Famed for the range and calibre of jewellers that call it home, London’s Hatton Garden is known as the city’s Jewellery Quarter. At Regal, we’re proud to be part of this historic jewellery community, a top destination for those seeking engagement rings, wedding rings, fine jewellery and diamonds. However, our aim is to offer the best of Hatton Garden to everyone, no matter your location, with our fabulous service, jewellery guide, and bespoke ordering options we have available online.
Hatton Garden jewellers offer some of the country’s top gemologists to make sure you can find the best diamonds for your budget. We’ve compiled this diamond jewellery guide with the help of our gem specialists at Regal, so whether you can visit us in store or not, you can learn the tips to make sure the best diamonds are within your reach for your engagement ring, wedding ring or fine jewellery.
1. Some diamond shapes look bigger than they are
The size a diamond looks isn’t always in direct relation to the carat weight. And this is really worth keeping in mind to make sure you get the look you want, without splashing out on a larger stone. Diamonds that have a longer shape come with the benefit of sometimes costing a little less than a round brilliant cut diamond, and they can appear slightly larger on the finger making them a great choice for engagement rings.
Good shapes to look out for are pear-cut, oval, marquise (a point at both ends), or rectangular radiant cut diamonds. When worn in the likes of an engagement ring, these stones appear to take up more space on the finger and hence look bigger, also any jewellery guide will tell you elongated stones are very finger flattering - so there is a double benefit!
2. Maximise impact with your ring design
The design of an engagement ring can have a dramatic effect on how big the diamonds will look. Things to consider for your ring design are the thickness of the band, using a halo setting or cluster of stones, or alternatively investing your money in the largest stone available and opting for a single diamond solitaire ring design.
A thin and dainty ring band will accentuate the size of the diamond, along with using slender and fewer prongs in the setting. A design like this will make the stone the star and can be the best diamond setting for solitaire rings.
Multiple small stones will cost less per weight than one single stone, so halo settings with a larger diamond surrounded by smaller stones is not only exceptionally pretty, but it gives more presence to the ring making the overall appearance that of a larger diamond ring. Similarly, grouping a few smaller stones together in a cluster design will give the same result.
3. Compromise a little on colour and clarity
Diamonds are graded on the Four C’s - Cut, Colour, Clarity and Carat. Making a slight compromise on colour and clarity will allow you to gain in carats. Diamonds are finely graded, with the best diamonds having no trace of colour and no flaws. However, a slight trace of colour and tiny flaws may not be noticeable to anyone but an expert and will still look beautiful in engagement rings and jewellery.
When it comes to cut however, our Hatton Garden gemologists advise to go for the best cut you can afford, as that is what will give the diamond its sparkle and lustre, and no matter how big a diamond, if it doesn’t sparkle it just isn’t doing it’s job.
4. The beauty of brilliant cut diamonds
And that previous point brings us to discuss brilliant cut diamonds. The more your diamond sparkles, the more it will be noticed and appear larger than it is. Brilliant cuts are designed to bounce every glint of light in the stone, creating a super sparkly diamond. For our jewellery guide, our experts told us the best diamonds for sparkle will have a cut grade of ‘Excellent’ through to ‘Very Good’.
5. Consider lab-grown diamonds
When seeking the best diamonds for your engagement ring, don’t overlook the beauty of lab grown diamonds. Engagement rings don’t need to be mined diamonds alone. For a statement ring, a lab grown diamond cost 75% less than mined diamonds alone – and offer a unique and sophisticated look.
We’re Always Here to Help
Shopping for your dream engagement ring, wedding ring or diamond and gemstone jewellery can be daunting, but with the help of this jewellery guide from our experts, hopefully you can feel a little more confident in finding the best diamonds for you.
We are always available to answer questions, so feel free to make an appointment to visit our showroom, send an email or give us a call. Hatton Garden is the ultimate jewellery shopping experience for engagement rings and jewellery, and we aim to bring that to you however we can.
