Have you ever wondered why are engagement rings so expensive? You’re not the only one. Many people aren’t happy with the costs of engagement rings, but they may not understand the reasons why they’re so expensive.
The term “expensive” is relative. Some people believe that engagement rings are worth thousands of dollars while others may not want to pay over $500. There is no right price for an engagement ring; there’s only the price that you feel your engagement ring is worth paying for.
Instead of focusing too much on an expensive engagement ring, it’s smart to focus on purchasing a high-quality engagement ring instead. Quality doesn’t mean expensive, but it probably won’t be “cheap” either. In our opinion the best thing to focus on is if your partner will love and enjoy the ring, and want to wear it every day.
How Engagement Rings are Priced
Engagement ring pricing involves a variety of factors. Your center stone, engagement ring setting, brand, and grading certificate can all contribute to the overall price of an engagement ring. Let’s explore each of these details further.
Engagement Ring Center Stone
Majority of the cost of an engagement ring is attributed to the center stone chosen. Most people choose a diamond center stone, but some may opt for a fancy colored diamond or other colored gemstone. Many people have gone with cheaper diamond alternatives like moissanite, or cubic zirconia.
Natural diamonds are more expensive than lab grown diamonds, but they have the same physical, chemical, and optical properties. A lab diamond can be just as beautiful and resilient as a natural diamond, but comes at a cheaper price.
How Diamonds Are Priced
There’s many factors that contribute to a price of the diamond, but the 4Cs of Diamond Quality are often the biggest factors. The 4Cs is a diamond grading system that was invented by the Gemological Institute of America. This system ascertains 4 key concepts to diamond pricing and value: Cut, Clarity, Color, and Carat weight.
Diamond Cut
Your diamond’s cut is the most important of the 4Cs. The cut quality of a diamond controls its sparkle and brilliance. The cutting process is the most important stage of your diamond. It ensures that light is reflected back out of your diamond to create a beautiful sparkle. Without a great cut, your diamond may appear dull and lackluster.
Round brilliant cut diamonds have cut grades, but other fancy cuts do not. Instead, each diamond shape has its own requirements for cut quality. Selecting cut quality for your diamond depends on its proportions, symmetry, and polish. Facet patterns need to be followed by the diamond cutter or light will not reflect properly.
Most diamond cut quality falls between Ideal/Excellent, Very Good, or Good cut grades. The main reason why all diamonds aren’t excellent cut is to save carat weight in favor of less sparkle. Some may value a higher carat weight over the difference in sparkle.
Diamond Clarity
Remember how we talked about impurities entering the diamond during the growth process? There are many types of impurities, but we refer to these as inclusions and blemishes. The clarity grade of a diamond is a general assessment of the inclusions and blemishes within a single loose diamond.
Inclusions are natural and can be found in all types of diamonds, including lab grown diamonds. The types of inclusions that happen to a diamond are more limited within lab diamonds because of their isolated environment.
- Flawless (FL)
- Internally Flawless (IF)
- Very, Very Slightly Included (VVS1 and VVS2)
- Very Slightly Included (VS1 and VS2)
- Slightly Included (SI1 and SI2)
- Included (I1, I2, I3)
It’s not necessary to choose the highest clarity grade to have a great diamond. Flawless diamonds are very expensive. It is recommended to choose your diamond’s clarity according to the inclusions you notice.
Diamond Color
The GIA color grade scale measures the amount of tint in a diamond. TInt happens during the formation process, whether a diamond is mined or grown. The tint is most often caused by nitrogen impurities. Diamond tint is usually a faint yellow, but may be grayish or brownish too.
These are the GIA diamond color grades:
- D (Colorless)
- E (Colorless)
- F (Colorless)
- G (Near Colorless)
- H (Near Colorless)
- I (Near Colorless)
- J (Near Colorless)
- K (Faint Yellow)
- L (Faint Yellow)
- M (Faint Yellow)
The difference in color grades doesn’t put a huge increase or decrease in price. However, the jump from an E color diamond and a J color diamond may be a few hundred dollars. Depending on your perception of color, it may be worth it. Diamond color is a visual effect and does not impact durability.
Diamond Carat Weight
Carat weight is one of the biggest cost factors with a diamond. It is much harder to yield a high carat weight with great cut quality, less clarity imperfections, and color tint than in a smaller diamond. Clarity and color seen in a 1 carat diamond becomes more noticeable in a 3 carat diamond.
Carat is often confused with size, but it’s a unit of measurement for a diamond’s weight. Fancy diamond shapes distribute their weight differently, resulting in shapes like the emerald cut diamond, oval cut diamond, or the cushion cut diamond.
The emerald cut diamond has a wider face-up view than a cushion cut diamond. It stands to reason that clarity imperfections within an SI2 clarity grade would be more noticeable in an emerald cut because of its size. You may want to go up in clarity to match the carat weight, which results in a higher price.
