Buying diamonds in Singapore?

[furpy]

Hi there,

Just wondering if anyone has any recommendations on where to buy diamonds (and ring setting) in Singapore, as my husband is doing a quick trip there this week and we were considering buying there.

Also, could you advise how the prices rate there - ie, would we get a better deal by buying in Australia (next time we''re home), or otherwise online ? I see posts where many people have had good dealings with buying over the internet, but I am not sure whether I would trust having a diamond ring delivered to Sth Korea (where we''re living)

.

Appreciate any advice on buying in Singapore,
cheers,
furpy

 

[tomatoe]

Hi Furpy, welcome to PS

Another Sporean user, yeewl, has a regular salesperson in Taka Jewelery at Bugis. Taka has many low-end jewelery and badly cut diamonds but they also have the occasional well cut GIA H&A at the best prices in Singapore. Do contact her and I am sure she can advise you more. There is also some info here from a user whom I never got the chance to know but has since passed away.

Just do not buy from chainstore retailers like LeeHwa, Tianpo, Goldheart, Sookee and the very prominent Diamond Industries. If time is a constraint, or you would like a special shape, you could always go the internet route. I did and I am incredibly happy with my unique shape, see my regent.

Best of luck!

 

[canuk-gal]

Hi there:

There was, very recently, a long thread on this subject. You may want to search the archives for the same. Good hunting.

cheers

slb

 

[furpy]

oops, double post !

 

[furpy]

Thanks Tomatoe & Canuk-gal for your replies, and Tomatoe your ring is just beautiful ! The more i read about satisfied customers who got their rings online, the more tempted i am to do it this way - as i am concerned that my husband's visit to Singapore might be a bit rushed ! Just have to overcome the fear of my ring not turning up in the post (to korea) if i did it online !!!

But there's nooooo way i'd buy one here, (after living here 2yrs mind you) still been scammed on buying things like designer sunglasses. And the other day also hearing a much worse story of a guy we know who bought his fiance's engagement ring here from a posh jeweller, (they unfortunately broke up and she returned the ring), and when he took the ring to be valued was told it wasn't even a diamond

. I'm sure its not always going to happen, but that is enough to put me off buying a diamond here that's for sure !

Thanks for your help,
furpy

 

[layman]

Among the jewellery chain stores like Taka, Lee Hwa, Soo Kee etc. I would say that Taka's price is the most reasonable. They sell loose diamonds at prices quite close to the internet vendors.

The catch is, they do not carry that many loose diamonds. So you may have a choice of only 2-3 diamonds of a certain carat range.

Besides their GIA diamonds, they do carry a range of EGL(I think) certed H&A. But they do not have larger stones for this range. The largest ones are about 0.5 carat. Again, the choices are very limited.

Their settings can be less than ideal too. I once got a ring with very thick prongs from, making the ring looks stumpy.

In some earlier threads, there was a recommendation for Yuen Tung:

Yuen Tung (Wah Kee) Gems & Jewellery
1093 Lower Delta Rd #07-09 Tiong Bahru Ind Est
Tel : 6270 2278

They are a family owned jeweller for 30 years and they do carry a good range of GIA diamonds at reasonable prices and they have a variety of custom settings to choose from. I did not buy from them because I wanted a H&A AGS diamond. They carry very few AGS diamonds.

I ended up buying my diamond online and got it set by Yuen Tung. I find their setting a little bit thin but fits my girl friend's small Asian fingers very well.

They charged me SGD$450(US$260) for a platinum setting - quite reasonable.

If you do a search in www.yellowpages.com.sg, you will find quite a few jeweller in the industrial park where Yuen Tung is as well as other industrial parks. I have not been to these shops before but I think these shops would likely be much cheaper than the chain store jewellers.

The problem is, do you trust them more than the online jewellers?

 

[jadeleaves]

----------------
On 5/24/2004 8:04:37 AM furpy wrote:

Hi there,

...Also, could you advise how the prices rate there - ie, would we get a better deal by buying in Australia (next time we're home), or otherwise online ?...

