Post # 1
Member
75 posts
Worker bee
…or, “I went to Tiffany and I am Impressed”
Went to a tony area today and checked out diamonds….not buying, but rather just to educate myself a little. I saw a .85 F color, VS1 and .75 E, VS1, both under a loupe. OMG!!!!! comparing it to my semi decent diamond, I was flabbergasted. The cuts are so freaking clean inside and the overall sparkle was amazing. Now, to be fair, I havenever seen a high quality diamond under a loupe, so I have nothing to compare it to in its class. However, I also went to a few other stores in the area and looked at some other stones….mostly S1 and s2 with a !1 thrown in for fun. Ladies, there is a difference, both macroscopically and with a loupe. I also compared them to a 1.5 ct moissanite. The moissanite looked VERY much like the Tiffany rings macroscopically, but still not as sharp inside.
On an aside, the moissy looked VERY much like the Tiffany diamond, so all the “color flass and rainbows” also showed up in the Tiffany diamond. I think ( and I am not sure) that the reason people say the moissy looks so different from a diamond is becasue they have not seen a high quality diamond (???)
I (unfortunately) now am not so happy with my diamond – lol!!!!!
Has anyone seen other very high quality diamonds? I dont know where else to look to further educate myself 🙂
Post # 3
Member
492 posts
Helper bee
@MrsLuca: yay Tiffany! i have one and i absolutely love it. so many people say its just a brand and its all the same but its more than that. plus they have great customer service
Post # 4
Member
2746 posts
Sugar bee
- Wedding: October 2014 - Disney
I’ve seen some very high quality diamonds and I still say moissanite is different. One of the reasons we did not go diamond is the only white diamonds I like are rediculously expensive and I wasnt having it. I’ve seen diamonds much higher quality than what tiffanies offers. I got to loop a D color flawless round at debeers once and that thing was rediculous. Thats when I said nope not having a diamond for my e-ring ever. It just wasnt worth that price no matter how clean it was.
Post # 5
Member
400 posts
Helper bee
My FI shopped around and made a spreadsheet with all the statistics about various diamonds he looked at, and decided the Tiffany ones were so superior and worth their price tag, so I ended up with an awesome Tiffany diamond (E, VVS2, 0.83). I also love that I can bring it in to be cleaned and checked whenever I’m near a Tiffany’s.
Post # 6
Member
1608 posts
Bumble bee
i have seen a lot of high-quality diamonds while working in jewelery manufacturing and also because…well… I like looking at them and FI knew and now I have one 😉 (he was set up for failure since I worked in the wholesale biz for 3-4 years.)
I’m glad that you had a great experience with Tiff, mine was horrendous. You can read about it on other posts, but we had a decent amount of money to spend (over 30k) and FI and I were both (independently) treated very poorly by three locations here in NYC, including their flagship 5th ave location. And their markup is insane. The ring I ended up with also has an insane markup as it is a designer piece, but tiff’s markup is redic considering that their employees know virtually nothing about jewelry other than “we do it best. blue box. romance. blue box. tiffany. also blue box.” Maybe it’s because we didn’t shop together, or because neither of us “look rich” and I didn’t wear stilettos when I went browsing, but the service was worse than I get at a fastfood restaurant.
ANYWAY. If you want a one-stop shop to walk in with $$ and walk out with a nice ring, this is the place. But if you want ANY sort of customization or to not be ripped off, tiff is not a great spot.
Post # 7
Member
2250 posts
Buzzing bee
Tiffany’s is very marked up, I don’t think that there is any doubt about that, but they are known for their customer experience and the little blue box is famous in its own right.
Post # 8
Member
726 posts
Busy bee
Why does this sound like an advertisement to me?
Post # 9
Member
2809 posts
Sugar bee
would i want a tiffany engagment ring? nope. but that’s my preference. i think they have a huge markup, and i could get something of the exact quality for much, much less if i did research.
that being said, i’ve seen beautiful tiffany rings, and i’ve seen beautiful non-tiffany rings. they aren’t the only store to carry high-quality rings. they just have a name, and their name is well known.
Post # 10
Member
6361 posts
Bee Keeper
No, moissanite doesn’t look like a high quality diamond. Yes, good diamonds – And actually, most diamonds – look very firey under jeweler’s lights, but once you move them away from those lights, you can get a much better sense of them.
CZ look more like high quality diamonds than moissanite does and under the jeweler’s lights if you’re not looking carefully, from a distance it can be a little hard to tell which is which. Bring them into daylight and you will have your answer staring at you.
Glad you enjoyed the high quality diamonds at Tiff’s. They actually have some not-so-great ones too… but yes, they have good ones that are comparable to other high quality diamonds from elsewhere.
P.S. If you want a similar “distance” effect to the Tiffany store with your own diamond, buy some pot lights for your home.
Post # 11
Member
5407 posts
Bee Keeper
@joya_aspera: exactly this
OP if the moissanite looked like the Tiffany diamonds, it was due to the lighting. Although when I saw moissanite next to a diamond (not Tiffany and not amazing quality but good) under spot lighting the difference was still smack-you-in-the-face obvious.
Tiffany does have some amazing diamonds, but they also have a lot of deeply cut diamonds with subpar optical performance. You can get a better (or as good as in the case of their top diamonds) diamond for less elsewhere.
Post # 12
Member
805 posts
Busy bee
hm I used to like tiffany but their customer service has left a bad taste in my mouth. I went in to buy something, wasn’t dressed up, and they were so rude. snooty and uppity, never shopping there again.
Post # 13
Member
75 posts
Worker bee
@bkrocks13: That’s funny becasue I went in and trust me…I did not look like a Tiffany type person. I was not dressed well, etc. They were very, very pleasant and treated me quite respectfully. Now, I was carrying an authentic LV bag, so perhaps this had something to do with it – lol.
@JLR1982: lol. trust me, I do not work for tiffany, and I have been a pster for a while. I was simply curious about all the tiffany “yes-no” threads, so i thought i would check it out and report back. I am not saying they are or are not highly marked up. what I can say is that the diamond had much cleaner cuts inside and more brilliance outside than anything else inthat area 🙂
Post # 14
Member
1245 posts
Bumble bee
I’ve seen a lot of pretty rings at Tiffany’s but I’ve also seen a lot of high quality diamond rings at independent jewlers too.
If my DH had bought my ring at Tiffany’s, I certainly wouldn’t turn it down, but that store would not have been my first place to shop for rings.
Post # 15
Member
205 posts
Helper bee
Look I love tiffany, but they do not have a monopoly on high quality diamonds. I think they have very high standards and you can expect that all their rings are going to be beautiful. But I’ve seen equally beautiful diamonds elsewhere. For a long time I thought I wanted a Tiffany ring, but when we went looking, I was unhappy with their selection. It was very much ‘this is what we have at the moment’. I couldn’t say ‘I want a 1.5 cushion d -f with this type of setting’. we ended up getting my ring from a high quality local jeweller where each ring is made to order. It was a nice experience and if they didn’t have a stone I wanted, they would go out and find one. Tiffany is beautiful and it will always have that thing, but it wasn’t right for me at the time.
Post # 16
Member
1448 posts
Bumble bee
Other one who had horrendous service at Tiffany’s.
I wouldn’t give my money to Tiffany’s. DeBeers or Cartier if you need something branded. We have always been highly impressed with the customer service we received at DeBeers, and I always get compliments on how pretty and unusual my setting is. Everyone recognizes the Tiffany settings because they’re so common.
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