Poll: Lab or Natural Gems for Engagement Rings

Which precious gem type would you go for an engagement ring?

  • 1) Natural (Earth's own creation over time)

    Votes: 58 55.2%

  • 2) Lab Created (Man's tech and knowledge in a tiny package)

    Votes: 17 16.2%

  • 3) Coal (Pressures of marriage will turn that into a gem eventually)

    Votes: 30 28.6%
  • Total voters
    105
Greebo said:
Yeah my mate did that while we were on a stag do in Belgium, we went to Antwerp and picked a diamond out in the diamond district. Quite a few carats from memory and price seemed good.

It does amaze me that obviously size matters with diamonds but clarity, colour, defects and even cut matter much more to the final price.

We were shown perfectly similar diamonds to my eyes yet the price was double!

Most people cant tell a few grades in colour different and a fortune can be saved picking say one from G to I over D to F.

And some people prefer the more coloured diamonds which are the cheapest as well.

Same with inclusions. You can buy diamonds with inclusions which cant be seen to the human eye without magnification which cost 6 times less than "flawness" diamonds. If you cant see the bloody faults, apart from you knowing they are there from the certificate, does it matter?

To be fair, if I was buying a diamond engagement ring today, id go to somewhere like Antwerp and select the diamond and then get the ring made later to her design.

I did that with a necklace for the gf many years ago. She picked out a 6 carat sapphire and then she drew the design of the necklace in white gold. We collected it a few weeks later. The jewellers liked it so much they asked if they could make the design and put it on sale. She should have got commission!
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Proper coloured diamonds (as opposed to "off clear/colour" diamonds) cost far more than normal diamonds.
 
For those suggesting the market decides the value of diamonds try selling a second hand diamond, suddenly the several thousand pound stone that you bought from de beers is now worth something well under half that.
 
Abraham said:
For those suggesting the market decides the value of diamonds try selling a second hand diamond, suddenly the several thousand pound stone that you bought from de beers is now worth something well under half that.
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Which is the market decided value. You agreed to pay 7000 for the stone. Other people see it only worth 3000. :)
 
Quartz said:
OP, do you have a ring of historical interest, like the ring with which your grandfather proposed to your grandmother?
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Nothing quite as fancy unfortunately.
I should check with her nan but that will probably give the secret away, she cant keep secrets!

Muz333 said:
Go to an auction house and get something second hand. I used to work in an auction house so that was the way I done it. You're money will go a lot further!
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Does auction house sell them verified our do they tend to go based on WYSIWYG?
 
Mr Jones said:
Can a mod create a poll for me?

Which precious gem type would you go for an engagement ring?
1) Natural (Earth's own creation over time)
2) Lab Created (Man's tech and knowledge in a tiny package)
3) Coal (Pressures of marriage will turn that into a gem eventually)

Basically it's time for me to get down on one knee soon and I'm stumped by gems and rings. I know of the existence of man-made precious gems but to now be on the purchasing end of it, I am rather confused.

On the one hand, natural precious gem makes it flawed (nothing is perfect), but it took years, century, even millennia for these gems to form. The money spend on it represents the time it took to form naturally, to be dug, shaped and polished into the end product. The title of 'natural' gem as opposed to the general myth of "fake". Possibility of conflict gems, which is hard to proof unless buying certified ones.

On another hand, there's lab created gems that is almost always perfect and as a product, encompass the knowledge of Man's understanding of nature and building the technology to create one at will. The price is certainly cheaper but it also allows for bigger gem. No chance of conflict gems.

So which route did you go down, natural, lab created or you just bought it because it's shiny / what you could afford / WTF is a gem?
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intersting how you exclude all the time it took man to reach this point which is also milenia :p
 
Greebo said:
Which is the market decided value. You agreed to pay 7000 for the stone. Other people see it only worth 3000. :)
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People were suggesting the original sale prices were market decided because people will pay it. It's a controlled price and a controlled market, even second hand diamonds are a restricted market because De Beers need to keep up the illusion that people should buy new diamonds and how much they *should* spend on them
 
Always wondered why it had to be ring, also i should remark that the ring on the man was nothing more than American Marketing, hilarious really.
 
Angilion said:
The most romantic material is obviously concrete. It's durable and it's a strong foundation for building on - perfect symbolism.

Although there's a slight possibility that I might be getting this romance thing a bit wrong :)
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Might work as a good single unit knuckle duster!

StriderX said:
Always wondered why it had to be ring, also i should remark that the ring on the man was nothing more than American Marketing, hilarious really.
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We're both in the food industry, so no rings in factory.

Tattooing my finger as a symbol have crossed my mind but that's to be discussed later.
 
StriderX said:
Always wondered why it had to be ring, also i should remark that the ring on the man was nothing more than American Marketing, hilarious really.
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Not true. It is only in the latter part of the 19th century that more than a small minority of grooms started to wear rings.

World War II is considered to have heralded a seismic shift, as many Western men fighting overseas chose to wear wedding rings as a comforting reminder of their wives and families back home.

By the mid century it was the "norm" for men to wear wedding rings.
 
Greebo said:
Not true. It is only in the latter part of the 19th century that more than a small minority of grooms started to wear rings.

World War II is considered to have heralded a seismic shift, as many Western men fighting overseas chose to wear wedding rings as a comforting reminder of their wives and families back home.

By the mid century it was the "norm" for men to wear wedding rings.
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Nice try, it was the jewelry industry! :D
 
Abraham said:
People were suggesting the original sale prices were market decided because people will pay it. It's a controlled price and a controlled market, even second hand diamonds are a restricted market because De Beers need to keep up the illusion that people should buy new diamonds and how much they *should* spend on them
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You are right, it is a controlled market. I'm sure i read somewhere with the plentiful supply of natural diamonds and man made ones now the "true" price of diamonds should be no more than glass if the supply floodgates were opened.

But then most markets are to a degree, look at petrol.

Still doesn't stop the theory though that if everybody stopped wanting diamonds and refused to pay the silly prices for them, the price would drop.
 
StriderX said:
Nice try, it was the jewelry industry! :D
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Well i'm not saying it wasnt a clever marketing ploy during world war 2 but the fact remains thats when it became popular.

Although google shows now mention of the Jewellery industry pushing this. However, there is lots of mention of De Beers pushing diamond engagement rings from 1938 onwards when diamond engagement rings had particularity disappeared
 
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I just bought an engagement ring for my partner, oddly enough we found it online together. It wasn't planned, we were just looking at rings so I had an idea as to what to buy and she fell in love with a handmade white gold and sapphire ring designed by a biochemist in America, had it resized and shipped over.

I'm now in the process of planning a Paris proposal. Bricking it.
 
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