Need Help Picking a Diamond by July 14th

[itstime]

Hi everyone!

I am proposing to my girlfriend at the end of August and would like to purchase the engagement ring by July 14th to ensure it arrives in time.

I've never purchased a diamond before and I've been researching/searching for diamonds over the past two months. I've mostly been looking on James Allen because I like their user interface and the 360/zoom capabilities.

I'm looking for a round diamond and I have a maximum budget of $15,000 (for diamond only).

Cut is by far the most important to me and I've been looking for the following:

GIA ex / AGS ideal
Total depth between 59 – 61.8%
Table diameter between 53 – 58%
Crown angle between 34 – 35 degrees
Pavilion angle between 40.5 – 41 degrees

I've only seen "True Hearts" diamonds meet these specs, I haven't seen any "Ideal" diamonds meet them.

Clarity - MUST be eye clean. I've been looking mostly at VS2's.

Carat/Color - In the 1.6-1.8 carat range. Color I'm targeting around an H.

Fluorescence - I've been searching for diamonds with "none", but I'm not sure how important this is.

Two questions:
1. There is not a lot of selection when it comes to these parameters - are my cut specs too stringent?
2. If you had this budget, what would you purchase? Links would be great.

Any help would be much appreciated!

 

[WinkHPD]

Hi everyone!

<Snip>

Cut is by far the most important to me and I've been looking for the following:

GIA ex / AGS ideal
Total depth between 59 – 61.8%
Table diameter between 53 – 58%
Crown angle between 34 – 35 degrees
Pavilion angle between 40.5 – 41 degrees

<Snip>

1. There is not a lot of selection when it comes to these parameters - are my cut specs too stringent?

<Snip>

Any help would be much appreciated!

As a jeweler I may not comment on diamonds that you are looking at with other jewelers. I would like to ask though about how you determined that a 40.5 pavilion angle would be okay?

Most diamonds are not cut with tight enough controls and the angles quoted are an average of eight angles, so you could be looking at a pavilion with angles as low as 40.2 or 40.3 balanced off with higher angles to make the 40.5 angle that is being reported. Those facets with the lower angles will be "leaky". If you know you are dealing with a company that tightly controls its acceptable variance, you will most likely be safe at 40.6 pavilion angles, but a good look through an ASET scope or an Ideal-Scope will give you much more information than the angles.

Essentially, even a diamond with great looking angles my not be doing the job correctly, so taking a look through an ASET Scope or an Ideal-Scope can give you great information about how well those angles were put together.

Wink