The Jewellery Quarter - Birmingham

Catty212

Thanks for that!

I'm in Durham so it would be quite a trek, but we have some time off shortly and may have a 'romantic' shopping trip.

curlygirl1971

I’m writing this up mainly because I recently came on the forum looking for reviews and info about the Jewellery Quarter in Birmingham...........so perhaps this may help someone else searching for the same in the future.

We went to a couple of high-street jewellers first and I also spent time reading up on 4 c's, looking at styles, figuring out what size of Carat I could get for our budget etc. I rather fancied some of the more unusual settings and fancy shapes but there are few opportunities at high street jewellers to try these on and see if they suit you in real life. So we decided that we'd go to the JQ.

There are so many places to go in but we went in around 6 different places over 2 days – some recommended and some random - and to be honest I found it exhausting and my head was spinning with the colours, claritys, cuts etc.

The experience is a little different to that of the high street - the JQ is more down to business – shops are busy – especially on a Saturday - and the sales people are exactly that – knowledgeable about their products and experienced in sales patter. After telling one sales lady that quality over size was more important to me, she scanned the stock list, her face lit up and said she had a wonderful diamond to show me, explained the certification and said ‘This is the diamond we girls in the shop would buy’. Unfortunately she used exactly the same line a week later with another diamond. To be honest though I liked her, I got what she was saying (why spend money on a D with a VG cut when an E with an Excellent cut is less money and will sparkle more) and I did end up buying from her. From the over-whelming choice available she helped me find out what I wanted and what suited me. We didn’t come across anyone brusque or unhelpful as I’ve seen reported elsewhere.

Most places seemed to offer certified diamonds (GIA, IGI), we found one Jewellers that used an Independent certifier who had been trained by IGI (we crossed checked him on internet) and we also went in another Jewellers who was perhaps £200+ cheaper than other places and it was because they 'Self-Certed'. Ie. the business owner was the Master Jeweller buying the diamonds, making and selling his pieces and he was also the person who decided on the quality of the diamond. Not saying he was dodgy but I preferred not to take the risk - I didn't want to pay for a VS1 Clarity ring and find out in a few years time if I took it to another place to be cleaned that it was really a I1. To me it’s a bit like buying a car where the seller has written out their own MOT.

I noticed from what other couples were looking at, is that a lot seem to be going for larger stones. One jeweller said that years ago he could have stock pre-set with 0.40 diamonds but nowadays people were more interested in a minimum of 0.5 upwards. To be honest I found this quite disheartening – I know it sounds ridiculous and materialistic but I feel that I’ve come away with a diamond that’s small. It doesn’t help that I’m visiting family in the US next month and I know their average carat size is more like 1.0! (Their diamonds are also cheaper).

But after looking at a lot of loose diamonds on the internet (eg Blue Nile) I could see that the diameter of a 0.40 ct compared to 0.50 ct was less than 1 mm difference. In my case, my 0.42 ct is 0.47mm smaller in diameter than the typical 0.50 ct. But as the price of a 0.50 ct is considerably more than what I felt comfortable asking my BF to spend, I opted to spend money on colour and cut to ensure I got a lot of sparkle for [STRIKE]my[/STRIKE] his money and I keep telling myself that half a bloody millimetre is not worth getting princessey about .

There is also a growing trend towards diamond set shoulders – another thing that’s really popular in the US - but again this seems to add perhaps £200+ to a ring and whilst they looked gorgeous I decided I'm just not that blingy. If I wore a ring like that I’d feel like I’d always need my hair and nails doing before I could put it on.

We bought from Marlows because 1) I’d not found anything negative about them on the internet 2) they had a stone and a setting at a competitive price and 3) I liked the woman who served us – she did her sales stuff but she was informative, helpful and she didn’t patronise. I found it very hard to compare like for like across different shops but Marlows seemed to be more competitive than Crystalink and Diamond Heaven on that day for a particular diamond spec. They were the same price as Bicknells but I didn't see a setting I liked. I didn’t think Newey’s had a lot of choice in the showroom. Of course places will make a setting for you but I'm the sort of person that needs to 'see' something in order to choose and make a decision. I liked the 'feeling' in Crystalink, it seemed like a proper Jewellers - Diamond Heaven felt a little more of a false environment somehow.

Marlows knocked a little off their price - but I think all places expect to knock a little off their 'first' price and probably build that in. Some places were flexible with their prices if you paid cash rather than credit card. They know people are going to go from shop to shop but they also know they are always going to sell a diamond to someone if it's not you. Some places guarantee their workmanship for a lifetime and some (like Marlows) for 3 years. Providing they have a stone and a setting you like, and you don’t buy too late in the day, most places will have the ring ready for you in 1 hour (2 hours on a Saturday). Re-sizing, I found, took 30 mins.

