Charles Wyndham, founder of PolishedPrices, a leading index of wholesale diamond prices, said on Friday prices of larger, rare, near-flawless gemstones had shot up by roughly 200 percent over the past 18 months.

The surge has been driven by increased interest from a growing number of multi-millionaires in emerging markets, a shortage of rough diamonds, and the dollar’s slide, he said.

Diamond jewellery prices have risen in tune with wholesale diamond prices, but fine jewellers like Graff and Cartier say demand is holding up well for top-tier diamond jewellery in upscale retail outlets on Bond Street in London and in New York.

“Sales are doing well — Cartier is a high-end business and, therefore, better protected,” Frederic de Narp, president and CEO, Cartier North America, told Reuters in June. He gave no figures. Cartier is a subsidiary of Swiss luxury goods maker Richemont.

High-end jewellers in London and New York are reporting increased traffic from foreign visitors, especially from commodity-rich countries in the Middle East, South America and eastern Europe.

The wholesale price of internally flawless 3-carat round polished diamonds has jumped to $100,000 per carat as of June 1, from $55,000 last December, according to PolishedPrices.com.

The world’s rarest polished gemstones have experienced staggering price rises in recent months. Wyndham estimated 13-carat perfect diamonds now to be worth in excess of $200,000 per carat wholesale, an all-time peak.

“If you have a perfect stone, you will get unbelievable prices,” Wyndham said.

The main PolishedPrices index, which incorporates a range of diamond categories, stood at 136.3 points this week, 6 percent above the level this time last year.

“There are signs that the high prices being paid for fine qualities are beginning to trickle down into the commercial categories, with commercial one carat diamonds also setting an all-time high,” PolishedPrices said in its latest market report.

Both the fine and commercial indices are now showing double digit growth since the start of the year.

The rapid upward momentum in diamond prices cannot carry on at the present rate.

“It is impossible for this rate of increase to be maintained,” said Wyndham, who has been in the diamond industry for over 30 years.

He was a director of the CSO, De Beers’ selling arm, before setting up his own diamond businesses in 1995.

While high net-worth individuals want to possess the most exquisite gemstones, the picture is far less buoyant for low-tier gem-quality diamonds, Wyndham said.

The sharp slowdown of the U.S. economy, the world’s leading market for diamond jewellery, has hit demand for low-end diamonds and bolstered inventories.

“As long as you’re talking about good quality diamonds, the scene has been pretty positive. However, commercial, lower end (gem-quality) diamonds have had a very rough time,” he said.

The space diamond is virtually an enormous chunk of crystallized carbon, 4,000 kilometers in diameter. The stone is located at a distance of 50 light years from Earth, in the Constellation Centaurus.

Scientists believe that the diamond is the heart of an extinct star that used to shine like the Sun. Astronomers have already dubbed the space diamond as Lucy in a tribute to the Beatles song ‘Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds.’

“You would need a jeweler’s loupe the size of the Sun to grade this diamond!” says astronomer Travis Metcalfe (Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics), who leads a team of researchers that discovered the giant gem.

The cosmic stone completely outclasses all diamonds that have ever been found on Earth. The largest diamond weighing 546 carats was found in South African Republic. The diamond, The Star of Africa, resides in the Crown Jewels of England. The Star of Africa was cut from the largest diamond ever found on Earth, a 3,100-carat gem.

Lucy, also known as BPM 37093, is actually a crystallized white dwarf. A white dwarf is the hot core of a star, left over after the star uses up its nuclear fuel and dies. It is made mostly of carbon and is coated by a thin layer of hydrogen and helium gases.

The white dwarf is not only radiant but also harmonious. It rings like a gigantic gong, undergoing constant pulsations. “By measuring those pulsations, we were able to study the hidden interior of the white dwarf, just like seismograph measurements of earthquakes allow geologists to study the interior of the Earth. We figured out that the carbon interior of this white dwarf has solidified to form the galaxy’s largest diamond,” says Metcalfe.

Astronomers say that our Sun will die in five billion years and become a white dwarf too. About two billion years after it will turn into a similar diamond that will continue to sparkle in the center of the solar system forever.

The jewel — the largest top-quality, brilliant-cut white diamond ever to appear at auction — had been valued by Sotheby’s at between $13.3 million and $17.8 million.

Marciano’s winning bid, made by telephone, came to $16,189,769 including the buyer’s premium. It was just short of the all-time auction record for a stone or piece of jewelry, a record held by the same Sotheby’s branch in Geneva for a 100.1-carat diamond that fetched $16.5 million in 1995.

“In my 32-year career, this stone ranks among the most beautiful diamonds I have ever seen,” said David Bennett, the auction house’s chairman of jewelry for Europe and the Middle East. He called it a “magnificent and unique stone.”

The diamond has received the highest possible grading, Sotheby’s said. It is D-color, or finest white, has flawless clarity, and its cut, polish and symmetry have all been graded excellent, it said.

The New York-based company is hoping the “Magnificent Jewels” sale at Geneva’s historic Beau Rivage hotel will help it bounce back from the disheartening results of its Impressionist and Modern Art auction, which sent its stock tumbling.

The sale last week fetched $269.7 million, well short of estimates, and led some analysts to speculate whether the flight from risk currently gripping financial markets may be spilling over into the art world.

