my 2 cents

[tomatoe]

while searching for more information on ps, i came upon the very interesting issue of what asians in asia look for when choosing a diamond. and especially jlim''s prespective, since he is not even living in asia but in america (from what i can gather from his posts)

this is a prespective from me, a chinese female, born, bred and living in singapore.

1. why most asians say they want to (and do) buy diamonds that are around d-f colour, vvs1/2 clarity. from personal experience and friends, ''we'' buy these diamonds because we dont know any better. all we know is the very basic of the 4c''s which is that d-f colour, vvs1/2 clarity is very good and what we should look for when buying diamonds. before i found ps, i was only looking at d-f, vvs1/2 diamonds as well. and most of my friends only use that to ''judge'' a diamond when they buy e-rings.

in singapore, majority of shops and consumers have never heard of and do not use or have the equipment for sarin, b''scope, isee2, gem advisor. the only certification we can look out for is gia, ags. if we buy from the traditional goldsmith shop, either u are longtime customers of them and depend on the salesperson''s judgement or u cross ur fingers and pray real hard u don''t get a dud.

the average person buying a diamond doesnt know anything, even my aussie asian friends know nothing about diamonds! they think that as long as it is d-f colour, vvs1/2 clarity they will get a wonderful, sparkly diamond. worst still, they think that as long as they buy from MAUL stores, where the staff know nothing much and the prices are RIDICULOUS, they will get a good diamond.

so far, i have not heard anything like people choosing d-f colour, vvs1/2 clarity because it symbolises purity. that may be so with some asians but not my friends or i.

2. diamonds and diamond e-rings are a fairly ''new'' market, previously most people just bought simple gold wedding bands to get married with. it is only in recent years, past 3, that i see diamonds being worn everywhere by many women. (i love diamonds and have been diamond-watching since i was 16) diamonds used to be what the very rich people were able to afford, and its only now with the rising affluence and awareness that the middle-income are getting on the band wagon. this is another reason why the average person has zero knowledge about diamonds.

3. as for size, why 0.5 carats or less. diamonds are expensive, 0.5 carat, f/vvs2 = approx S$5k = about us$2850 with the current exchange rates. the average person earns S$1800-$3k and the guys in singapore are at a disadvantage to their american counterparts due to national service of approx 3 years. by the time a guy finishes his ns and degree to start his working life, he will be about 23-25 years old. so most guys are only willing to spend approx s$5k on the e-ring.

4. i only know so much more now because i am more interested in diamonds than the average person and took the time to research. what initially stemmed from the dissatisfaction that i wanted bigger/ better for my dollar became a whole ''semester'' on the finer points of diamond purchasing. one guy i know, who before this had more diamond knowledge than me, only bought a diamond based on a gia cert cos he thought and still thinks that it is enough. he also says that since his girl''s hand is too small, she doesnt need a big diamond, he bought a 0.4ct. i think he''s just being stingy, but thats me.

i''d love a huge 3 ct rock but i know it is beyond our means and at my age, people would assume the worse things about how i got it and if it''s real. i got my 0.25 ct (no cert) diamond e-ring about 3 years ago from a goldsmith''s shop just based on my gut and liking the look of the diamond in the shop, which i later had made into a 3 stone ring with 2 side diamonds from an older earring set. for my upgrade, i am hoping for a miniumum 0.7-0.9 ct regent which will hopefully satisfy me until i can get my hands on that 3 ct..

i just HAD to get this off my chest cos i didnt like being misrepresented by a male asian living in america~!!!!

 

[Mara]

Interesting perspective....




I have a girlfriend who is singaporean and her e-ring is tiny...about .4c and her wed band is simple gold I. Her hubby is American...I think he got her a small stone because 1) she is very tiny...child size 14 clothes/size 0 adult 2) they were young and fresh out of college when they got married and 3) thats probably all she wanted--if what you noted is right..she probably thought that the size was more than enough.




