. doesnt necessarily means that it is of better quality, GIA Cut Grade Estimation Tables for Standard Round Brilliant Cut Diamonds, http://diamondcut.gia.edu/pdfs/Estimating-a-cut-grade-booklet.pdf, http://www.diamondcut.gia.edu/pdf/cut_fall2004.pdf, make use of the ASET reference charts here. Cartier certificate of authenticity whichcomes with every purchase. Now, its perfectly OK for vendors/salespeople to boast and make claims about their products. We also exceeded our initial budget and paid $7,000 for the ring. I was thinking cartier and tiffany and co. 
What is the best answer here? In this particular scenario, my friend is pretty set on a Cartier ring and he understands that Cartier is going to impose a huge premium on their jewelry pricing. I am looking at selling it and am wondering if you could tell me what would be the best way to go about maximising what I get for it? Like any other premium jewelry brands (e.g. 
If you are looking for spectacular craftsmanship, they are many jewelers who offer that. Oh also, we got a bottle of Cartier champagne with our purchase as well. Now i have second thought if i will buy another diamond ring in Lee Hwa still or will just look from another store. Summary: Your chance of having instant success and finding the exact ring without performing any modifications is very low. Its just like Tiffanys classic 6 prong design. 
I recently bought a 0.7c GIA F colour triple excellent diamond which I am planning to set on halo ring once I receive it. Depending on how busy their work schedule are, I was told that it could take anywhere between6-10 weeks before youll receive the actual ring. If theres a specific setting that you like at Cartier, you probably have to get it from them as other jewelers wont be able to replicate the design (legally). At this point, the sales staff made the effort to check the inventory ofevery singleCartier store in the country and even went as far as checking the Cartier stores from neighboring countries. Wouldnt you want that perfect moment to be etched forever in your memories without any hiccups? Could you guess what the Cartiers sales staff reply was? I will do an indepth review into Harry Winston in near future. Based on my interactions with people who are brand conscious when it comes to luxury jewelry, more people are actually inclined towards Tiffany than Cartiers ring setting. and I enjoyed reading all the comments too! If you are interested, you can read up on how they select diamonds on their webpagehere. Good review! Besides doing my friend a favor,I could also give Cartiers customer service a full test run to see how well they fare. Since they have an upgrade term i use to do it every 2yrs up to the point i reach up to .63 CT color G VS1. If you didnt know yet, Cartier is famousfor their well-designed watches and fine jewelry collections. Now, did you remember we were told that Cartier employs specialists to select diamonds from their suppliers? There seems to be a problem serving the request at this time, One stop shop for all things from your favorite brand, {"modules":["unloadOptimization","bandwidthDetection"],"unloadOptimization":{"browsers":{"Firefox":true,"Chrome":true}},"bandwidthDetection":{"url":"https://ir.ebaystatic.com/cr/v/c1/thirtysevens.jpg","maxViews":4,"imgSize":37,"expiry":300000,"timeout":250}}. And if you compare this to most other online vendors, the waiting time is relatively long. Now, I know some of you may argue its no big deal because resizing can be performed any time after the proposal has taken place. Clearly, the sales staff has no idea how diamonds are graded at GIA because I did questioned him whether he knew about the GIAs grading procedures. So what are we paying that 30% for? I would really appreciate your advice on this. If branding is important to you, I suggest you stick with Cartier or Tiffany given that they are recognized for branding. 
I place a diamonds optical performance above anything else and Cartiers diamond rings fail to impress me. Is the quality of diamonds better? Sure, settings can be made to look similar with a few minor tweaks to details (shank angles, prong size, placements, shank thickness etc) but if you want the SAME EXACT design, then Cartier is the way to go. Now, I had previously visited Cartier on a few occasions a few years back and they were all casual visits to check out their jewelry offerings. So, I am in exactly the position you described regarding sizing/resizing. I would agree that Cartier has better service than Tiffany. Thanks. 4) There is a presence of a very small culet. Thank you for taking the time to write wonderful informative articles to help us all! 
