fledermaus
Rough_Rock
- Joined
- Oct 22, 2006
- Messages
- 3
So, we''ve just started shopping for an engagement ring, and after our first day''s shopping we have narrowed things down a great deal, but we''re still not sure about a lot of things. I am incredibly glad to have stumbled across pricescope.com and as a result of reading lots of advice from this site, I feel a whole lot happier about dealing with jewelers at this point in time. So thanks, people! I only wish I''d found this site before our first day''s shopping. (Although I felt I was doing an OK line in "oh, I''m so new to all of this ring-buying business, it''s all so confusing, you''re the professional jeweler and you have such an honest face, why don''t you tell me what to buy" and letting my BS detector do its thing (off the scale in many cases 
)....
Anyway, what I''d like is for recommendations of similar settings to the Cartier Déclaration d''Amour (a picture of it is attached -- the one on the right without the extra baguettes is the one she likes) because (a) maybe she''d like something similar but slightly different; and (b) there''s Zero Chance I can afford the cartier (on a grad. student budget). I''d be very grateful for any suggestions. That was the main question, but feel free to keep on reading if you want more background:
Here are the things we''ve decided Fiancée''s fairly sure she wants in her ring:
* White metal (white gold, platinum, titanium, stainless steel). Fiancée truly doesn''t have any opinion between these options, but I want it to be very bright and white for her, which I guess rules out titanium.
* A round-cut diamond (I am So Glad she decided against princess when she saw them in the stores, since I really didn''t think it suits her). About 0.47ct. (0.42 is definitely a little smaller than I want to get her, though she''d be happy with it; 0.75 is definitely too big for what she has in mind for her finger). I could go up towards 0.60 or so if there was some technical reason the setting required it or somesuch, but see no need to get it that large if it''s just for the sake of being able to say I have a larger stone.
* A setting that exposes as much of the diamond as possible. Apart from the aforementionned Cartier, she also likes the Gelin & Abaci TR-040 tension-set http://www.mickyroof.com/tr040.jpg .
* A setting that doesn''t have the stone poking out from the ring too much (ie, not Tiffany style).
* A simple, elegant, streamlined setting, with no extra gems, engraving, frills, baguettes, curlicues, etc. She''s not that type of girl (one of the reasons I love her so much)
What she especially likes about the Cartier setting versus the many other vaguely similar rings out there: The prongs don''t meet at a V at their bottom (ie it''s not like, eg Whiteflash.com "Platinum Cathedral" JD0102), nor does it have a horizontal metal bar across between the prongs under the girdle of the diamond -- I have no idea what the technical term for this piece of metal is (eg, like whiteflash.com "Fine Line" PL401-CBR). Also, the part of the ring that crosses underneath the gem, narrows slightly, making it pretty much invisible and almost like a tension setting, to look at it on the finger, though you can''t tell that from the picture I posted.
(By the way, I have nothing against the whiteflash pieces, just they had the first pictures I could dig up quickly as examples of the features my girl doesn''t want).
We asked at several jewelers if they had anything like that, and only one had anything useful to say (in fact it was him who suggested we visit cartier for inspiration -- we certainly weren''t originally planning on looking at cartier catalogues when we started this). This particular jeweler says that this is a very difficult setting to make properly, that he himself couldn''t do it, but knew someone he could contract it out to who had done similar work for him before and he felt sure would do an excellent job, but it wouldn''t be cheap (estimated $1200 to $1600 without talking to his contractor) and it would take about a month. This all sounds plausible to me, the story fits together and the jeweler was very helpful in directing us towards this type of design that my fiancee and I both had in our heads but hadn''t been able to articulate. So he''s an expert, has been very helpful so far, and I really want to trust him. But he''s a smooth-talking manhattan diamond district guy, and I can also tell that he could effortlessly swindle us without us even feeling suspicious, so I''m also wondering if anyone here can corroborate what he said about the rarity of this type of setting, the difficulty and expense of getting one made, etc. Because, if there''s something off-the-shelf that my fiancee likes just as much or better, well then that would save the stress of waiting a month to see if the setting comes out the way we imagined it would (and if it was also cheaper that way, then all''s the better).