She doesn't even wear her e-ring hardly at all and thinks her stone is great...it's so interesting to me...me being a big 3c lover myself...hee hee. How did you end up being a huge diamond lover in such a society? BTW you should check out Diane's regent...I think it's in Show me the Ring..amazing!! It's about 1c I think.




Appreciate your viewpoint, especially when it disagrees with stereotypical ideas!

So from what you noted..is that S$1-3k salary per month or per year? I hope it's per month!! Otherwise that S$5k diamond is a year and a half of salary?

 

[tomatoe]

mara, firstly that S$1800-3k salary is monthly, sorry to scare u... lol.

i am sure given a choice between a larger diamond and a smaller diamond (both equally beautiful), any woman, be it american caucasian/asian, or asian, will choose the bigger stone. even if she has said that she doesnt mind what the guy buys. i am not advocating that she turn down a smaller stone or laugh in the guy's face(that is so b|tchy and the guy is better off not marrying her) but come on, no woman in her right mind is gonna turn down something that is bigger right? i guess i love diamonds, my parents gave me my first diamond for my 17/18th birthday, since then i have recieved 3 pairs of earrings, 1 pave bracelet, 3 pendants (i lost the 1 i got for my 21st bday!!!!

), 1 e-ring. the biggest diamonds i currently own are earrings of 0.66ct.

i have seen my friends and their wives/ fiances's 0.4-0.5 carat e-rings and i have also seen a 3-4 ct ring on hands. the 0.4-0.5ct looks ok enough but the 3-4 ct looks better of course, u just wanna reach out to it and grab it. much like how there is the urge to pinch the cheeks of a cute chubby kid! to me (in my ideal world) the bigger the diamond the better, just being greedy but which person isint. i dont believe that there is such a thing as the diamond being too big for a girl's hands and guys who use that excuse are just being cheap, provided they can afford the bigger diamond. i am not unreasonable and do not expect something which my hubby/ we cannot afford, which is why my upgrade will only be 0.7-0.9 ct.

yeah i have chked out diane's regent and spoken to her abit about regents. have also been in contact with jonathan from gog but the purchase will only be after xmas or in jan. its only cos of ps that i came across regents, we generally have rounds and princesses in singapore. i was looking at ovals until i found out about bowties, and then read a thread that had most of the regular ps'ers talking about regents. i didnt want a round, cos i figured if i am going to buy a better diamond, i want something that is totally different to what everyone has.

p.s. before coming to ps, i thought people who bought from tiffany's were stupid. after coming to ps, it just confirms to me that they are

 

[ringbling17]

Hi Tomatoe,
Very interesting and very true. This is going to be a long post, so bear with me!
When I married into my husband's family, I had no idea what I was getting into. My husband is Cambodian and I am Filipino, so even though we are both asian, we still come from very different cultures.
My inlaws, especially my SIL and my husband's aunts all loved diamonds. But, they only believed that one should buy VVS1-VS1, and DEF colored diamonds. All I ever hear from them is how much someone else paid for a diamond, the stats, so and so's diamond is good, or not so good, etc.
The one thing I have noticed is that they have no idea about cut. All they care about is color and clarity, and the diamond cannot have flourescence. AS long as it is within that range and is certified, they could care less about ideal cut, H&A's, polish and symmetry. And size doesn't really matter, but the bigger the better, I guess. I am the only one in his family with a larger diamond (2 carats).
Also, they don't believe in appraisals or getting insurance. They believe that as long as you have the GIA certificate and you loupe the diamond, the diamond is what it is.
In fact, many of the Cambodians that I know use my husband's aunt to purchase diamonds. They set up a day with her and she takes them to the people she knows and picks out diamonds in their price range and bargains the price for them, etc. She even accompanies them to have the diamond set.
Well, I did not get an engagement ring when I got married. In fact, I did not get a diamond until we were married almost 4 years and I bought it myself.
So, imagine how I felt, coming from the kind of family that could care less about diamonds, and constantly being made to feel inadequate because I never got one.
Then, when I did buy myself one, they took it and examined it and told me that the diamond I had was not good!!!
I had purchased an OMC diamond, preset in a 1920's art deco platinum setting. I bought it because I just loved the setting. I didn't care about the quality of the diamonds too much, but later on found that the center stone was I VS2 (now SI1), and the two sidestones were H/I VVS2. I remember we were at a party and they said in front of everyone, oh, this diamond is bad. They even pulled out loupes! I was so embarrassed.
Last year, my SIL asked me what I wanted for my 10 year anniversary. AT the time, it was really the farthest thing on my mind. Then, she shows me her diamond pendant that she got and started bragging about it, and again, I felt inadequate.
So, this year, I convinced my husband to buy me a nice diamond. Since he never bought me one to begin with, I wanted one that was fairly big. AT least bigger than my SIL's, which kept changing in size depending on how she felt that day, but was around 1.15. She said she couldn't remember any of the stats, just that it was a good diamond and she paid $7000 for it, in France