The ring came quicker than anticipated so fiance was able to surprise me still. All I can do to get the best approximate ring size right now is steal the ring she wears on her middle finger, size it, and go a half-size down. Obviously, shopping at Cartier meant significantly higher prices but the question was; by how much? Thanks for the article! Based on Cartiers sales staff marketing pitch, he wants us to blindly believe an intangible aspect of Cartiers selection process that a Very Good cut diamond is a great choice because he is trying to sell it to us. Even as an amateur I was very disappointed by the prices, and the choices available. Free ring cleaning service This is a default policy almost everyjeweler offers and is actually a marketing tactic to increase future sales. Its perfect for people looking for an elegant and durable setting. I love how well written and how much information you have given us. My presence at Cartier is to help him make the best possible purchase from the available choices. Unlike Cartiers diamond selection standards, I reviewevery single aspect of cut quality when pickingout potential diamonds for purchase. We were told thatCartier has such high standards and selection criteria for their diamonds that the majority of diamonds from their suppliersare rejected and only the best gets picked. You might want to get her friends/family members to help out here. I would NEVER recommend doing this as you dont get to see the diamond beforehand nor do you get to see any additional information beyond a grading report. 
Stay tuned! Anyway I can share it with you? 
Cartier Solitaire 1895 ring with center diamond: 0.46 carats, G color, VVS1 clarity and triple excellent cut. 
It was bought back in Dec 2000 for USD11,700. Once you see what the other jewelers are charging for their products, you will realizehow excessive Cartiers premiums are. Unfortunately, there is also no jeweler who will openly say they will make an exact replica of Cartiers ring settings because of copyright issues. The total carat weight of all the tiny stones together is around 0.2. I believe they said free polishing for wedding band but my hubby went with a Tiffany band so wont be using that service. Interestingly, when I told the sales staff that Very Good cut diamonds will have issues with optical performance and/or durability and I didnt want my friend to buy such a diamond. Thank you so much for enlightening, like yourselves we may still buy the 1865 but at least no longer buying blind and to feel mugged off retrospectively would have hurt given the romantic nature of the occasion. 
I know which would fetch more. Cartier expects you to purchase a diamond ring off-the-rack and this means you have to make do with whatever ring size the diamond was mounted on. 
As if the bar isnt low enough, they are going even lower by selling you GIA Good cut diamonds? I fell in love for the ballerine diamond paved ring and did an inquiry on the price. MAKE SURE YOU CHECK THE DETAILS OF WHAT YOU ARE BUYING AND ASK IF YOU ARE NOT SURE! In this review of Cartier, I am going to focus mainly on their diamond engagement rings and share my first hand shopping experience with you. 
Otherwise there would be no brands, nor any sustainable business. I did try to negotiate the pricing for the ring (out of curiosity) but was firmly rejected. Based on our budget of $6,000, the sales staff showed us 3 diamond rings with the following center diamonds: 0.30 D color VVS1, 0.42 E color VVS2 and a 0.46 G color VVS1 (most expensive and slightly over our budget). ASET imagesreveals how a diamond returns light and how well the diamond performs optically. Where are you based? Hello, 5) Polish rating is only Very Good. You can read this article I wrote on this topic for more details. 
Since a Cartier ring was what my friend wanted, we had to settle for something less ideal in terms of cut. As someone who is trained at GIA, Im familiar with the technical aspects of cut and can tell you flat out that a diamond with GIA Very Good cut is mediocre. I dont like the tiny, thin band with the big diamond on top, it has a limpsy and cheap looking (personal opinion only), The porportion and ratio has to be right. Agreed. In this scenario, you are really getting a diamond with superb optics and it costs roughly half the price of a similar Cartier princess cut engagement ring. Thanks for sharing your experience.
