How are diamond cuts ranked - by sales?

[kenny]

A higher place on the list means more are sold.
Here is my guess for the order:

Round
Princess
Cushion
Emerald
Oval
Radiant
Pear
Asscher
Heart
Marquise
Trilliant
Shield
Briolette

Do you agree?
What order would YOU guess?
Have I forgotten a major shape category?

Does anyone in the trade have an educated guess, or recent factual sales figures for the entire industry?

 

[antelope1]

I disagree on the placement of the cushion if we include B&M stores, which probably constitute the bulk of sales. My guess:

Round
Princess
Emerald / Asscher
Radiant
Cushion
Oval
Pear
Heart
Marquise
etc...

I lump Emerald / Asscher because a square emerald is can be sold as an "asscher-like" ... IMO. Also, after Oval, I feel like you can lump everything and be pretty close in terms of sale volume.

 

[Garry H (Cut Nut)]

volume or value?

 

[antelope1]

Kenny may disagree, but I'm interested in volume (something like # pieces sold). And we can probably leave melee out?

 

[kenny]

volume or value?

Just as I wrote, "A higher place on the list means more are sold."

IOW volume.

I'd also say ALL outlets, Internet and B&M combined - worldwide!

 

[denverappraiser]

It's an interesting question.

Definitely leave out melee, otherwise I suspect baguette would rank pretty well. I would also leave out the huge stones and fancy colors. I suspect it's also necessary to decide on a marketplace because certain specialty markets exist that will produce different answers. Global retail sales of 'colorless' diamonds sold individually and weighing between half a carat and 5 carats each. This is roughly the PS database. We can't really look at the database for this answer becaue it's listing stones for sale, not stones sold, and it's probably not very representative of the global marketplace as a whole but it might be an interestng place to start.

Round and princess (in that order) are obviously the top two by far.
Beyond that I'll be guessing but I'll take a stab at it:

Round
Princess
Emerald/Asscher
Cushion
Radiant
Oval
Marquise
Pear
OEC

All others combined I would expect to be below 2% of the market share.

By the way, by 'round' I mean a standard 57-58 facet design. There are other round designs out there that would appear farther down the list.

 

[denverappraiser]

oops. double post

 

[kenny]

Though I was referring to white diamonds I looked on the site of a vendor of fancy colored diamonds, Leibish & Co. www.fancydiamonds.net
I just used their Advanced Search button and entered only one shape.

I was surprised how their inventory breaks down by shape.
There are many more pears and rounds than I expected:

187 Pears
147 radiants
139 rounds
98 Ovals
92 Cushions
76 Hearts
37 Princess
34 Marquise
24 Emerald and Asscher

I expected fewer rounds since that's not a cut that amps up the color.
Also, these are for sale, not sold.

 

[denverappraiser]

I've noticed in fancy colored diamonds the radiant is king.

And round is farther down the list. Also, on bigger stones, 'unusual' cuts become significantly more popular.

 

[kenny]

Forgive me Neil, I edited my post.
Also, I was shocked to see how high round was on their list.

 

[denverappraiser]

It's a demand thing. People have a hard time imagining diamonds in colors and another hard time with non-round shapes. Fancy colors usually show better with fancy shapes but it's not just a matter of making a stone that shows the color well and that makes the best use of the material. They need to cut stones that sell. Unfortunately, these are sometimes conflicting objectives.

 

[MarkBroumand]

I have recently read an article with these specific statistics. I'm going to try to find it and post here.

Rounds and princesses are definitely at the top of the ranking and I believe Neil is pretty close with the remainder of the list.

Also, things are a lot different with colored diamonds and gemstones as we can see from those #s above!

 

[slg47]

I wonder what the PS list is like...maybe something like this?

cushion
cushion
cushion
round
asscher
old european cut round
princess
oval
pear
marquise

 

[antelope1]

Sig, even on PS, I think it would be Round, Princess, Cushion, Emerald...how many ppl ask for help with the AGS0 rounds?! Tons!

 

[Imdanny]

I think you must be right and poor humble briolette must be on the bottom. LOL!

 

[Imdanny]

Have I forgotten a major shape category?

Yes, rose.