After a ton of the usual research everywhere I pretty much knew what I wanted. Something around 1.75ct, H&A, AGS000 and a platinum pave split shank. My partner has small hands, so I was looking in particular for a setting that laid lower on her hand and didn't stick out as much (as a doctor, the lower profile the better so it fits under gloves).
Coming from the UK but in the US quite often, I was anticipating stopping through NYC en-route to California for work, so schedule was key - 6 weeks was my target timeframe which seems a bit tight for some of the guys. I had lots of friends here in London who had "a guy" in Antwerp, Tel Aviv, Hatton Garden, India and South Africa, but none of them really could give me enough info to purchase on spec w/o seeing the full ratings, photos, scans and such. I probably could have gotten a good price but I really didn't want to worry about whether the stone was cut well enough for my liking. My favorite lead was the guy who meets "under the archway" in Clerkenwell (via SMS to coordinate) who's apparently a favorite of many friends here.
I reached out to the usuals here on Pricescope and had good conversations with several of them re: my ideas on the setting. I had planned on getting the stone at GoodOldGold but of course each seller prefers their in-house sourcing, which I was open to if the price was competitive. I really liked the work of Mege, but I wanted more diamond information than he was able to easily provide (the normal scope pictures, xray, etc). Steven Kirsch looked promising but his price was a bit high and there was uncertainty about the time frame (he's typically gone in July on holiday it seems).
After a good bit of back and forth over email, I wound up choosing Victor. The feedback here was quite good and his diamond selection was nice. It turned out he had a H&A diamond that fit my parameters quite well, and design-wise he was able to convince me that he could get the right look I wanted. The ability to do the diamond (at a good price) and the band together pushed me over the line. Unfortunately as a foreign buyer, I had hoped to use credit card but that wasn't feasible given his restrictions on shipping (I didn't want it posted to the UK of course), so I went with a bank wire.
As far as the setting, I wanted a very delicate split shank, so the pave was a bit smaller on the actual shanks. Victor also convinced me to go for pave on the basket underneath and a small diamond each prong as well, which turned out quite excellent.
I picked up the ring 6 weeks later at his office in LA. Everything was exactly as I had hoped and it looked quite nice. I also got a matching pave wedding band done too, which looked great. After proposing the next day, I realized I had gone a half size too large, so he was able to resize it the same day, which was excellent since I was flying out over the weekend.
Thanks for everyone else who's posted their work here. It was very helpful to see the various bits of feedback and photos from the rest of your purchases, especially those coming in to the US from abroad.
Coming from the UK but in the US quite often, I was anticipating stopping through NYC en-route to California for work, so schedule was key - 6 weeks was my target timeframe which seems a bit tight for some of the guys. I had lots of friends here in London who had "a guy" in Antwerp, Tel Aviv, Hatton Garden, India and South Africa, but none of them really could give me enough info to purchase on spec w/o seeing the full ratings, photos, scans and such. I probably could have gotten a good price but I really didn't want to worry about whether the stone was cut well enough for my liking. My favorite lead was the guy who meets "under the archway" in Clerkenwell (via SMS to coordinate) who's apparently a favorite of many friends here.
I reached out to the usuals here on Pricescope and had good conversations with several of them re: my ideas on the setting. I had planned on getting the stone at GoodOldGold but of course each seller prefers their in-house sourcing, which I was open to if the price was competitive. I really liked the work of Mege, but I wanted more diamond information than he was able to easily provide (the normal scope pictures, xray, etc). Steven Kirsch looked promising but his price was a bit high and there was uncertainty about the time frame (he's typically gone in July on holiday it seems).
After a good bit of back and forth over email, I wound up choosing Victor. The feedback here was quite good and his diamond selection was nice. It turned out he had a H&A diamond that fit my parameters quite well, and design-wise he was able to convince me that he could get the right look I wanted. The ability to do the diamond (at a good price) and the band together pushed me over the line. Unfortunately as a foreign buyer, I had hoped to use credit card but that wasn't feasible given his restrictions on shipping (I didn't want it posted to the UK of course), so I went with a bank wire.
As far as the setting, I wanted a very delicate split shank, so the pave was a bit smaller on the actual shanks. Victor also convinced me to go for pave on the basket underneath and a small diamond each prong as well, which turned out quite excellent.
I picked up the ring 6 weeks later at his office in LA. Everything was exactly as I had hoped and it looked quite nice. I also got a matching pave wedding band done too, which looked great. After proposing the next day, I realized I had gone a half size too large, so he was able to resize it the same day, which was excellent since I was flying out over the weekend.
Thanks for everyone else who's posted their work here. It was very helpful to see the various bits of feedback and photos from the rest of your purchases, especially those coming in to the US from abroad.
300x240.png)