Diamond Buying Guide

Purchasing a diamond is an exciting and meaningful investment, whether you’re selecting an engagement ring or adding to your collection. By understanding key factors like certification, pricing, and diamond quality, you can ensure you’re making a confident and informed decision.

At Appleby Jewellers, we have guided generations through this moment with care and discretion. For seventy years, our approach has remained the same: to help you choose a ring that feels deeply personal, beautifully balanced, and made to last a lifetime.

All Appleby diamonds are selected by eye. No detail is over looked, and careful consideration is given to a stone’s proportions, symmetry and shape appeal, to ensure it meets the rigorous criteria synonymous with Appleby diamonds and sparkles with unrivaled beauty.

1

Look For Certified Diamonds

To ensure authenticity and quality, only buy diamonds certified by a reputable gemological laboratory like the Gemological Institute of America (GIA). Certification provides peace of mind that you’re getting exactly what you’re paying for.

A GIA-certified diamond provides a trusted, independent record of your diamond’s quality, which is essential for accurate valuation, straightforward insurance, and future resale. Because GIA grading is globally recognised and consistently strict, insurers and valuers rely on it with confidence, ensuring your policy reflects the true quality of the stone. Should you ever choose to resell or upgrade, a GIA certificate gives immediate credibility and transparency, protecting both value and trust.

GIA CERTIFIED DIAMONDS

For valuation, insurance, and resale, GIA certification gives your diamond universal recognition and long-term protection.

2

Prioritise Craftsmanship

Craftsmanship matters, especially when your ring is worn every day, for a lifetime. More than any other piece of jewellery, it must be beautiful, resilient, and impeccably made.

A well-crafted engagement ring doesn’t just showcase a diamond; it supports it, honours it, and allows it to shine at its best. The setting itself is critical. Finely made claws should be elegant yet strong, shaped by hand to hold the stone securely without overwhelming it.

The most important part? Purchasing with a jeweller you can trust. Appleby Jewellers has 70 years of experience crafting bespoke engagement rings for clients in Ireland and beyond. Our legacy is built on trust, artistic integrity, and attention to detail.

Craftmanship You Can Trust

We’ve all heard stories of rings bought on a “deal” — only to be damaged months later, with no one to turn to. At Appleby Jewellers, we’ve spent 70 years crafting rings for clients in Ireland and beyond. Our legacy is built on trust, artistic integrity, and meticulous attention to detail.

3

Set A Budget That Feels Right

There are no rules. A meaningful engagement ring is defined by real love, sentiment and craftsmanship. An honest budget allows us to guide you toward the best possible diamond within it. Ultimately, the best engagement ring is one that reflects your love story.

A one-of-a-kind diamond

A diamond carries billions of years of history and a powerful symbol of enduring commitment.

Once you make an appointment with us, we are here to guide you every step of the day. The right engagement ring reflects your partner's personal style and the story you share. Consider their everyday jewellery preferences, lifestyle, and the metals and gemstones they naturally gravitate toward. At Appleby, we take time to understand these details, ensuring your choice feels both personal and timeless.

4

Understand Diamond Pricing

When shopping for an engagement ring, one of the most important things to understand is the 4Cs: cut, colour, clarity, and carat weight. These four characteristics determine a diamond’s overall quality and cost, and they can also help you figure out what matters most to you. The 4Cs give you a framework to compare diamonds and make an informed choice based on your budget and preferences.

Which of the Four C’s is the most important?

If you have to choose just one, the most important C is the cut. Cut determines how a diamond sparkles and comes alive. A large, high-colour diamond will look dull if it’s poorly cut, while a smaller stone with an exceptional cut can appear brighter, whiter, and more beautiful.

We have in depth knowledge on the four C's for you to read below.

5

Ethical Diamonds

Choosing a diamond is about more than beauty. It is a decision that reflects your values : how something was sourced, who it supports, and the legacy it leaves behind.

Natural diamonds support education, communities, fund essential services, and create long-term opportunity in the places where they are discovered.

Ethical Diamonds

Natural diamonds are a limited resource, formed over billions of years and discovered, not mass-produced and manufactured. Their rarity encourages careful selection, long-term ownership, and generational use rather than disposability. True sustainability lies in permanence.

6

Talk To The Experts

We are here to guide you! Book your private appointment today and enjoy dedicated, one-to-one guidance from our expert consultants as they help you find the perfect ring.

Whether you are beginning an engagement ring journey or marking a personal milestone, you are guided with warmth, honesty, and care.

If visiting us in-store isn’t possible, we’ll be delighted to arrange a private video consultation via Zoom. It’s our privilege to help you choose a piece that will be worn, loved, and cherished for a lifetime.

The best advice is to come in and see the diamonds in person.
7

Try Different Styles

Before choosing a particular style, we always recommend trying on a few different designs. A diamond ring can look very different once it’s on the hand and often the ring you expect to love isn’t the one you ultimately choose.

Seeing how a ring feels, how it sits, and how it catches the light can completely change your perspective. We invite you to arrange an appointment with us in Applebys to explore a range of styles and to discover what truly feels right for you.

Most Popular Styles

The solitaire remains the most popular choice, prized for its timeless simplicity and ability to showcase the diamond in its purest form. Three-stone rings are equally loved, offering symbolism as well as balance, while our halo settings are chosen for their added brilliance and presence, beautifully framing the centre stone.

8

Consider Your Wedding Ring

Don’t forget to think about how your engagement ring will look with a wedding band. Some settings sit flush with a band, while others (like high-profile solitaires) may require a contoured or curved band for a seamless fit.

Wedding Ring Pairing

We design our wedding rings to sit seamlessly alongside our engagement rings, ensuring a perfect fit and most importanty, avoiding any metal clashing or damaging your diamond.

