Round to fancy cut, shape of a diamond does matter

Think of diamond and the image of a sparkling round stone crops up in your mind. However, the trend among diamond consumers in the country and abroad, especially in the US, Hong Kong, UAE and China is fast changing as far as a diamond's shape is concerned.

Diamond consumers have now begun to drift away from traditional round and princess-cut diamonds towards shapes such as pears, heart, radiant, ovals, marquise, emerald, asscher and cushion.

Diamantaires in the world's biggest diamond cutting and polishing centre in Surat say rounds are considered expensive and with their relatively lower prices, fancies offer buyers bigger pieces for less money.

Gujarat Heera Bourse (GHB) secretary Praveen Nanavaty, a leading diamantaire, told TOI, "Fancy cut diamonds are in high demand in the world markets. Earlier, round diamonds were ruling the global market. Now, out of 10 pieces of diamonds sold in the world, two are fancy cut diamonds."

Fancy shaped diamonds are less expensive. Manufacturing fancy cut diamonds requires less precision compared to the rounds and that the wastage is relatively much less.

The global polished diamond market is pegged at $60 billion per annum. While round and princess-cut are most popular, fancy cut diamonds have a $10 billion worth of market.

Nanavaty said fancy shaped rough diamonds from the mines are assorted as per their shapes. While there is 70 per cent wastage in processing round-cuts, fancy-cuts have a lesser wastage of 10 to 15 per cent. On the contrary, the time, skill and per piece wages required for cutting and polishing the fancy-cuts are much less than the round-cuts.

Surat's diamond industry is the world leader in manufacturing fancy-cuts. About 80 per cent of fancy cut diamonds - 10 out of the eight fancy cut diamonds - in the world are supplied by the diamantaires here.

"The fancy cuts like cushion, emerald, marquise, princess etc. are really in fashion as more people in the world want them even though they are less common in the market. Even people prefer fancy cuts in the wedding rings in US, China and Indian markets," said Rakesh Gandhi, a leading diamantaire dealing in fancy cut stones.

-www.timesofindia.com

Hasenfeld-Stein Gets FireMark Princess Cut Patent

DTC Sightholder Hasenfeld-Stein received a U.S. patent for their FireMark Princess Cut Diamond.

U.S. Patent No. 8,181,482 protects FireMark’s characteristics that result in its brilliance and light return of 98 percent.

“We’ve always said there is no other Princess diamond in the world like FireMark, and now, with the newly issued Patent, it’s somewhat humbling to think there won’t be another like it for a very long time to come,” said Vice President Hertz Hasenfeld.

FireMark is the first Princess diamond in the world that rivals an Ideal Round in brilliance and light return, the company claims.

“After years of trial and error, we determined that the combination of a higher crown, smaller table and shallower depth dramatically impacts the diamond’s light performance,” explained Hasenfeld. A FireMark’s crown averages between 9.5 and 13.5 percent; the table is a maximum 68 percent (averaging 65 percent), and the depth is a maximum 70.9 percent (averaging 68 percent).

Other characteristics that distinguish a FireMark are:
GIA “Excellent” in both polish and symmetry
GCAL “Excellent” in light performance
Minimum 95 percent light return (average 98 percent)
Maximum length and width ratio of 1.025
Chamfered corners that are invisible to the naked eye

Hasenfeld also expressed how important the patent is to the growing number of exclusive FireMark retail jewelers. “It protects our exclusive retailers against competitors making false claims, and it makes a strong statement that FireMark retailers are selling real value.”

FireMark Princess Cut Diamonds are available to independent retailers only. They are not available online or sold in major U.S. chains and mass merchandisers.

http://www.idexonline.com/