Engagement Ring Setting
Engagement Ring Styles
There’s many different types of engagement ring styles and settings. Some settings cost more than others.
A classic solitaire engagement ring that puts your center stone front and center continues to be the top engagement ring style-and the least expensive. However, some solitaire engagement rings may be more expensive if they contain other setting details like hidden accents, engravings, or ornate details within the metal. Twisted shanks or braided ring bands are likely to cost more than a flat, polished shank.
Engagement ring settings with extra stones will cost more. Halo engagement rings, channel set engagement rings, and pave engagement rings are all prime examples. Each of these utilized smaller stones (often diamonds) to add extra sparkle to the center stone and ring. The 4Cs of each of these diamonds contributes to the overall price of a diamond ring.
Engagement Ring Metals
Your chosen ring metal will have an impact on the cost of your engagement ring. The most popular engagement ring metal is gold. The color of the gold doesn’t usually have an impact on the price. What does have an impact is the karat gold chosen. The higher the karat gold, the more expensive. You should choose between 14K or 18K for high quality gold. Avoid plated gold jewelry because only a thin layer of it is real gold.
White gold may cost more over time for rhodium plating, but yellow gold and rose gold don’t need this service. Rhodium is the thin layer over white gold that gives it a bright white appearance. Over time, rhodium fades and needs to be restored. Lack of rhodium results in a pale yellow ring shank.
Platinum is often the most expensive engagement ring metal. It’s also the strongest of the various fine jewelry precious metals. Platinum is more dense than gold, which means more of it is needed to craft an engagement ring. It’s stronger, heavier, and more expensive than gold. It doesn’t need rhodium plating to retain its silvery hue like white gold jewelry.
It is up to you to decide.
Other Engagement Ring Price Factors
Diamond Grading Lab
All diamond center stones should have an accompanying grading report from a reputable grading lab.A grading report ensures the authenticity of the diamond grades, proportions, and verification that you are getting the right quality and a real diamond.
There are many independent diamond grading labs all over the world, but only a few of them are industry recommended. Some retailers produce their own internal grading certificates, but they may be biased.
The GIA is considered the world’s top grading lab and authority on all diamonds. GIA graded diamonds are the most valuable and more expensive than other labs. Spending the extra money on a GIA graded diamond is recommended because they are a reliable source for accurate diamond grading standards.
Always do research on grading labs when choosing a certified diamond. Some retailers don’t offer certified center stones or they overcharge for the price of them. Side diamonds and accent diamonds don’t need certification, but you should always have a certified center diamond.
Specialty Diamonds and Settings
If you’re buying a diamond with a specific type of a cut, this could raise the price of your engagement ring. Super ideal cut diamonds and hearts and arrows diamonds are types of these. Many online retailers sell their own branded cut of super ideal diamonds. These types of diamonds are a personal preference rather than a necessity.
Designer engagement ring settings cost more. You may pay more simply for a name of a famous ring designer. Some designer settings are thought of by a famous name, but created by other jewelers. Designer rings come with a premium cost.
Some retailers and brands offer patented cuts that are outside the traditional diamond shapes found at most retailers. These are also up to personal preference. Custom-cuts are usually the most expensive, as the design is dictated by the customer themselves and cut by the gem cutter.
Custom Engagement Ring Process
There are different ways to buy an engagement ring. Most brick and mortar jewelry stores have pre-set engagement rings where the center stone is already set into the chosen engagement ring setting.
Some online retailers have an inventory of loose diamonds and empty ring settings to choose from. They show you images and interactive videos that allow you to create and ship the engagement ring to you.
A full-custom is where you choose every aspect of your engagement ring. You work with a designer to create a one-of-kind engagement ring. Bring in inspiration, pictures, and different design details. The designer creates a computer aided design, a wax model, and the finished project.
It requires a lot of work on the jeweler’s behalf, which contributes to higher pricing than a pre-set ring you can pick out of a case. Fully custom is unique, while preset engagement rings are not.
Conclusion
While this is not a complete detailed list of every factor involved in the cost of an engagement ring, it encompasses many of the major factors in diamond quality, price, and value.
If you’ve chosen to buy a diamond engagement ring, understanding the 4Cs of diamond quality will help you to ensure you’re picking a high-quality diamond for whatever price you’re most comfortable with.
Remember that there are no bargain sale diamonds. Diamonds are inherently expensive to many people, even at the lab-grown level. On the other hand, a highly expensive diamond doesn’t necessarily describe its worth or quality. It is up to you to decide which diamond aspects you should pass on, and which are worth the extra cost for a stunning engagement ring.
At AW Jewelry, we believe an exceptionally well-crafted custom engagement ring is worth the cost. Custom engagement rings created using CAD software and molds allow you to tailor a personal journey between you, your engagement ring, and your jeweler. Work with the jewelers one on one to create the one-of-a-kind engagement ring you’ve always dreamed of, not the one that thousands of others have too.
To start designing your dream engagement ring today, contact us today.
834-285-6057
