When a customer comes to me with a request to have a piece of jewelry made, let’s say an engagement ring with a 1 carat diamond, my foremost task is to figure out exactly what will make this particular customer happy. After all, we are all different and what is important to one person is secondary to what is important to another. Therefore, we first talk about the appearance of the jewelry – an entirely personal thing, where I do my best to find out what the recipient of the ring likes and then suggest versions that hit just their taste. We draw and talk until we have come up with the right and unique design that needs to be created in the workshop. And then we talk about the diamond.
How much does a 1 carat diamond cost?
NOTE – All prices in this article are calculated in 2017 and are therefore outdated.
It is rare that my clients are completely indifferent to the cost of the finished jewelry, and this pain threshold can be located in many different places. Therefore, I always ask what the budget is and what criteria are important to this particular client. Here is a very simplified overview of what a 1 carat diamond typically costs in different qualities:
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A 1 carat diamond can be purchased for under 10,000 kr. Then it is black and dramatic.
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A champagne-colored or piqueret diamond (i.e., with many visible impurities) can be purchased for under 30,000 kr.
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If the diamond is to be ”white” (i.e., without color) and ”clean” (i.e., with only very few impurities that can only be seen with the naked eye), the price for a W/SI2 starts at around 78,000 kr.
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A beautiful and clean diamond with a TW/VVS grading will cost just under 115,000kr.
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And of course there are also the very rare River/IF – they cost a bit more
Champagne-colored diamonds in the qualities from C2 to C5
No two diamonds are alike
Diamonds are as unique as we humans are. We have, of course, developed a classification system to assess them according to, but each individual diamond combines the criteria differently as long as they are created from mother earth. That means that if you ask for a 1 carat diamond with the approximate specifications W/VS for a given budget, you will still be offered diamonds that are slightly different – perhaps a TW color, an SI clarity, but with an absolutely stunning cut (which can make all the difference). It is up to the individual customer to assess which diamond they think is the most beautiful.
Read more about diamonds and how to grade them (the so-called 4 C’s) here
To the left (the white gold ring) you can see a 1 carat diamond with the quality Wesselton Si2. The ring on the right is with a green sapphire – the possibilities are therefore many and colorful when you have your ring designed specifically.
How to buy a diamond
When you order a jewelry piece with a diamond of a certain size, it always happens in the following way:
Get the big diamond a little cheaper
A 1 carat diamond is not cheap, but you can get a diamond that looks the same to the untrained eye if you are willing to give up the beloved 1-digit. We humans really like round numbers – it just seems more appealing to say ”it’s a 1 carat diamond”. But for the same reason, exactly that size is incredibly sought after and therefore relatively expensive. But if you choose a 0.9 carat diamond (which is 6 mm in diameter instead of 6.5 mm), it suddenly becomes much cheaper! Here is a price example:
1 carat TW/VVS – 113,000 kr
0.9 carat TW/VVS – 91,000 kr
Specially designed handmade engagement ring made of 18k white gold and featuring a 1 carat diamond. This diamond is champagne colored/grayish with distinct inclusions. This diamond will cost approximately 15,000 Kr. The stone is admittedly not “white”, but in real life it sparkles almost as beautifully as the much finer and more expensive versions – but with significantly more personality than, for example, a TW/VVS diamond.
Creating a specially designed diamond ring is a fantastic experience, and we will do our utmost to ensure that you feel comfortable and well informed throughout the entire process. If you feel inspired to have your own diamond jewelry designed (even a smaller one can be beautiful), please feel free to book a free and non-binding design meeting today.
NOTE: The price examples are from September 11, 2017
If you’d like to read more about how to ensure that the gold has the carat (with a K!) that the goldsmith claims, you can continue reading. here.
If 1 carat is good, is 2 carat twice as good? This is a special version of the Hiding Heart series, created in rose gold and fitted with a W/SI2 carat diamond of 2 carats in total. By the way, you can also see a white gold version from the same Hiding Heart series with a 0.5 carat on the very first image in this article.
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