#003 The Rock

My husband-to-be made his most expensive purchase yesterday. Hehe. It was a 0.40 carat diamond ring (with an excellent cut, rated VS1 for clarity and G for colour) at Cartier that cost him a whopping $6350. Yes we know, we know... We are very well aware that for that amount, we could get a bigger rock size in our local jewelry stores. For example, 6 grand could get us a 0.7 carat at Lee Hwa or a 1 carat at Citigems. We know. 

With that said, after having done our research and walking in and out of at least 10 jewelry shops (both atas and not so atas ones) and comparing their rings, we concluded that the extra amount that we pump in for the ring is not only for the brand, but also for the craftsmanship and brand reliability. Here's a list of jewelry stores we visited ranked by affordability (in my opinion):

Most affordable to least affordable:

Citi Gems (you need at least $300 to purchase a diamond ring)

Taka

SK

Goldheart

Soo Kee

Lee Hwa

Bvlgari

Cartier (you need at least $3000 to purchase a diamond ring)

Personally to me, the diamonds looked mostly similar. The only thing that distinguishes two rings (from two different brands) is its setting. The setting of a ring is the metal part of your ring; from the band to that bit that holds onto your diamond. I think choosing a ring setting is the most enjoyable part of buying a ring. You have to choose something that showcases your diamond in its full glory! And of course, it must be something you like lah. Haha. 

Cartier was the second shop we checked out after Bvlgari. We were serviced by Sam Toh, the boutique supervisor who was very attentive and patient with us. He was the one who educated us on the 4Cs of a diamond. To be honest, I wasn't impressed by their solitaires at first. It looked the same as any other solitaires. But after visiting other stores, I couldn't find any ring setting that was as beautiful as that of Cartier's. I was pretty dead set on Cartier's Solitaire 1895. Here she is:

The size of the diamond in the photo above is probably 1 carat? Mine would be more than half that size but it's ok. I'm more than grateful and extremely happy that my HTB is even buying me a diamond ring and a Cartier at that! Alhamdullilah. We have decided to kill two birds with one stone by using this wedding ring as the mas kahwin. My dad checked with MUIS and they said that this arrangement is fine as long as both parties agree. Hooray!

I can't wait till mid of January when the ring is ready! It would have been a shorter wait if my ring size wasn't so unusual. I'm a 44 according to the French sizing, that's about a 5 or 6 according to the Hong Kong's ring size chart. So skinny. Too skinny :/ Cartier would need to resize a 47 to a 44. InshaAllah the aesthetics of the ring won't be compromised. I've heard of women sharing that the ring they received came with scratches on the band and *gasp* on the diamond itself?! Goodness.

Alamak it's already 5.48 p.m. I'm supposed to meet him in an hour's time to visit his cousin, Usamah and his wife. His wife just gave birth to a baby boy. Aww! Ok ok I better go get ready NOW!