Thanks in advance for any advice/comments/etc.
And thanks again everyone who contributed so much great content to pricescope.com
)....Anyway, what I''d like is for recommendations of similar settings to the Cartier Déclaration d''Amour (a picture of it is attached -- the one on the right without the extra baguettes is the one she likes) because (a) maybe she''d like something similar but slightly different; and (b) there''s Zero Chance I can afford the cartier (on a grad. student budget). I''d be very grateful for any suggestions. That was the main question, but feel free to keep on reading if you want more background:
Here are the things we''ve decided Fiancée''s fairly sure she wants in her ring:
* White metal (white gold, platinum, titanium, stainless steel). Fiancée truly doesn''t have any opinion between these options, but I want it to be very bright and white for her, which I guess rules out titanium.
* A round-cut diamond (I am So Glad she decided against princess when she saw them in the stores, since I really didn''t think it suits her). About 0.47ct. (0.42 is definitely a little smaller than I want to get her, though she''d be happy with it; 0.75 is definitely too big for what she has in mind for her finger). I could go up towards 0.60 or so if there was some technical reason the setting required it or somesuch, but see no need to get it that large if it''s just for the sake of being able to say I have a larger stone.
* A setting that exposes as much of the diamond as possible. Apart from the aforementionned Cartier, she also likes the Gelin & Abaci TR-040 tension-set http://www.mickyroof.com/tr040.jpg .
* A setting that doesn''t have the stone poking out from the ring too much (ie, not Tiffany style).
* A simple, elegant, streamlined setting, with no extra gems, engraving, frills, baguettes, curlicues, etc. She''s not that type of girl (one of the reasons I love her so much)
What she especially likes about the Cartier setting versus the many other vaguely similar rings out there: The prongs don''t meet at a V at their bottom (ie it''s not like, eg Whiteflash.com "Platinum Cathedral" JD0102), nor does it have a horizontal metal bar across between the prongs under the girdle of the diamond -- I have no idea what the technical term for this piece of metal is (eg, like whiteflash.com "Fine Line" PL401-CBR). Also, the part of the ring that crosses underneath the gem, narrows slightly, making it pretty much invisible and almost like a tension setting, to look at it on the finger, though you can''t tell that from the picture I posted.
(By the way, I have nothing against the whiteflash pieces, just they had the first pictures I could dig up quickly as examples of the features my girl doesn''t want).
We asked at several jewelers if they had anything like that, and only one had anything useful to say (in fact it was him who suggested we visit cartier for inspiration -- we certainly weren''t originally planning on looking at cartier catalogues when we started this). This particular jeweler says that this is a very difficult setting to make properly, that he himself couldn''t do it, but knew someone he could contract it out to who had done similar work for him before and he felt sure would do an excellent job, but it wouldn''t be cheap (estimated $1200 to $1600 without talking to his contractor) and it would take about a month. This all sounds plausible to me, the story fits together and the jeweler was very helpful in directing us towards this type of design that my fiancee and I both had in our heads but hadn''t been able to articulate. So he''s an expert, has been very helpful so far, and I really want to trust him. But he''s a smooth-talking manhattan diamond district guy, and I can also tell that he could effortlessly swindle us without us even feeling suspicious, so I''m also wondering if anyone here can corroborate what he said about the rarity of this type of setting, the difficulty and expense of getting one made, etc. Because, if there''s something off-the-shelf that my fiancee likes just as much or better, well then that would save the stress of waiting a month to see if the setting comes out the way we imagined it would (and if it was also cheaper that way, then all''s the better).
Thanks in advance for any advice/comments/etc.
And thanks again everyone who contributed so much great content to pricescope.com
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