The company announced that it lost $14.6 million by purchasing paintings that failed to sell.

The white diamond already has been showcased in Hong Kong, Paris, New York, Rome, Los Angeles, London, Dubai and Bahrain. The auction Wednesday also featured other diamonds, colored stones and gems from the world’s leading jewelers.

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And as a symbol of eternal love, the most recognizes symbol of love is no doubt ring with diamond. Beautiful solitaire diamond in combination with gold, white gold, platinum or titanium is best choice for this.
Top choice for material is titanium these times. Titanium is recognized as top quality and most enduring material for jewellery. Beautiful titanium rings are perfect symbol of unceasing love, because titanium is one of the strongest metal ever. And considering this, titanium is really romantic choice for life-long wedding band.

Altought white gold is more popular between women, there is also increasing selection of men’s gold chains on jewellery market, mostly because white gold have more advantages in comparison with for example platinum, which is also very fashionable these times.

White gold is gold alloys that look white rather than yellow. It’s colour is achieved by careful choice of the alloying metals, which bleach the deep yellow of pure gold. White gold rings or white gold chains are lighter then their platinum counterparts, because platinum is much heavier metal than gold. Platinum is also very expensive. A platinum ring will be approximately twice the price of an 18kt white gold ring.

So as you can see white gold is not only fashionable, but also reasonable choice for your modern jewellery.

Carat weight is the most deciding factor as to the value of a diamond. A well cut diamond of SI1 clarity and a weight of 4.00 carats would be worth alot more than one of the same clarity, but weighing 1.60 carats and VS2 clarity.

The largest faceted diamond in the world is the Golden Jubilee, weighing 545.67 carats. It is a Fancy Brownish-Yellow color and “fire rose cushion cut.” It is unusual also because it has a certain type of rare color banding. The second largest faceted diamond in the world is the Star of Africa, also known as the Cullinan I. It weighs 530.20 carats and is a pear shape with 74 facets. The third largest diamond in the world is the Incomparable. It is a golden yellow-orange color, pear shaped, and weighs 407 carats. The fourth largest faceted diamond in the world is the Cullinan II. It was cut from the same stone as the Star of Africa - aka Cullinan I. It weighs 317.40 carats and is a cushion cut.

There are many many different types of diamond cuts. The most common is the round brilliant, which has 57 facets. There are several very common variations on the round brilliant - the oval, the marquise, some cushion cuts, and the pear. All of which, in standard form, have 57 facets. Other very common diamond cuts are the heart, the step, and the princess. The sky is the limit as far as diamond cuts go.

Some exotic cuts can waste rough stone. Heart cuts have become very popular the past few years, partly because of the booming diamond industry, and the film “Titanic”, which featured a large heart cut blue sapphire that was thrown into the ocean. The movie prop was fake. However, after the film’s release, a jewelry company faceted a heart cut sapphire identical to the stone in the film, then mounted it in a necklace to match.

People often confuse the Hope Diamond and the ‘Heart of Ocean’ - both were blue, and both were surrounded by smaller white stones. However, one is a heart cut and the other a cushion, and the ‘Heart of the Ocean’ is considerably larger than the Hope Diamond.

Diamond clarity is measured on a scale of I3 to FL. These are short for Imperfect 3 and Flawless. I3 (imperfect, eye visible inclusions), I2 (imperfect, eye visible inclusions), and I1 (imperfect, eye visible inclusions). I3 is the worst one the scale. It’s so included that it looks like there is a cottonball trapped inside the diamond. Then higher up on the scale is SI2 (slight inclusions), and SI1 (slight inclusions). Many SI diamonds that are finely cut may look alot better than their clarity calls for. VS2 and VS1 are the next on the scale, standing for very small inclusions. Both the Hope and the Tiffany Yellow Diamond are of VS1 in clarity. VVS1 and VVS2 stand for very very small inclusions. The 137-carat Light of Peace is a VVS1 in clarity and a D in color.

IF stands for internally flawless, and then FL, which stands for flawless. In your everyday jewelry store, an interally flawless diamond is unusual. D, E, and F-color diamonds are fairly common, especially smaller ones. A combination of D-color and Internally Flawless is rare, and therefore more expensive. The two largest faceted D-Internally Flawless diamonds that I know of are the 273.85-carat Centenary Diamond and the 203.04-carat Millenium Star Diamond.

The largest Internally Flawless diamond is the Incomparable, which is a 407-carat Fancy Brownish-Yellow “triolette” shape. Flawless diamonds are quite rare. The highest grade one usually sees is Interally Flawless. You could search the world for a Flawless diamond but there wouldn’t be much point — an Internally Flawless would essentially be just as good. The only difference is an Internally Flawless diamond is allowed to have ‘naturals’, which are unpolished surfaces of the original diamond crystal still remaining on the finished gem. They are usually small and hidden from view on the pavilion side of the stone, up near the girdle. They tend to have a glassy (but not polished) look, sometimes showing ‘trigons’, which are triangular depressions characteristic of many diamond crystals. As long as that aren’t visible in the face-up diamond, they don’t affect the clarity grade. However, they can’t be present in a diamond for it to receive a Flawless grading.