If you are spending that little the advantages Cartier has wont apply. I had sat through similarsales presentationscountless of times and I know better than to blindly believe whatever a sales person says. Mind you, these are NOT hallmarks of what a truly well cut diamond should have. Why go to Mercedes to buy a Honda? From a consumers point of view, its easy to understand why they dont go below VS2 sinceCartier wants to maintain eye-cleanliness. Just dont expect the best of the best even when you are paying top dollars for the product because you are paying for the brand name. Basically, its some marketing stuff abouthow much their diamonds sparkle and how they are different from diamonds you see in other stores. Regardless of whatever crown/pavilion angles the diamond has, the maximum cut grade it can achieve is only a Very Good. Most of the round diamonds I had examined have a girdle range between thin medium slightly thick. Authentic Cartier Diamond Engagement ring "1895". With limited selection choices, we also had tocompromise on our initial specifications. Besides round diamonds, I also did an inquiry into princess cut diamonds to see if theabsurd margins were similar across the board. For beginners who find it difficult to discern cut differences in glaring spot lightings of jewelry stores, I recommend using an ASET or Idealscope. With a choice of setting, the sales staff can help youselect a diamond from Cartiers loose diamond inventory and get a ring custom made. If I can find someone to do a beautiful design, and excellent craftsmanship with a wholesale diamond, I cant care less about the brand name. Since the objective of the visit was to shop for a diamond engagement ring, its good to haveundivided attention fromthe sales staff. On a side note, the private room offers a more conducive environment for selecting diamonds as the lighting was significantly softerand less glaring compared to those used in the showroom. For example, a 0.54 F VS2 diamond was available for around $8,000 but thiswas way over our initial budget of $6k. This means you can buy 2 rings for the price of 1 branded ring! Besides the Solitaire 1895 you reviewed, what about the other engagement ring designs like the Cartier Destine, Cartier dAmour, Trinity Ruban, Ballerine, C de Cartier and Honeymoon designs? Based on my previous experiences with Cartier, I knew there probably wont bea widerange of diamond selections for any given specificationsof the 4Cs. A round diamond with a large table size (> 60%) will typically experience some degree of light leakage and impact its overall brilliance. Before I continue with the review on Cartier, I want you to be fully aware that Im a person who couldnt care less about branding when buying jewelry. Paul! Casted in platinum, the Cartier 1895 setting features a sturdy 4 prong solitaire design which doesnt catch onto clothing or lining easily. Harry Winston only carries D-F colored diamonds with VS2 or better clarity in their inventory. Personally, I feel that this standardization makes the wax seals lose itsauthenticappeal. You clearly know what the premium is for and whos to say you are wrong. Its going to be hard to get finger sizes or ask questions out of the blue without her raising any suspicion. However, the presence of Very Good cut diamonds will tell any trained gemmologist worth his salt or any slightly more educated shopper otherwise. However, when shopping at Cartier, the available options would probably boil down to a measly 2-3 diamond options if you are super lucky. Thanks for this fantastic and detailed article. You can also make use of the ASET reference charts here for comparison. Given the limited selectionsavailable, Im very sure there are many other customers who face the same problem we had encountered. Ill talk more about their diamond quality in the later paragraphs. It depends on how much sparkle you expect to get from a diamond. I wish I had found your website a few months ago! The Truth About GIA Triple Excellent Diamonds, Table Of Ideal Proportions For Choosing Round Diamonds. So, lets put things into perspective and performside by side comparisons against some of my recommended vendors. Their name, story, history.someone might find this inspiring and related, you can pass this ring to the next generation For example, if a GIA Very Good diamond is polished to excellent proportions and receives a rating of excellent for both polish and symmetry, this means the diamond FAILED the visual inspection tests for brightness, fire and scintillation for an excellent rating during the grading process. Compared to the cost for a Cartier ring with similar diamond quality, thats a stark difference. I have the GIA certificate and receipt for it. And because the wax seals are pre-moulded, each of them comes in a generic cookie-cutter shape. With these kinds of standards, its no surprise you probably wont find exceptionally well-cut diamonds at Cartier. You need to understand that jewelry store lightings are ALWAYS designed to flatter and enhance appearances of diamondsregardless of how well cut they are. To be quite frank Paul, sounds like you need to spend some faria holmez or make more money my friend. Can i ask your opinion with regards on Lee Hwa destinee diamond? Once the sales attendant knew about our intentions to buy an engagement ring, we were quickly ushered into a private room where we could comfortably sit, sipa cup of coffee and had the selections brought over from the showroom for our viewing. This was such an interesting read and finding out how much are cartier engagement rings compared to other retailers. During our visit to the store, we were recommended a GIA Very Good cut grade diamond by the sales staff and this diamond was based in Paris. Imagine going on the Antiques