My own personal search for a ring didn''t lead me to one of the big Fifth Avenue stores, but I did drop in over the weekend to check out what they had to offer. The prices were high across the board, of course, but service and quality varied. Anyway, I thought this little ''report'' might be interesting to some.
1. Cartier. Very snooty, and bizarre sales tactics. I and a few other well-dressed men were completely ignored in the bridal section. The only customers given attention were an older couple and a group of high school girls gaggling over which ring was ''theirs''. One particularly bratty young lady asked in all seriousness to view the ring she''d certainly be getting in a few years. I can appreciate a young woman''s excitement over a future engagement ring, but excitement and entitlement are not the same thing. At any rate, you''d think a sales associate would be eager to speak to men standing around in the bridal area who are probably itching to get a rock and get out of there.
At any rate, back to the rings. ~$69,000 buys you a 2.02 carat F VS1 Asscher-cut in a art deco setting with pave. Very pricey, but the quality of the setting was excellent. Very nicely detailed, and very nice pave. Milgrain was very, very fine and evenly applied. All the settings for engagement rings are done in New York City. They didn''t know what a ''Royal Asscher'' is; one sales woman told me in a very condescending tone of voice: "Asscher is a cut, not a brand." I went on to explain the ongoing existence of the Asscher family and their new patented cut, but she just gave me a blank stare and responded: "Yes, well I''ve never heard of it." Well, then.
2. Harry Winston. Very friendly and very impressive store. There''s a very small front room with ''public'' display cases. Only a handful of rings are on display; the rest are in a vault and can be brought out to view upon request. When you walk in, a sales associate greets you with a smile and asks if you''d like to speak to someone privately in the much larger, ''private'' room. You sign in, and someone promptly takes you to meet with your private consultant. The private area has a dozen or so desks where you sit down to have your consultation. You then talk about what you''re looking for and they bring you examples to look at and compare. Prices are high, but I don''t remember anything in particular.
Harry Winston is the only one of the major stores on Fifth Avenue that does micro-pave extensively. The micro-pave looks similar to Leon Mege''s and they also use double claw prongs a lot . . . hmm. I personally liked that their rings tend less toward the antique/art deco look and are usually pretty simple in form. Not even a hint of snobbiness. The man I consulted with, however, did make the dubious claim that they haven''t lost a micro-pave stone yet.
Apparently, they really don''t sell many Asscher-cut diamonds, so they don''t bother stocking them. I was told that Asscher-cuts have proven a tough sell given their smaller face-up size.
The most personal and lavish shopping experience of the four. I can certainly see the appeal of buying from here.
3. Van Cleef & Arpels. Very friendly, like Harry Winston. Very small engagement ring collection; and very, very expensive. A 2.02 carat E VVS2 Asscher-cut diamond in plain platinum setting was over $70,000. Apparently, they only carry D-E-F and IF-through-VS2 diamonds. A nice sales woman sat down and showed me everything with great patience; she even pulled up the GIA report in .pdf format on the computer for me. Unfortunately, the selection here is really sparce; they will theoretically do custom work, but only on rare and exceptional stones. As a general guideline I was told that ''rare and exceptional'' meant at least 5 carats. Then, after you''re stone has qualified, you get to pay the $25,000 commission fee (separate from labor and materials).
4. Tiffanys. My least favorite store of the four. The store itself is loaded with tourists and both floors (are there more than two?) have a distinctly department store feel. It''s a giant open space with stations for different categories of jewelry. There''s no way to make a private purchase here. No one came to help me or offered assistance, but when I asked for it, I got it.
~$33,500 buys you a 1.6 carat F VS1 cushion cut diamond in the Legacy setting (halo, pave part way down shank) with G-color pave. For ~$44,000, you get the same setting with a 2.02 carat H VS2 cushion cut diamond. Very pricey, particularly considering that the quality of the setting was pretty unimpressive: the halo does not have set sides, instead curving downward toward a milgrain edge, the milgrain was not evenly applied on both rings I saw (you could see a bit of waviness in the edges of the halos), and one ring had a deep scratch under the halo. I understand a delicate ring can be preferable, but these felt rather tinny in comparison to the settings I''ve seen at Cartier and Leon Mege''s atelier.
They offered to put the rings I was interested in on hold and were very eager to answer my questions. However, there was no GIA report readily available. I was told I might be able to get one if I really wanted.
I understand that all of these stores mass-produce thousands and thousands of engagement rings, but Tiffany''s did the worst job of hiding that fact. It''s just awkward to advertise the unique and antique styling of the Legacy ring, and then show two dozen of them in the same display case. A big turn-off if you want to maintain the self-illusion that your ring is stylistically unique.