Dear furpy,

I have been shopping around for loose diamonds myself, and I'm in the process of buying diamonds from Jogia Diamonds Intl (from Perth) and Precious Metals, Garry Holloway's B&M store in Melbourne.

Jogia Diamonds is an Australian online diamond merchant, but he's actually flown from Perth to Melbourne last wk to show me some stones and view mine (I wanted to match 2 stones to my current one). He has a large inventory of stones, and the ones I've seen are beautiful, although I am no expert.
Precious Metals has been really helpful in my search for diamonds as well, and I'm sure most ppl here will agree that Garry's stones are all beautiful.

 

[yeewl]

Hello Furpy,

I was very lucky when I purchased those few loose stones from Taka because the timing was right and one has to be very patient to wait for the best moment, like monitoring COE prices.
Taka most recent sale (last week) on GIA stones are not too good...depth and table either too deep or too shallow.. with slight to strong blue fluorences (sp?) although out of the whole batch, they did have some very nice ones.. (unfortunately sold already)

Just a slight correction ...tomatoe
for the H&A, Taka stones are graded by IGI (japan) unlike Meyson IGI (Belgium).Meyson's stones are much, much more expensive unlike Taka's.
Taka's H&A sale will end on 31/5 (mon) and out of 198 stones on offer, 98 of them were sold already.The staff gave me the stock list for all outlets and she helped to to cancel those that were sold. All they left are the smaller ones like 0.305 to the larger ones like 0.58 with color range is E to G and clarity vvs1 to vs2. Their price are very attractive. The biggest one that were sold was a F vs1 0.608 for S$2882 (US$1675).Before the sale, the same stone were selling for S$3722 (US$2163).

As for the recent Mondial sale, my friend and I were at Grand Hyatt to look at some 1 carat+ loose stones with HRD/GIA cert. His sarcastic remarks came the moment I took out my “Idealscope” (similar to Dia cut loupe) to view the quality of the cut. The other staff asked if I am from the diamond trade and I made it clear I am not. I am just an avid diamond lover. However, he assumed otherwise and started to say as I quote: ‘ Since you already know everything there is to know about diamonds, there’s nothing more I need to tell you. Then just get down to businesses’. Anyway, it's his loss as that remark had really pissed my friend off and she refused to buy from him. That's why I seldom like to enter that so-called high-end places like Larry's, Tiffany, just to avoid all these kind of rude remark.... However, the people at Cartier were very helpful and friendly.

Tomatoe is right about places like LeeHwa, Tianpo, Goldheart, Sookee and the Diamond Industries. If you wish to look at their latest design, that's ok but buying from them can be very expensive.

There's this place I visit is Felin (Lucky Plaza outlet). Look for Dora. She is the senior manager and a very friendly and knowledgable lady. Got to know her through Mercier (Shannon).Felin is going to have a GIA/HRD loose stones sale very soon...(next week?) Anyway, Dora will me know as I still have an item to collect from her next week. The 0.608 F vs1 H&A stone (which I bought from Taka) and set as a pendent.

 

[longmarch]

hi yeewl,

wat is the price of a one-carat diamond of G color in dora's shop
with GIA certificate?

thanks.

 

[csk1975]

I was just throwing out some cards I got from jewellers and here is some actual prices from 3 months ago:-

Larry Jewelry - .80ct F VS1 S$8,800 GIA cert VG/VG (nice looking)
Lee Hwa Jewellery - .71ct E VS2 S$5,478 (cert? looked average)
Lee Hwa Jewellery - .71ct F VS1 S$11,788 - branded H&A "Destinee" - AGS cert and AGS 000 ideal.
Sookee Jewellery - .74ct E VS2 S$9,028 - AGS 000 ideal
Tiffany & Co. - .30ct D VVS1 S$5,950 (with PT ring)
Tiffany & Co. - .34ct E VVS1 S$6,900 (lucida with PT ring)

The chain stores D'Mason, Goldheart, Sookee, Lee Hwa, etc all have lots of plain diamonds at less than ideal prices.