Roadshow with a branded ring, and one that was ordered online. For brilliant cut diamonds under 0.30 carats, Cartier allows a cut grade of Good to Excellent. Its about perspective. Someone listed the ring for sale and it has all the relevant certificates of authenticity from Cartier and GIA. If youre budget is 4-6000 Cartier is not the place for you. I will go in-depth into discussing their diamond cut quality standards in a moment. Guess how much the proposal ring atBrianGavinDiamonds.com cost? how?). GIAs cut grade is determined based on a combination of measured parameters (e.g. Maybe we can exchange emails? The cost of grading is going to be 10 times more than the cost of the melees if they were graded individually. Again, this method of buying a ring isnt suitable for people in a rush. The sales staff (incidentally whos also the boutique supervisor) thought GIA only graded a diamonds cut based on proportions. So It was a great way for me to look for the specific specs and price I wanted. Do you have any idea what it would retail for and what I could get for it in term of trying to sell it? Unlike you, I didnt actually get to enjoy a bottle of champagne! They told us that it is free clean, free resize, also free sparkling water lol (this one every place can offer, however, we dont stay still in one place, so international clean and resize are a good bonus to us not necessary to everyone) For non-famous pieces of branded jewelry, I would say that most pre-owned jewerly shouldnt cost more than half its original price. The proportions arent fantastic and the diamond runs a heightened risk of chipping due to its Very Thin girdle. If you buy into the history and story behind the business, then by all means go with Cartier! At Cartiers jewelry boutique, we were shown 8 diamond rings with GIA Excellent cut grades. I am about to pull the trigger on a Harry Winston 2 carat ring but would LOVE your opinion on it before I buy it. They merely hand pick diamonds from their suppliers and when it comes to diamonds (like anything else in retail businesses), just because a brand name is attached to a piece of jewelry doesnt necessarily means that it is of better quality. Cartier isnt the only one that makes fine settings. Thank you for the article! If I purchased my jewelry from an over priced branded establishment I would be too embarrassed to tell anyone, which would defeat the reason for over paying in the first place. Heres a GIA grading report for a Very Good cut diamond from Cartier which I found on eBay. doesnt necessarily means that it is of better quality, GIA Cut Grade Estimation Tables for Standard Round Brilliant Cut Diamonds, http://diamondcut.gia.edu/pdfs/Estimating-a-cut-grade-booklet.pdf, http://www.diamondcut.gia.edu/pdf/cut_fall2004.pdf, make use of the ASET reference charts here. Cartier certificate of authenticity whichcomes with every purchase. Now, its perfectly OK for vendors/salespeople to boast and make claims about their products. We also exceeded our initial budget and paid $7,000 for the ring. I was thinking cartier and tiffany and co. What is the best answer here? In this particular scenario, my friend is pretty set on a Cartier ring and he understands that Cartier is going to impose a huge premium on their jewelry pricing. I am looking at selling it and am wondering if you could tell me what would be the best way to go about maximising what I get for it? Like any other premium jewelry brands (e.g. If you are looking for spectacular craftsmanship, they are many jewelers who offer that. Oh also, we got a bottle of Cartier champagne with our purchase as well. Now i have second thought if i will buy another diamond ring in Lee Hwa still or will just look from another store. Summary: Your chance of having instant success and finding the exact ring without performing any modifications is very low. Its just like Tiffanys classic 6 prong design. I recently bought a 0.7c GIA F colour triple excellent diamond which I am planning to set on halo ring once I receive it. Depending on how busy their work schedule are, I was told that it could take anywhere between6-10 weeks before youll receive the actual ring. If theres a specific setting that you like at Cartier, you probably have to get it from them as other jewelers wont be able to replicate the design (legally). At this point, the sales staff made the effort to check the inventory ofevery singleCartier store in the country and even went as far as checking the Cartier stores from neighboring countries. Wouldnt you want that perfect moment to be etched forever in your memories without any hiccups? Could you guess what the Cartiers sales staff reply was? I will do an indepth review into Harry Winston in near future. Based on my interactions with people who are brand conscious when it comes to luxury jewelry, more people are actually inclined towards Tiffany than Cartiers ring setting. and I enjoyed reading all the comments too! If you are interested, you can read up on how they select diamonds on their webpagehere. Good review! Besides doing my friend a favor,I could also give Cartiers customer service a full test run to see how well they fare. Since they have an upgrade term i use to do it every 2yrs up to the point i reach up to .63 CT color G VS1. If you didnt know yet, Cartier is famousfor their well-designed watches and fine jewelry collections. Now, did you remember we were told that Cartier employs specialists to select diamonds from their suppliers? There seems to be a problem serving the request at this time, One stop shop for all things from your favorite brand, {"modules":["unloadOptimization","bandwidthDetection"],"unloadOptimization":{"browsers":{"Firefox":true,"Chrome":true}},"bandwidthDetection":{"url":"https://ir.ebaystatic.com/cr/v/c1/thirtysevens.jpg","maxViews":4,"imgSize":37,"expiry":300000,"timeout":250}}. And