Place to buy Chatham stones online?

[luckystrike]

First post here so hopefully this is in the right sub-forum for this question. I'm about 3 months away from officially proposing to my girlfriend (we've already discussed marriage) and we've talked a little about rings. She didn't get into too much detail on what she'd prefer because she wants it to be kind of a surprise but she gave me some overall guidelines. First is that it must be man-made due to enviro/sociological beliefs. Second is that the main stone is blue...that's just her favorite color. Lastly is that the setting have a filigree/vintige type look.

I showed her pictures of various blue colored gemstones just to find out which hue she liked and she like the color of blue topaz the best. Well after looking more into topaz i found that it'd probably not be hard enough for an everyday ring. So then I saw that there were blue diamonds and some lighter sapphires that had a close hue to what she liked. Reading about Chatham they seemed like a good company but it seems to be hard to find an online dealer (i found like one...jewelryimpressions.com but i don't know if they're reputable) that sell loose chatham stones without forcing you to go through an actual dealer.

My strategy was to buy the stone (or stones if i go with a muli-stone setting...maybe center blue diamond with a couple small sapphires) loose online to save some money and then go to a brick and mortar jeweler for the setting.

Anyways...just hoping for some suggestions on reputable online dealers that sell chatham loose stones....I'd hate to pay the little extra for the chatham name and have it be something else

 

[periwinklegirl]

Hi Luckystrike,
Congratulations on a great decision to go lab-grown!

To my knowledge Chatham only sells loose stones through dealers, and not online at all. They sell finished pieces online, but their prices are quite steep.

When I was choosing my stone (a fancy intense blue) I found this frustrating. I did find a local dealer who would bring in Chatham diamonds for me, but it took months and he did a fairly big mark up.

In the end we went with D.NEA diamonds. They not only sell their loose stones directly to the consumer online, and their prices are therefore more reasonable, but Eric is great to deal with. He sent me a selection of stones to choose exactly the right shade and he can make a video of several stones together so you can compare cut, clarity, etc.

I made a long a post about it, if you want to see pics:
https://www.pricescope.com/community/threads/which-is-the-right-blue-for-me.135953/

Good luck!

 

[denverappraiser]

Chatham sells through a network of partners but I'm not sure I would call that a bad thing. It's a BIG network. Not every jeweler chooses to sell them but most can. That makes them a highly competitive area and it's actually pretty easy to shop one against another. For most jewelers, manmade diamonds is a small part of most of their businesses and you won't see Chatham with a banner on their front page but that doesn't mean they can't get 'em. Just ask. Any jeweler worth their salt has a website these days. Pick one that appeals to you and drop them an email.

 

[GeorgeStevens]

Might as well have the same guy who sells the diamond also do the setting. There's not much reason to separate them.

With regard to blue synthetics, don't pay a lot more for deep saturation/tone. A standard fancy blue is fine, maybe even a fancy light blue; anything deeper will look like a fake diamond or possibly an irradiated diamond. Speaking of, avoid irradiated diamonds. These are typically browns or other ugly colors that get blasted with radiation to turn them colors that aren't found in nature. Nobody would confuse this with a genuine blue diamond... except an uninformed customer on that website, which claims that the color is "Nature's steadfast color." Talk about a bloody lie! No wonder people hate diamond dealers.

But I digress. Eric does a good job. He buys from AOTC - not a direct seller. At least with AOTC, the colors are due to natural boron in the crystal structure rather than irradiation. A good synthetic from Eric isn't obviously distinguishable from a mined blue.

As for direct sellers of synthetics, you may be able to get a pricing sheet if you write or call SCIO, though they just fired their Chairman, CEO, and CFO on Monday, so who knows what's going on with them... Also they don't do blue.

 

[EEFranklin]

Any jeweler (online or off) who sells you a Chatham stone will be a Chatham dealer. If you have a jeweler already in mind for the ring, it is worth asking them if they can source the diamond for you, and if not, ask what their policy is for setting a stone you provide. It would surprise me if a random jeweler had a blue lab diamond in-stock, but most can source one for you from a producer.

A standard fancy blue is fine, maybe even a fancy light blue; anything deeper will look like a fake diamond or possibly an irradiated diamond.

If your goal is to have it look most similar to a white diamond, fancy light blue is about as saturated as you'll want it to be (sky blue color with lots of white light return). However, all of the primary blue saturations, including fancy vivid blue, still sparkle like you expect a diamond to, except they have blue color in addition to white/colorless. Most people have a preference between low, medium or high saturation, but they all look like diamonds and none look irradiated.

FYI, D.NEA is AOTC's retail brand. They are both the same company and people.

 

[luckystrike]

Thanks for the replies...she definitely likes a lighter hue (hence her liking blue topaz initially) so i defnitely won't be going the super saturated/irradiated route. Sounds like just finding a jeweler that's got the setting I want and then getting them to source the chatham stone is likely the way to go for me.

 

[GeorgeStevens]

Eric can't say this himself, so I will. If you want a lab-grown blue with a particular setting, you should browse his inventory and give him a call to see what he can do with regard to the setting - they can do custom stuff. Asking a jeweler to source a stone is going to add a mark-up, and the jeweler might not have any clue what they're doing when it comes to colored stones in general, much less a niche market like man-made FCDs.