Why a beautifully cut diamond beats a bigger one

People tell us a diamond they were shown just looked dead. Nine times out of ten the answer is cut. Not color. Not clarity. Cut.

What a cut grade measures

GIA grades the cut of a round brilliant by how well it handles light. Three things go into the look you love.

• Brightness, the white light the diamond sends back to your eye.
• Fire, the little rainbow flashes as the stone tilts.
• Scintillation, the bright-and-dark sparkle that moves when you move.

All three depend on proportions, symmetry and polish. Cut a stone too shallow and light escapes the bottom. Cut it too deep and light slips out the side. A diamond is a small mirror maze. Every angle has a job.

Why cut wins in real life

Color and clarity look great on paper. Cut is what people notice when you reach for a glass of water. Put an excellent cut beside a lazy cut at the same weight, then watch which one people ask about.

Reading the report without the headache

For round brilliants, find the cut grade line. Excellent, Very Good, Good, Fair or Poor. We keep to Excellent for rounds. For fancy shapes such as oval, pear and emerald, GIA does not give an overall cut grade, so read polish and symmetry, then look at the stone in daylight.

"Precise workmanship is required to cut a diamond so its proportions, symmetry and polish maximize brightness, scintillation and fire."

— GIA, Diamond Essentials

The trade-off we suggest

If the budget pinches, drop a clarity grade. Drop a color grade. Shave a few points off the weight. Try not to drop the cut. Cutting is the cheapest way to make a stone look expensive.

Want to see two stones side by side, with the lamp on and nobody rushing you? Book a viewing at our Dubai atelier. Bring a friend. Trust your own eyes.