There are lots of diamond sellers in Singapore but unless you know exactly what you are buying and what price you should pay you will likely get taken for a ride - I am sure there are bargains to be had but watch out!

I've also seen some great looking big fancy yellows in a shop in Paragon but the prices!!! Worth looking at if you like admiring big expensive fancy yellows

I ended up getting a diamond and setting from GOG - shipped by Fedex on Friday from NY and arrived on Monday in Singapore. Doing it by Internet is a bit disconcerting but the GOG people seemed much more honest and open than the local sharks - I got a good price and a great ring and I'd recommend it to anyone.

 

[yeewl]

Hello again,
Last time I checked (3weeks ago), I happened to come across an E color VS2 1 carat that falls in within acceptable proportion. Polish/G Symmetry/VG set in 18 K white good that cost $10900.

There's another one Gvs2 0.83, also set in white gold and falls in within acceptable proportion.
Polish/VG Symmetry/VG that cost $5970
Both stones comes with GIA papers.

As I recall, think that both stones does exhibit H&A when using the idealscope to look. I believe there's still room for a slight price nego... Or you can wait when they have a loose stone sale. Do look for Dora. She doesn't work on Thursday and she will be on-leave from 4/6 Friday till... sorry forgotten to ask

I did not ask for 1 carat G color because my friend wanted an E color. I believe Felin do carry some G's and the price should be cheaper.

 

[layman]

yeewl, that was great info you posted.

You are right Taka sells IGI, not EGL like I posted earlier. I have a friend who bought a GIA 1ct from Taka a few weeks ago. It was quite deep but the idealscope image shows little leakages and the symmetry is pretty okay. He got a G VS1 VG/VG at S$10300 inclusive of 18k white gold setting. But you are right, they sold most of their stock so not much choices.

I heard quite a bit about Felin. I did go to Felin at Far East once to check out what they offer. I did not look for Dora though. At that time, it seemed like they did not provide too much choices either. But if you say they sell E VS2 at S$10900, that is reasonable.

Does Felin provide interest free instalments? I know Taka does for Citibank cards.

BTW, Soo Kee is having 30% discount for GIA certed diamonds. I think their prices is more reasonable now. I saw a H VS2 1.00ct with 18k wg at S$9276 at their Bugis outlet today.

 

[furpy]

Thanks again for the extra info since i last logged on !

This may be a bit late for a response with the time difference (i MUST get to bed...1.30am here!), but i have been frantically checking on the net to see if this is a reasonable deal or not. My husband called me tonight regarding a stone he is going to check out tomorrow night before he flies home (at another recommended place from a friend who lived there), and here are the details:

Princess 1.22ct, H colour, VVS2,
6.04mm x 6mm x 4.1mm depth

...which I can't remember what the original price discussed was (it was higher) but my husband had with him lists i'd printed from Loose Stones in Whiteflash (so that he'd have some idea of price range!). They came down to the price of S$10,000 (USD$5800).

From what I have looked at online tonight, this seems reasonable, however I'm far from knowing if this is a good stone or not (dimensions especially).

Are princess cuts more likely to look smaller than brilliants for the same carot size (eg more weight in the depth?). When comparing to trilliants, they seem terribly small for the same details !?

. But even slightly smaller diameters than same weight Brilliant cuts ?

Hope someone can advise me on this before my husband leaves Singapore !
Thanks so much, very grateful for your help.

cheers
furpy

 

[yeewl]

Hello Hardrock,
Happy to know that those infos are useful

If I am not mistaken, they do offer 12 months interest free installment plan with major credit cards like Citibank, DBS, POSB, but not UOB, OCBC and Maybank.
Taka 1 carat is cheap....$10300 with the 18K w/g and vg/vg. Read that today is their last day for GIA loose stones sale.Seen from the advert, 0.30 Gvs2 $645.I believe people are 'fighting' since today is the 1st day of Great S'pore Sale