| To understand what gives a diamond both its panache and its price, you must begin with the 4 Cs: Cut, Color, Clarity, and Carat Weight. |
Cut |
| Cut is a diamond's most complex feature as represented by three different characteristics, brightness, fire, and scintillation. Brightness refers to the light reflected by the diamond. The less light, the less brilliance. Fire refers to the sparks of color seen within the stone as the light breaks into the colors of the spectrum. While fire is essential to a diamond's beauty, too much will cause it to look like a cubic zirconia. Scintillation refers to a diamond's sparkle, the little flashes of light caused by movement. The interchange of these three aesthetic elements, brightness, fire, and scintillation, is achieved by the cutter's ability to render symmetry, proportion, and polish in the diamond. While nature provides a starting point for a diamond's final cut, the artist is the one who unlocks the beautiful gem beneath the raw stone. The skilled craftsman will know exactly how wide and deep to cut a stone and what angle to positions its facets in order to maximize its reflected light and thereby its brilliance. The Gemological Institute of America (GIA) has developed a Cut Grading System to determine objectively how well a diamond is cut, grading from excellent to poor. Not surprisingly, the higher the grading, the more valuable the diamond. |
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| A diamond's shape is commonly confused with its cuts. Shape simply refers to a diamond's geometric configuration. The most common shape characterizing the vast majority of diamonds is round, usually featuring 57 or 58 facets. Fancy shapes include emerald, heart, marquise, oval, pear, princess, radiant, and trillion. |
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Color |
| In the spectrum of color, white diamonds are more highly prized. The closer a diamond is to colorless or white, the greater its value. The GIA has created a scale to evaluate a diamond's color, starting with D (colorless) and ending with Z (light yellow or brown). Although whiter diamonds are rated higher, some consumers prefer diamonds with a little yellow to warm up the stone's overall appearance. Diamonds which exceed Z on the color scale fall into the category of "fancy color" and are even more costly per carat than completely colorless diamonds simply because they occur less frequently. Diamonds come in a wide array of colors the most popular of which today are pink, yellow, and blue. Brilliance and fire are not as significant for these gems as it is for their colorless counterparts. Rather, color intensity is paramount. |
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Clarity |
| Clarity refers to a diamond's flawlessness. Most diamonds contain some imperfections known as inclusions and blemishes. Inclusions are found within the diamond as crystals (irregularly shaped, trapped minerals) and feathers (small fractures). Blemishes occur on the diamond's exterior as scratches and pits. While most of these flaws insignificantly impact a diamond's beauty, a truly perfect diamond is so rare that it is correspondingly more costly. The GIA measures clarity through its Diamond Grading System from F (Flawless) to I3 (Prominent Inclusions) under 10x magnification viewed by a trained professional. Jewelers can actually correct some flaws though full disclosure to the customer is expected by reputable retailers. Laser drilling and fracture filling are two ways to improve clarity. The GIA does, however, regard these two methods differently. Laser drilling with an accompanying acid wash used to treat color inclusions is an accepted way to achieve a higher GIA clarity grade. On the other hand, fracture filling cannot produce a higher clarity grade due to the filling agent's impermanence compared with the diamond itself. Fracture filled diamonds are therefore sold at greatly reduced prices. |
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Carat Weight |
| A carat is the unit used to measure the weight of a diamond. It is 1/5 of a gram and is subdivided into points which are 1/100 of a carat. While carat weight might seem to be the most objective feature of a diamond, the belief that "bigger is better" is not necessarily the case. In fact, an individual diamond's value consists in the relationship between its carat weight and its more complicated counterpart, cut. A large but poorly cut gem will only feature the diamond's flaws more prominently and carry a lower value. This is one of the great challenges faced by cutters, preserving the diamond's weight without compromising its cut. However, when all other features are equal, heavier diamonds will cost more. In particular, each full carat unit represents a significant demarcation in a diamond's value. A 0.99 carat diamond will cost significantly less than a 1.0 carat diamond, as diamond values increase exponentially with weight, not numerically. As further example, two half carat diamonds with equivalent cut, color, and clarity to a full carat diamond would not cost the same amount. |
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| A diamond's aesthetic appeal is actually measurable. Grasping the interchange between these 4 Cs helps to explain the enduring value and unparalleled dazzle of diamonds. |
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