Ever wondered why round diamonds are the most popular diamond shapes in the world of diamond jewellery. Although there are plethora of fancy shapes to choose from such as the cushion-cut, oval, pear, the princess-cut and more, it is always the round diamonds that catch the imagination of solitaire diamond shoppers. It’s not that people don’t choose fancy shapes over round solitaire diamonds, but that’s never before they have satiated their craving for rounds.
Be it a diamond engagement ring, anniversary ring or a piece of diamond jewellery that one can wear to work; the round solitaire diamonds are always the first choice. Let’s find out what makes it everyone’s favourite.
Round is brilliant, here’s why?
It has the highest number of facets and it sure sparkles the most
While choosing a solitaire diamond you will first and foremost, look for the sparkle of the diamond. Little wonder your eyes will always settle on a round solitaire diamond. There is a simple but scientific reason behind that brilliant and blinding sparkle. It’s the way the stone is cut- it’s called the brilliant cut!
A brilliant cut is rendered to stones that can have multiple facets. That way the cut maximizes the brilliance of the stone. Round diamonds have 57 such facets and if you include the culet then it becomes 58. Round diamonds have the highest number of facets amongst all diamonds.
Each of these 58 facets is symmetrically aligned to allow proper refraction and reflection of light. The brilliant cut combined with the scintillating light performance gives round solitaire diamond the epithet round ‘brilliant’. This, however, does not mean that people completely avoid fancy-shaped diamonds all the time.
Extravagant beauty for a price
Don’t we all have budgets? Which makes us think, are round diamonds more expensive than the other shapes? And the answer is yes.
The cutting of round solitaire diamonds generally lead to a lot of waste from the rough diamond. To some extent, a highly-skilled diamond cutter may reduce some of the wastage. But this is what makes round cut solitaire diamonds more expensive than other fancy-shaped diamonds.
‘CUT’ your budgets
If you choose it right, you can still get the best sparkle at an affordable cost. To get maximum value for your solitaire diamond’s purchase, be sure you focus on the ‘cut’ more than all other parameters in the 4Cs of a diamond. Those include cut, clarity, colour and carat.
This means that if your round solitaire diamond has an excellent cut, the fire and brilliance of such a stone can conceal a hint of colour or a negligible inclusion.
Which means, as long as the cut grade is excellent or above excellent (also mentioned in the certificate), there is flexibility of choice between all other parameters.
Now go ahead and choose from a variety of beautiful combinations to fit your pocket without comprising a wee bit on the sparkle. Knowing very well a slight adjustment to the colour and clarity will only limit the spend and not the beauty and sparkle of the stone.
Brilliant Tip for selecting the best ‘CUT’ diamond:
An important indicator of a perfect round solitaire is the Hearts & Arrows pattern.
Next time when you are visiting a store, with the help of a Hearts & Arrows viewer, see a pattern of 8 hearts and 8 arrows inside perfectly cut round diamonds. While the Hearts & Arrows are a mark of the most perfect and precise cut, many ideal cut or excellent cut (terminologies used for diamonds that are perfectly proportioned to give the optimum sparkle to a stone) diamonds may not have this pattern.