.
So, I found PS and bought a 1.5 F VVS2 ACA H&A. I thought I would be happy with this size, but I found that I wanted something even bigger and traded it to a 2.03 G VS1 ACA H&A.
OF course, I am not going to tell my husband's family what the stats are. If I told them it was a G, they would tell me to return it or tell me it was no good.
In fact, whenever I went to my SIL's house, I would hide it in my sleeve so that they wouldn't ask to see it. Imagine, getting a 2 carat H&A and being afraid someone would say something bad about it??
But that's how I felt.
Finally, one day, my SIL noticed it and guess what? She actually ran to get her engagement ring( from her safe), a 1 carat E VS1, and compared the two together.
To my relief and surprise, she told me that my diamond looked better than hers. Which is a hard thing to do for her.
She even told me that she thought I had a D color, because she was positive that hers was an E.
Ha, ha.
The best satisfaction I got was this past September. My husband's aunts were at a party I went to and I was wearing my diamond. Of course, they asked to look at it and they all exclaimed how beautiful it was, and it was at least an E and they took out loupes

, and told me that it must be at least VVS1, because they could not see any inclusions. I just nodded and agreed with them. They asked me how much I paid, and I just told them it was alot. They also yelled at me for not asking them to go shopping with me for such a large purchase.
Of course, on the side lines my SIL watched. I think she was hoping that they would find something wrong, oh well

My family on the other hand, doesn't give a crap!!! They don't know anything about diamonds and no one really even wears one.
I am not saying that all filipino families are like that, but my family doesn't care what you wear.
Oh, one more thing about the $5k maximum budget for a diamond e-ring, I have to agree with that. I remember when I would hear my husband's aunts talking, I never heard them say anyone's diamond cost more than $5k.
Anyway, I just wanted to share that with you, since you seem to know what I am talking about.

 

[tomatoe]

kayla, its great to hear about other asian's ideas on diamonds. is ur husband's family still in cambodia or in america now? from what i know of cambodia's economy, if they are still in cambodia then they must be a relatively well to do family. but i think cambodians may be more into gems/ stones, cos i worked with a cambodian lady and she was always having some jewellery or other (no diamonds tho).

its so great to hear that u managed to stop them from making any disparaging remarks about your diamond

 

[Hest88]

LOL! Thanks Tomatoe for your perspective. Isn't it funny how differently a man will think from what a woman will think?

 

[tomatoe]

hest, thats cos men are from mars and women are from venus.

and i go against the norm of a typical singaporean (asian) girl, so maybe thats why this is my perspective.

 

[diane5006]

Hi here is a pic of my Regent...LOVE it...I think I posted the original in Rocky Talky...Tomatoe sorry I havent gotten back to your PM from earlier...will try to get you some info this week