The round cut diamond is the most popular shape for engagement rings, accounting for more than 70% of the world’s polished diamond inventory. In this guide, we’re going to help you through a proven method of picking a beautiful round cut diamond.
But why are round brilliant cut diamonds so popular?
That’s because the round brilliant cutting style is able to optimize light reflections to make it more brilliant and sparkly than any other diamond shapes. Also, their circular outline makes it a suitable shape for different types of finger size/hands and ring settings.
So, Let’s get started…
Recommended Cut Quality for Round Cut Diamonds
When choosing a round diamond, cut is the most important attribute of the 4Cs that you need to focus on. That’s because cut quality determines a diamond’s sparkle factor and has the biggest impact on its visual appearance.
When gemological labs like GIA grade round diamonds for cut quality, they assign ratings that range from Excellent, Very Good, Good, Fair and Poor. We recommend shopping for diamonds with an Excellent cut grade.
Now, the problem with the cut rating in the grading report is that it is very broad. If you want to pick out the best of the round diamonds, you need to look at cut proportions and light physics.
From our experience, round diamonds with depth percentages between 61 – 62.5%, table sizes between 54 – 57% will have the ideal face up size for their carat size. In conjunction with crown angles between 34.0°-35.0° and pavilion angles between 40.6° – 41.0°, the diamond will display the best balance of brilliance and fire.
Recommended Color Rating for Round Cut Diamonds
Due to their facet pattern and cutting style, round diamonds are able to reflect more light than any other diamond shape. This means that the color tint of a round diamond can be concealed by the sparkle and you don’t need a high color grade to get an icy white appearance.
While D-F (colorless) diamonds ensure a cool, icy appearance, they are highly sought after and come at a price premium. As a practical shopper, the best color rating to get would be a G color as you avoid the premiums while getting a white looking diamond.
While most consumers may like white looking diamonds, there are plenty of people who love warm-toned diamonds on the lower spectrum of the color scale. This is especially true if you are looking for vintage style engagement rings or using yellow/rose gold metals for your setting. Going down the color scale for a J or K diamond would be perfectly fine as the warm tint complements the style of the engagement ring.
Recommended Clarity Rating for Round Cut Diamonds
GIA grades diamond clarity on a scale of FL to I3 with Flawless being the highest grade and Included 3 being the lowest. One of the most common misconception is that a higher clarity grade will get you better sparkle and brilliance.
The truth is that as the majority of eyeclean VS2 diamonds will look identical to an internally flawless diamond when seen with the naked eyes. If you don’t absolutely need on paper a D/IF rating for your diamond, you can save a lot of money simply by buying an eyeclean SI1 or VS2 diamond.
In general, most SI1 and VS2 diamonds will be eyeclean and we recommend shopping in these grades to get the best value for money. The key is to look for eye-clean stones where you will not be able to see inclusions without a 10X loupe.
How much does a Round Brilliant Cut Diamond Cost?
The price of a round diamond is mainly determined by factors such as cut, color, clarity and carat size. Compared to the other diamond shapes, the round cut is relatively the most expensive because they require more rough diamond to be polished away during the cutting process.
To give you some idea of how much a round diamond costs, we’ve compiled an exhaustive collection of round diamonds here with different specifications. Do take note that diamond prices would also be affected by other factors such as fluorescence or cut precision.
From the research above, you will observe that the diamond with high end specifications can easily cost 2 to 3 times more than one with lower color/clarity ratings.
One common mistake that first time shoppers make is that they think a diamond with D/IF ratings would have better brilliance and fire compared to another diamond with lower color/clarity.
That’s a big misconception. In fact, a well cut G/SI1 diamond can look identical to a D/IF diamond in the face up view even though it costs less than half the price.
Still not sure which round cut diamond to choose? Feel free to contact us for personal help. Our experts are here to help you with the very best diamonds to choose from.
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