A ring leaves 9 Hatton Garden on a Saturday afternoon in a small box, with the receipt folded underneath it. The receipt records what was paid. It does not record what the ring would cost to replace in three years, and that gap is where most engagement ring insurance claims come unstuck. Smith & Green […]
Two stones sit on a tray at a Hatton Garden counter, both round brilliants of about a carat, both bright, one priced at a fraction of the other. The cheaper one is a laboratory-grown diamond, and the question the buyer asks is the obvious one. Smith & Green Jewellers is a fine jewellery retailer in […]
Ask a jeweller whether their diamonds are ethical and most of them will say yes. They will say it quickly, with confidence, and with very little supporting detail. This is worth paying attention to, because “ethical” is not a standardised term in the jewellery trade and it does not mean the same thing from one […]
The centre stone is chosen. The carat weight is settled, the certificate is in hand, and the buyer at the consultation table has been quietly thrilled for 20 minutes. Then the next question lands and the room goes quiet. Which setting. Claw, pavé, bezel or halo. Most buyers arrive at Smith and Green’s 9 Hatton […]
A client returned to the 9 Hatton Garden showroom on a Tuesday afternoon last spring with a story that arrives more often than it should. Her engagement ring had slipped down a hotel basin drain in Lisbon, the hotel plumber had not been able to retrieve it, and her insurer was now asking for documents […]
There is a small ritual that takes place every working day at the consultation desks of 9 Hatton Garden. A buyer is handed a folded piece of paper, slightly larger than a passport, with a hologram in one corner and a string of numbers running down its left edge. They glance at it, smile politely, […]
A couple sits at the consultation table on a quiet Thursday at 9 Hatton Garden, the engagement ring already a year old on the left hand, the wedding eight months away. They have come in to choose the wedding bands. Within ten minutes, it becomes clear that the engagement ring was bought in a hurry, […]
Pick up a diamond grading certificate in a Hatton Garden consultation room, and you are holding something considerably more specific than a piece of reassurance. You are holding a scientific assessment: a record of how one diamond compares to every other diamond ever graded, produced by one of the two laboratories most buyers will encounter. […]
Stop searching for a definitive answer on jewellery forums and get one here. Platinum vs white gold is the most debated metal question in engagement ring buying, and the reason there is no consensus online is that most people writing about it are being diplomatically vague to avoid offending either camp. This article is not […]
Most people who are about to commission a bespoke engagement ring have the same quiet question somewhere in the background. Not whether it will be beautiful. That part, they are fairly confident about. The question is: what does this actually involve? How long will it take? What will I need to know, decide, bring, and […]
