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HELP! Why are Harry Winston Diamonds So Sparkly?! Any equivalent?

autumnxxa said:
I'm sure they do, but we haven't demanded it as we're in our verrryyyyy early stages of shopping.

I did a quick search and came up with this... https://www.idonowidont.com/diamond...-diamond-engagement-ring-micropave-platinum-1 not sure if that helps!
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Interesting..... that stone scores 4.8 on the HCA and does not look to have a certificate any different from any other stone available! It is also about double the cost that I would expect that stone to be worth, even including the ring setting.
 
When I first shopped for diamonds, one of the most sparkly stones I ever saw was an EGL very good cut, along side another GIA diamond with a 57.5/36.5/41.2 combo. Those are terrible proportions but the sparkle was there, picked out as the most sparkly stones by myself and friends. The pitch was done purposefully where there weren't that many lights in the ceiling but a huge amount of side halogen lights.

I found as I moved around the store they lost a bit of the super sparkle factor apart from this 1 spot.

I do believe steep deep cuts can excel in jewellery store environments as there is a huge amount of light going through the pavilion and out through the crown as sparkle. This is a lighting situation that is a rarity in day to day life. When i listened to the advice of PS and saw the stones outside on a cloudy day, and in back office, they transformed into dull lifeless stones made of glass, as the huge driving power of side halogen lights disappeared. The only light source was that florescent tube on the ceiling that these stones were not able to capture. I bought a diamond with a great idealscope and ideal proportions (not a superideal). I went back to the same store (as I bought the rings from them and they wanted to see the final product). While the stone looked roughly the same if not maybe a tiny bit less sparkly in the 'special spot', it looked SO MUCH better everywhere else.

This is nothing to do with good diamond crystal quality and secret special cut. I'm afraid the excellent marketing and presentation, well trained staff and resourceful lighting has you caught in the hype that their diamonds are special, they are not. With that regard, kudos to HW.

My advice is shop smart, get a well cut stone that will look better for 99.9 percent of the time it will be worn, as it would excel at capturing light from above the horizon, not below it.
 
gm89uk said:
When I first shopped for diamonds, one of the most sparkly stones I ever saw was an EGL very good cut, along side another GIA diamond with a 57.5/36.5/41.2 combo. Those are terrible proportions but the sparkle was there, picked out as the most sparkly stones by myself and friends. The pitch was done purposefully where there weren't that many lights in the ceiling but a huge amount of side halogen lights.

I found as I moved around the store they lost a bit of the super sparkle factor apart from this 1 spot.

I do believe steep deep cuts can excel in jewellery store environments as there is a huge amount of light going through the pavilion and out through the crown as sparkle. This is a lighting situation that is a rarity in day to day life. When i listened to the advice of PS and saw the stones outside on a cloudy day, and in back office, they transformed into dull lifeless stones made of glass, as the huge driving power of side halogen lights disappeared. The only light source was that florescent tube on the ceiling that these stones were not able to capture. I bought a diamond with a great idealscope and ideal proportions (not a superideal). I went back to the same store (as I bought the rings from them and they wanted to see the final product). While the stone looked roughly the same if not maybe a tiny bit less sparkly in the 'special spot', it looked SO MUCH better everywhere else.

This is nothing to do with good diamond crystal quality and secret special cut. I'm afraid the excellent marketing and presentation, well trained staff and resourceful lighting has you caught in the hype that their diamonds are special, they are not. With that regard, kudos to HW.

My advice is shop smart, get a well cut stone that will look better for 99.9 percent of the time it will be worn, as it would excel at capturing light from above the horizon, not below it.
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This is great advice! I've actually been leaning towards Victor Canera, and just wanted an explanation of "why so sparkly?" and you've done a good job at addressing that! :)

I love the idea of working with VC too because as he's very receptive to ideas and I know Victor is 200% invested in what he does as he's putting his personal seal of approval on the ring. You'd think a master craftsman like him would turn up his nose at my suggestions, but he was VERY down to earth!

Also, do you know if HW does heart and arrows and are there any other cuts of diamonds I should check out?
 
Check out Victor's European Rounds and Antique Cushions if you really want a gorgeous but more unique stone!
 
autumnxxa said:
Okay... so bear with me on this. Based on my research so far (still a newbie), I've been told a Super Ideal cut yields maximum fire/sparkle/brilliance because it's the perfect specs for light to bounce around. I haven't seen a not-great diamond so far (given that jewelers etc will still shine the brightest light on them) but have seen their firescope images that show the lack of contrast, so I'm assuming they won't sparkle as bright as the Super Ideals.
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I would like to address this comment. There is a very nice jewelry store in Meridian, Idaho. At their display counter for diamonds, they feature a large selection of diamonds, many of which are the brand that I sell online. The owner and I are great and long time friends. When they want to show you how much difference the cut makes, they take a diamond of that brand and hand it to you. They then encourage you to lower it beneath the counter and look at it in "the shade". Then they take out a diamond, show it to you side by side and let you see that in the bright lights of the jewelry store it looks ALMOST as good as the branded diamond. Then they invite you to lower it beneath the counter into "the shade" where it turns into a lifeless lump of crystallized carbon. They actually encourage you to walk around the store and even out of doors to observe the diamonds in different lighting situations, although the lifeless one gets very little attention after it is removed from the bright lights.

One of my favorite experiences watching this technique was the day that a client came in who had been at the "Big Dog" store in town who made a point of showing a Hearts on Fire diamond next to a well cut diamond next to a real dog diamond and blathering on about how there was only minimal improvement in appearance in one from the other, but huge differences in price, so why pay for it?

After looking at one of the branded diamonds at my associates store, she said she had to go try something at the "Big Dog" store. She went back in and asked them to put the three diamonds she had been looking at back on the tray for her to see again. Then she put her hand above them to create a shadow. Oops, the HoF diamond still looked great and the others were obviously vastly inferior.

"That's why you pay more for the better cut diamond," she said as she got up and left the store to come back to my associate's store. She was quite put out with the other store's deceptive practices and left with a beautiful diamond that she loves.

It has been my experience, that if you take a great cut diamond and look at it in many lighting situations, that the best cuts will have the best looks in any lighting. If you only look at the diamonds in the in store lighting, you will often be very disappointed when you get it out into the real world.

Wink
 
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