I reserved a pair of studs for 1.5 weeks, I hope I will catch up with the know until then.
Although I don't think Tiffany will provide any information on table and depth.
Tiffany will provide that information upon request, though it depends generally on the size. One thing you can do in the event that they cannot or will not on such sizes of stones, buy an IdealScope online or an H&A Viewer online and bring that with you to look at the stones in person. That will give a quick yay or nay on the stones without going through too much drama getting certs/numbers.
Thank you Ame!
I guess the small stones at Tiffany's are not AGS graded.
What you say makes totally sense: today when I looked at the stones (some 4-prongs, some bezel-setting), they were not all stunning. Some where, many where, but not all.
And it seemed to me as if the VS1 stones in the bezel setting pleased my eye more than the VVS1 in the prong-setting.
I will have to learn my lesson to be more educated and I definitely will not buy a stone without a certificate.
Though I will have to check at what size the certificates are available. I guess there is a min. ct size for that.
You are also right about the brand: it does give me security. Probably also because the first studs I tried there were far above other studs I had tried at the jeweller. One could say I am still on the hunt for the best place for diamonds in Vienna. And I will trust my eyes. And of course my heart: If the heart doesn't jump, it's not right!
May I ask: when you've bought online, did you ever return an item?
I have! I actually sent back and forth 4 diamonds with GOG before we settled on this one, and then I ended up flying out there anyway. But prior to that I bought and returned several items, diamonds and jewelry. It's not fast or always cheap, but as long as you send it USPS Registered when the vendor doesn't supply an insured UPS/FedEx option, its great. Just be sure it's insured somehow for full value.
I don't know if there's an Infinity dealer in Vienna, I know there are a few in Europe. I know Dr. Indira Marchant in UK is one. I also couldn't tell you a guesstimate on a price for such a thing there, but that would give you a chance if nothing else at seeing what a true super-ideal diamond looks like in person. Their stones are TIGHT with measurements. They vary so little from diamond to diamond. Paul Slegers is the MAN.
I bolded the key phrase in your post above. Do NOT settle. It might not seem like a massive purchase in the scheme of things, especially not to many of the folks on this forum, but you're buying diamonds and you're buying something that's frankly not cheap. You might be a millionairess but it's still money. And if you don't love it, don't spend the money.
As far as the VVS to VS correlation--the naked human eye in almost every scenario will not discern between the two. I tend to say VS1 MAYBE VS2 for most things. Earrings you can almost certainly do an SI1. Sure it's nice to have higher clarity, but it's not necessary. Rarely if ever will someone's face be so close to your ear that they can see an inclusion. lol As long as they're fantastically well cut, they'll scream amazing
My stones for my studs are SI1 and SI2. They are completely eye-clean (whether or not you can see the inclusions with your naked eye) and one is actually loupeclean. And these were not earrings I spent time weeding through stones on. I just got em at
Nordies!
To my knowledge Tiffany's does not usually obtain stones with AGS certs, if they aren't their own report it's GIA almost always. That said, many stones under half carat, and in some cases even just up to a full carat, don't get a cert from a lab like GIA or AGS. Some jewelers, tiffany included, don't think it's worth the investment of time or money unless a customer asks for it.
One thing that's good to also keep in mind, with studs especially, is finding well matched stones (visually mostly). I would hope Tiffany would make that effort, you never know.
Yes, actually I suck. I was working on a diamond FYI kind of sticky and i told Swanky Id message her when I had it ready. Well...wedding season started early and I backburnered it! I need to finish my work and then focus!
