I was just going to message you once I got home about this dilemma lol! I alway try to learn from your posts when you break down jewelry. I think i really started to understand now what is the line between playing name brand for something and what the piece is actually worth.. Like for instance the blue jazz ring- material wise vs. the name- is it worth in your eyes to get the Tiffany one or to have it custom
Made and get another signature item. I guess the question I'm asking myself is what is most worth it's price? Idk if I'm making sense... This is what happens when I don't have my coffee !
Well, "worth" is personal. To many, especially on here, it is. To others, it's not. I have found that many of their bands are not all that overpriced in some cases. Well, assuming they quit the price increases all the time. Their plain bands are insanely overpriced for what they are... But in terms of the ones with stones: Workmanship and materials on the ones I linked is worth it, I think, because the amount of work that goes into the setting of those stones, you're not going to pay all that much less elsewhere. An example is the channel set band and the Jazz band, and the Bezet band. Those are done very well by Tiffany, uniform bezels are very hard to do, and they are well executed. In terms of the sapphire one, they are very nice sapphires, very nice color saturation and not overly included stones, well matched for color and cut. That is not easy to do and not a lot of jewelers will take the time to do that work. The finishing on their bands is VERY nice, very buttery. They do a lot of work to make them live up to the reputation, which does to me give them a lot of value. The channel sets are fantastic, and not many do a channel set as nicely with such narrow channels or as uniformly. I actually wish I wasn't such a nut about my stuff, because I loved that full eternity, but for my life, it's just so impractical.
I do think some of the others are ridiculously overpriced, though, like their shared prong bands for example. They do them well, I just think others do them equally well for substantially less money and I cannot figure out why they price them so ridiculously high other than "because they can".
The Martin Flyer band I had prior to this Tiffany I own now cost almost $1200 MORE than I paid for this Tiffany, for less carat weight and was thinner. I was not pleased with the workmanship, but the amount of detail it took to set those tiny stones, that's a lot of time they're paying that setter for. And that time isn't cheap. But certainly not $3500 worth for that band! That band, at most, should have cost me $1800. At most. They charged double that. And it was NOT worth it to me. Maybe if it had been done correctly I might feel it was better spent..but still overpriced.
