RAPAPORT... Combining beauty and bling, natural color diamonds are perfect for the luxury consumer looking for something different — once they’ve been made aware of the rainbow of opportunities that are available.
No longer just a “connoisseur” item, natural color diamonds have woven their way into the fabric of the jewelry industry, points out Peter Schneirla, vice chairman of Harry Winston and senior vice president of Aber Diamond Corp. — with the “JLo” pink diamond that Ben Affleck bought from Harry Winston playing no small part. But, despite the current celebrity bandwagon coloring the Red Carpet in diamonds of all hues, the truth is natural color diamonds have been slowly moving beyond auction-house exclusivity to a broader audience for the past ten years.
“There is an awareness today in general terms that wasn’t there ten years ago,” says Simon Teakle of Betteridge Jewelers in Greenwich, Connecticut. “And I think there is a whole host of reasons for that, including the media and lifestyle magazines, the auction houses, and people within the industry itself promoting more colored diamonds.”
In fact, says Teakle, “I find it one of the most interesting aspects of the jewelry market. There are subtleties in the colored diamond market that you don’t get in other areas and those subtleties can be driven by aesthetics as well as by value. The whole subject is captivating. The 4Cs still apply, but in a different way. And the relationship they have to one another is probably different, where clarity is not such a key issue, but color is.”
And one of the nice things about this increase in interest, points out Schneirla, is that these are customers who generally come to you. “We do have people who come in, especially at our end of the market, who say ‘I want something unusual, what do you have?’ And if so, we have a pink diamond or a blue diamond, or what have you. But generally, these are ‘destination’ people. They’ve seen and heard about it and they want one.”
Moving beyond the world of white diamonds, however, does mean adding several more zeros to the cost. Making sure that doesn’t cause sticker shock means retailers not only have to educate customers in the nuances of natural diamonds, but make sure they, themselves, know the finer points.
SELLING POINTSThe number one reason for clients to ante up to the higher price of natural color diamonds is that they’re “rare, rare, rare,” says Lisa Hubbard, senior vice president, executive director of international jewelry, Sotheby’s. This fact gives the stones an added cachet for both collectors and connoisseurs who prize their uniqueness.
“Colored diamonds have always been the exotic high end of the diamond world,” states Richard Buonomo, a New York City estate jewelry and antique diamond dealer. They call to “the fundamental, irrefutable desire to own natural gemstone jewelry, to own something rare and beautiful, whose selection distinguishes the owner or wearer from mass-produced commercialism.” Yet it still has all the fundamental essentials that diamonds are known for, Buonomo says, “durability, brilliance, an association with betrothal” and, ultimately, prestige.
“It’s definitely a diamond and it’s still going to sparkle exactly the same way,” adds Philip Press, Renaissance Platinum, West Hollywood, California. “Whether it’s white or yellow or pink, or whatever color, doesn’t take away from the bling factor. I think, if anything, it accentuates the fact that you have something really special.”
And, comments Teakle, “there is an appeal that you're wearing something, that you have something, very valuable, but it's not unnecessarily ostentatious.” Natural color diamonds are more expensive per carat than white diamonds because they are rarer and nature often produces them in smaller sizes. Their smaller size makes them, Hubbard says, attractive to the security conscious because “the stones are not as obvious a symbol of wealth to those who don't know that diamonds come in colors.” Moreover, since the stones tend to be more subtle, they therefore indicate that the wearer is a sophisticated connoisseur of stones. “My clients don't necessarily want people to go 'Wow' and qualify them with dollar signs,” says Mona Nesseth, a private jeweler based in Southern California. “It's not like a Rolex, where someone looks at you and knows exactly what your watch costs. I think colored diamonds for my clients have the opposite appeal. They like the fact that people don't have a real feel for what they cost.”
MAKING THE GRADEPlacing value on natural colored stones is, in fact, not based on a simple by-the-numbers formula. With a white diamond, says Buonomo, “There’s just no surprise left at all, especially with cut grade. It’s just how many points off the list. I think that’s almost more important than people thinking they’re pretty.” But natural color diamonds, he goes on to say, “are not something you can get a list price on, not something that has such a clear gemological rating. You certainly can’t buy a fancy intense yellow diamond just because it has an intense yellow rating; it’s a big range, with many looks.”
It is the intensity of the color, explains Hubbard, “that establishes the price range, and a colored diamond is only valuable if the color is a natural occurrence.” Which is why, she says, “Gemological Institute of America (GIA) certification of a colored diamond is essential.” But, cautions Hubbard, “Buyers need to understand the GIA grading system for colored diamonds, which is based on the intensity of body color” — and how to read the certificate.