if you compare this to most other online vendors, the waiting time is relatively long. Now, I know some of you may argue its no big deal because resizing can be performed any time after the proposal has taken place. Clearly, the sales staff has no idea how diamonds are graded at GIA because I did questioned him whether he knew about the GIAs grading procedures. So what are we paying that 30% for? I would really appreciate your advice on this. If branding is important to you, I suggest you stick with Cartier or Tiffany given that they are recognized for branding. I place a diamonds optical performance above anything else and Cartiers diamond rings fail to impress me. Is the quality of diamonds better? Sure, settings can be made to look similar with a few minor tweaks to details (shank angles, prong size, placements, shank thickness etc) but if you want the SAME EXACT design, then Cartier is the way to go. Now, I had previously visited Cartier on a few occasions a few years back and they were all casual visits to check out their jewelry offerings. So, I am in exactly the position you described regarding sizing/resizing. I would agree that Cartier has better service than Tiffany. Thanks. 4) There is a presence of a very small culet. Thank you for taking the time to write wonderful informative articles to help us all! The ring came quicker than anticipated so fiance was able to surprise me still. All I can do to get the best approximate ring size right now is steal the ring she wears on her middle finger, size it, and go a half-size down. Obviously, shopping at Cartier meant significantly higher prices but the question was; by how much? Thanks for the article! Based on Cartiers sales staff marketing pitch, he wants us to blindly believe an intangible aspect of Cartiers selection process that a Very Good cut diamond is a great choice because he is trying to sell it to us. Even as an amateur I was very disappointed by the prices, and the choices available. Free ring cleaning service This is a default policy almost everyjeweler offers and is actually a marketing tactic to increase future sales. Its perfect for people looking for an elegant and durable setting. I love how well written and how much information you have given us. My presence at Cartier is to help him make the best possible purchase from the available choices. Unlike Cartiers diamond selection standards, I reviewevery single aspect of cut quality when pickingout potential diamonds for purchase. We were told thatCartier has such high standards and selection criteria for their diamonds that the majority of diamonds from their suppliersare rejected and only the best gets picked. You might want to get her friends/family members to help out here. I would NEVER recommend doing this as you dont get to see the diamond beforehand nor do you get to see any additional information beyond a grading report. Stay tuned! Anyway I can share it with you? Cartier Solitaire 1895 ring with center diamond: 0.46 carats, G color, VVS1 clarity and triple excellent cut. It was bought back in Dec 2000 for USD11,700. Once you see what the other jewelers are charging for their products, you will realizehow excessive Cartiers premiums are. Unfortunately, there is also no jeweler who will openly say they will make an exact replica of Cartiers ring settings because of copyright issues. The total carat weight of all the tiny stones together is around 0.2. I believe they said free polishing for wedding band but my hubby went with a Tiffany band so wont be using that service. Interestingly, when I told the sales staff that Very Good cut diamonds will have issues with optical performance and/or durability and I didnt want my friend to buy such a diamond. Thank you so much for enlightening, like yourselves we may still buy the 1865 but at least no longer buying blind and to feel mugged off retrospectively would have hurt given the romantic nature of the occasion. I know which would fetch more. Cartier expects you to purchase a diamond ring off-the-rack and this means you have to make do with whatever ring size the diamond was mounted on. As if the bar isnt low enough, they are going even lower by selling you GIA Good cut diamonds? I fell in love for the ballerine diamond paved ring and did an inquiry on the price. MAKE SURE YOU CHECK THE DETAILS OF WHAT YOU ARE BUYING AND ASK IF YOU ARE NOT SURE! In this review of Cartier, I am going to focus mainly on their diamond engagement rings and share my first hand shopping experience with you. Otherwise there would be no brands, nor any sustainable business. I did try to negotiate the pricing for the ring (out of curiosity) but was firmly rejected. Based on our budget of $6,000, the sales staff showed us 3 diamond rings with the following center diamonds: 0.30 D color VVS1, 0.42 E color VVS2 and a 0.46 G color VVS1 (most expensive and slightly over our budget). ASET imagesreveals how a diamond returns light and how well the diamond performs optically. Where are you based? Hello, 5) Polish rating is only Very Good. You can read this article I wrote on this topic for more details. Since a Cartier ring was what my friend wanted, we had to settle for something less ideal in terms of cut. As someone who is trained at GIA, Im familiar with the technical aspects of cut and can tell you flat out that a diamond with GIA Very Good cut is mediocre. I dont like the tiny, thin band with the big diamond on top, it has a limpsy and cheap looking (personal opinion only), The porportion and ratio has to be right. Agreed. In this scenario, you are really getting a diamond with superb optics and it costs roughly half the price of a similar Cartier princess cut engagement ring. Thanks for sharing your experience.