1. Cartier. Very snooty, and bizarre sales tactics. I and a few other well-dressed men were completely ignored in the bridal section. The only customers given attention were an older couple and a group of high school girls gaggling over which ring was ''theirs''. One particularly bratty young lady asked in all seriousness to view the ring she''d certainly be getting in a few years. I can appreciate a young woman''s excitement over a future engagement ring, but excitement and entitlement are not the same thing. At any rate, you''d think a sales associate would be eager to speak to men standing around in the bridal area who are probably itching to get a rock and get out of there.
At any rate, back to the rings. ~$69,000 buys you a 2.02 carat F VS1 Asscher-cut in a art deco setting with pave. Very pricey, but the quality of the setting was excellent. Very nicely detailed, and very nice pave. Milgrain was very, very fine and evenly applied. All the settings for engagement rings are done in New York City. They didn''t know what a ''Royal Asscher'' is; one sales woman told me in a very condescending tone of voice: "Asscher is a cut, not a brand." I went on to explain the ongoing existence of the Asscher family and their new patented cut, but she just gave me a blank stare and responded: "Yes, well I''ve never heard of it." Well, then.
2. Harry Winston. Very friendly and very impressive store. There''s a very small front room with ''public'' display cases. Only a handful of rings are on display; the rest are in a vault and can be brought out to view upon request. When you walk in, a sales associate greets you with a smile and asks if you''d like to speak to someone privately in the much larger, ''private'' room. You sign in, and someone promptly takes you to meet with your private consultant. The private area has a dozen or so desks where you sit down to have your consultation. You then talk about what you''re looking for and they bring you examples to look at and compare. Prices are high, but I don''t remember anything in particular.
Harry Winston is the only one of the major stores on Fifth Avenue that does micro-pave extensively. The micro-pave looks similar to Leon Mege''s and they also use double claw prongs a lot . . . hmm. I personally liked that their rings tend less toward the antique/art deco look and are usually pretty simple in form. Not even a hint of snobbiness. The man I consulted with, however, did make the dubious claim that they haven''t lost a micro-pave stone yet.
Apparently, they really don''t sell many Asscher-cut diamonds, so they don''t bother stocking them. I was told that Asscher-cuts have proven a tough sell given their smaller face-up size.
The most personal and lavish shopping experience of the four. I can certainly see the appeal of buying from here.
3. Van Cleef & Arpels. Very friendly, like Harry Winston. Very small engagement ring collection; and very, very expensive. A 2.02 carat E VVS2 Asscher-cut diamond in plain platinum setting was over $70,000. Apparently, they only carry D-E-F and IF-through-VS2 diamonds. A nice sales woman sat down and showed me everything with great patience; she even pulled up the GIA report in .pdf format on the computer for me. Unfortunately, the selection here is really sparce; they will theoretically do custom work, but only on rare and exceptional stones. As a general guideline I was told that ''rare and exceptional'' meant at least 5 carats. Then, after you''re stone has qualified, you get to pay the $25,000 commission fee (separate from labor and materials).
4. Tiffanys. My least favorite store of the four. The store itself is loaded with tourists and both floors (are there more than two?) have a distinctly department store feel. It''s a giant open space with stations for different categories of jewelry. There''s no way to make a private purchase here. No one came to help me or offered assistance, but when I asked for it, I got it.
~$33,500 buys you a 1.6 carat F VS1 cushion cut diamond in the Legacy setting (halo, pave part way down shank) with G-color pave. For ~$44,000, you get the same setting with a 2.02 carat H VS2 cushion cut diamond. Very pricey, particularly considering that the quality of the setting was pretty unimpressive: the halo does not have set sides, instead curving downward toward a milgrain edge, the milgrain was not evenly applied on both rings I saw (you could see a bit of waviness in the edges of the halos), and one ring had a deep scratch under the halo. I understand a delicate ring can be preferable, but these felt rather tinny in comparison to the settings I''ve seen at Cartier and Leon Mege''s atelier.
They offered to put the rings I was interested in on hold and were very eager to answer my questions. However, there was no GIA report readily available. I was told I might be able to get one if I really wanted.
I understand that all of these stores mass-produce thousands and thousands of engagement rings, but Tiffany''s did the worst job of hiding that fact. It''s just awkward to advertise the unique and antique styling of the Legacy ring, and then show two dozen of them in the same display case. A big turn-off if you want to maintain the self-illusion that your ring is stylistically unique.