Don't be afraid to ask to try on wedding rings with your engagement ring so you will have a feel for what they will look like together.

9

Get Your Diamond Jewellery Insured

Once you buy diamonds, safeguarding your investment with the right insurance is essential. Most people add their jewellery to a homeowner’s or renter’s insurance policy, these plans often have coverage limits and may not fully reimburse you for a high-value diamond. A specialized jewellery insurance plan is the best option for expensive pieces, as it typically offers higher coverage limits, worldwide protection, and reimbursement for full appraised value in case of loss, theft, or damage.

10

Think Long-Term: Beauty That Lasts

We always advise you to avoid trends, a diamond ring is worn every day. It should be comfortable, durable, and well-engineered. Consider how the ring will evolve with time, how it will wear, feel, and eventually be passed down.

Trends fade, but timeless engagement rings endure.

Appleby diamond rings are made to last generations. They are designed not only for beauty today but for continued significance tomorrow.

Ultimately, the best engagement ring is one that reflects your love story. Natural diamonds carry billions of years of history and a powerful symbol of enduring commitment.

THE DIAMOND BUYING GUIDE

A guide to understanding diamonds.

The Four C's Explained

The First C

Cut

The cut of a diamond is the most critical factor in determining its brilliance. It is not merely about shape, but about precision, the angles, proportions, and symmetry that allow light to dance within the stone and return to the eye as fire and sparkle.

At Appleby, we select only diamonds with exceptional cut grades, ensuring that each stone achieves its maximum potential for light performance. A perfectly cut diamond transforms light into beauty, creating the mesmerising brilliance that defines true luxury.

The Second C

Colour

The finest white diamonds are those that appear colourless, allowing light to pass through unimpeded and return as pure, brilliant white light. The colour grading scale ranges from D (colourless) to Z (light yellow or brown), with only the rarest stones achieving the coveted D, E, and F grades.

Appleby prioritises diamonds within the colourless to near-colourless range, ensuring exceptional purity and luminosity. Each diamond is carefully evaluated and chosen by our gemologists to guarantee that only stones of the highest colour quality enter our collection.

The Third C

Clarity

Clarity refers to the presence of natural characteristics within a diamond, known as inclusions, and surface imperfections, called blemishes. These are nature's fingerprints, formed over millions of years deep within the earth.

Choosing a stone that’s eye-clean rather than flawless is smart. It’s about how it looks on your hand, not under a microscope. Most tiny inclusions aren’t visible without magnification. VS2, SI1 and SI2 are usually eye-clean in real life. Avoid paying premium for flawless unless you love perfection under magnification. At Appleby, we select diamonds that ensure brilliance is never compromised, allowing each stone to radiate with unobstructed light and beauty.

The Fourth C

Carat

Carat refers to the weight of a diamond, not its size.

Carat weight measures a diamond's size, with one carat equal to 200 milligrams. While carat weight is often associated with value, true luxury lies in the balance between size and the other three Cs.

A larger diamond is not necessarily more beautiful. At Appleby, we believe in selecting diamonds where carat weight complements cut, colour, and clarity, creating a harmonious presence that captivates without overwhelming. The result is a diamond of perfect proportion, elegance, and enduring allure.

The Appleby Standard

For 70 years, the Appleby name has been synonymous with uncompromising quality and ethical sourcing. Every diamond in our collection is hand-selected by our experienced gemologists, each possessing decades of expertise and an unwavering commitment to excellence.

We source only natural diamonds that meet our rigorous standards across all four Cs, ensuring that every ring we create is a masterpiece of rarity, beauty, and integrity. When you choose Appleby, you choose a legacy of trust, craftsmanship and integrity.

F.A.Q

When it comes to finding the perfect diamond ring in Dublin, few names carry the trust and heritage of Appleby Jewellers. Established in the 1950s, Appleby remains a family-run Irish jeweller renowned for exceptional craftsmanship, beautiful design, and the warm, personal service that generations of couples have come to love.

Our Grafton Street showroom offers a private, relaxed space to view our engagement and diamond ring collections, all handcrafted in our in-house Dublin workshop by master goldsmiths and gemologists.

Cut has the greatest impact on brilliance, always prioritise cut over carat size.


GIA certification provides independent verification of your diamond’s quality and ensures you know exactly what you’re buying.

Before choosing a diamond, it’s important to understand the 4Cs — Cut, Colour, Clarity and Carat. These determine its beauty, rarity and price. We also recommend buying only GIA certified natural diamonds to ensure authenticity and value.

Shape refers to the outline (round, oval, pear, emerald etc.), while cut refers to how well the facets are proportioned and polished. A perfectly cut diamond, whatever the shape, will sparkle beautifully.

Founded in Dublin in the 1950s, Appleby Jewellers is family-owned with decades of craftsmanship and trust. We hand-select every diamond, offer lifetime cleaning and aftercare, and create every ring in our in-house workshop to the highest standard.

The price depends heavily on the 4 C’s (cut, colour, clarity, carat) . Applebys offer excellent value for money.

The cut, colour, clarity make a huge difference. A 1.00 ct diamond with top colour (D, E) and top clarity (IF, VVS) might cost 5 to 10× more than a 1.00 ct diamond with lower colour (I, J) and clarity (SI) even though they weigh the same.

Round brilliant and oval diamonds remain the most popular shapes. Halo settings, solitaires, and three-stone styles are common.

We always recommend 18ct gold and platinum. Both are precious, durable metals designed to last a lifetime.

Platinum is naturally white and exceptionally strong, hypoallergic and that resists wear and retains its colour without the need for re-plating.

18ct gold and blush rose gold offers a rich, luxurious look with excellent durability. Its higher gold content gives a warm tone and a timeless appeal.

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