“I think it’s important that the person selling colored diamonds really understands them,” concurs Nesseth. “You need to understand what you’re looking at,” she comments, “understand what differentiates them. I spent years studying pink diamonds, making sure that I could look at a diamond and tell what it is. It was a mission for me.”
A lot of jewelers, Nesseth goes on to say, “don’t know how to read the cert, let alone interpret the color. The last word is the color.” So, if the stone is listed as grayish brownish purplish pink, she points out, “that means it’s a pink diamond with some grayish…all the different modifiers.” But a common mistake, she says, is that when people see purplish pink on the certificate, they assume the stone is a purple diamond, when actually the stone is predominantly pink, as indicated by the last word. “You also have to be careful if it says purple pink rather than purplish; that means that it’s almost 50-50” with a bit more pink.” Purple, however, Nesseth notes, is very rare.
Ultimately, though, while certs can verify that the color is natural, just looking at a cert won’t really tell you the color story. It’s what you see when you view the stone that counts. With any color, says Schneirla, the range can be extraordinary. “Certification is important, but the grading system for fancy colors by definition can not be more than a nice educated guess based on color saturation and tonality. I can show you four vivid yellow stones that don’t look anything like each other.
“It comes down to the fact,” Schneirla says, “that simply put, no two natural color diamonds, even if they’re certified the same — say two vivid yellow diamonds — are created equal. That’s because they are highly variable because of what goes into the scientific component and their makeup. There is no master set. GIA has worked very hard to try and standardize these things, but you just can’t do it.”
“Of all areas of gemstones where one has to really develop their own eye and confidence in their own eye, it’s fancy colors,” Schneirla adds. “You have to train the customer to be comfortable with the notion of nuances of color.”
“Looking at a colored diamond,” says Teakle, “is not like looking at a topaz or looking at a sapphire. There is a different aesthetic to it.” Which is why he agrees that there is “very much a learning curve. There are many more aspects to consider than with white diamonds.” Areas that need to be understood, he believes, include “the size in relation to color, the importance of the aspects of clarity in a stone and where one is able to balance the two, all of which requires a greater understanding.”
Press believes that consumers who seek colored diamonds tend to be aware of what diamonds are and what they want, but he sees the need to educate them as to what is actually available and to “give them a better scope of where the market is on the particular item that they’re looking for.” Press deals in larger-size colored diamonds and likes the fact that they’re harder to come by, because there’s much less of a competition issue. “It’s not like you can go shop them on Blue Nile or the internet,” Press adds, “so it becomes a very unique, almost one-of-a-kind item. And no two colored diamonds larger than 5 carats will really be the same.”
“Color is one of the hardest things to see and differentiate,” comments Nesseth. “A certificate is just a starting point.” The important things to look for, Nesseth says, are the “quality of the color, the quality of the cut. I personally recommend a color grade of at least intense. Any lighter than that you can hardly see it. It’s subtle and soft.”
And, Teakle adds, “I think, whether it’s white diamonds, colored gemstones or colored diamonds, we live in a world of certificates nowadays. Be aware of it and what it says and understand that what’s on the certificate translates into the price of the stone” and then, decide whether you like it or not.
SEALING THE DEAL“One of my techniques to get people in and get them comfortable buying jewelry and getting into a regular pattern of buying jewelry,” says Schneirla, “is to call someone up and say, ‘When you’re in the neighborhood, we have something that’s absolutely outstanding; please come in and see it.’ And a lot of times, I’ll use a fancy color diamond for that. People need to warm up to the concept.”
The point to remember, Schneirla says “is you are still selling fun and passion, but you need to know the science, too. I find that when a sale starts to stall, you have got to go back and remind people why they’re interested in something this rare and the only way to do that is to know as much as you can.”
One way to ease the customer into buying a natural color diamond is to show them how it will look mounted. “It’s extremely difficult for most consumers to visualize what colored diamonds will look like in a finished product,” points out Press, “much more so than with a white stone.” Moreover, he says “There are some people who go out shopping for diamonds, and some people who go out shopping for rings. Obviously, most of the time, these stones end up in a ring, so you need to be able to show the consumer that you are able to deliver the entire package.”
But, cautions Schneirla, “you don’t want to over-emphasize the mounting and get concerned about it too early in the process.” For Nesseth, the ideal situation would be to have the mounting that goes with the stone and the stone loose, “so you could evaluate the stone on its own merit.”
I think it’s just a question of giving them different options, says Teakle,“and showing what alternatives there are. People enjoy seeing something different. And one may introduce them to colored diamonds, but they still may tend to go for a sapphire, but at least they’ve been introduced to something new. It may be something that’s immediate or it may be something that takes a little bit of time.”
Article from the Rapaport Magazine - October 2006. To subscribe click here.