So we paid £1200 for a 0.42 ct solitaire in a 2.5mm 950 platinum band. It is an IGI certified diamond with E colour, SI1 Clarity, graded as excellent cut, excellent polish, VG Symmetry, slight floresence. I can see no inclusions in my diamond with my untrained naked eye (and boy have I stared and stared at it). If it was GIA certified they would have likely graded it’s cut as VG and possibly down to F/SI2. (Diamonds with a GIA diamonds cert seem to cost more and after rooting around on the internet I think this may be because their grading spec is higher. A GIA Excellent cut may cost more compared to an IGI Excellent cut because the IGI cut may actually be a VG cut instead).

I chose platinum as I wanted a white metal and platinum isn't going to need re-plating every few years like White Gold does, it's also harder and less likely to scratch. If we had bought my ring in Marlows but in White Gold it would have been £100 cheaper - it seemed like a no-brainer, but sometimes the pricing gap is wider. Palladium didn't seem widely on offer and we didn't come across any display settings to have a look at.

So how much money did we save by going to the JQ? We paid £1200. The insurance valuation they gave us is £1800. I priced up the same on Blue Nile when I got home and that came out £50 cheaper, but with GIA Certification (so possibly better quality diamond?) – but of course you don’t get to try it on your hand and also they didn’t have a setting like or similar to the one I wanted/went for. 77Diamonds.com did have a similar setting and that came out at £30 more. Compared to the High-street – I’d looked at the following diamonds set in similar Platinum rings:-

0.33 ct, H Si1 £2499 (Canadian, Cert by GGI) No cut info
0.40 ct, F Si1 £2160 (Independant Lab Cert) No cut info

Other costs......... Well obviously we used more petrol than if going local. If you park at the far end of Pitsford Street (just off A5440) then there is free on-street parking. On-street parking further up and the car park was about £2.30 for 4 hours. We had a basic but very tasty sandwich each at the dads-pub Jewellery Arms for £5 plus drinks. On our second visit we went to the trendier Rectory Bar and paid £17 for 2 Sandwiches and 2 soft drinks. When we do the wedding ring trip we'll probably go back to the Jewellery Arms

Ring added to my insurance as a specified item under £2000 – free. I’ve also bought a couple of ring spikes off Ebay so that I can have one in the bedroom, bathroom and kitchen so that when I take it off and I can put it somewhere safe and visible. There was no price incentive for paying cash/debit so we put it on a credit card that earned clubcard points :cool:

And despite my girly doubts about the size, I’m totally besotted by it. I never thought I could actually love an inanimate object. I find myself just stood gazing at it and it's fabulous sparkle. :rotfl:A beautiful diamond really is a fabulous thing to behold.


Best of luck & apologies for the uber-long post.

CompBunny

How kind of you to take the time to write such a long and helpful post for those thinking of visiting the birmingham jewellery quarter

curlygirl1971

Thanks CompBunny - your name rang a bell and I realise you are the poster over on the Engagement ring thread that posted the link for http://www.pricescope.com/tools/hca - Thanks! I used it on Saturday to look at my ring as I was retrospectively nervous about the IGI grading

My diamond came out with a score of 0.6 Excellent. I also had a look at the GIA Facetware tables and as a complete amateur referencing the measurements on my IGI cert, using the tables, I found that the GIA estimated cut grade for my diamond would be the top end of Very Good.....just a little point away from Excellent in most cases.

As I went for a IGI Si1, I'm glad I scrutinised it for visual inclusions.

Anyway - to my untrained eye it's lovely and sparkly!

Congratualations on your own engagement

CompBunny

Curlygirl it sounds like you made a great choice The most important thing is that they are "mind clean" to the wearer ie you have a gem you love!! Glad you found that the HCA calculator and other tools confirmed your thoughts though! Shoulder diamonds are pretty but I don't think anything can quite match the understated class of a sparkly solitaire.

Thanks for the congrats, same to you My poor OH had to pick a diamond for me whose interest is in gems so he did a great job I have a 0.42ct diamond too! Ring twins hehe. I'm considering getting a moissanite wedding band....so it will still look the same as the diamond in my engagement ring but I will know its different gems and get to geekily enjoy the different way they play with the light

nickcc

Catty212 wrote: »

Thanks for that!

I'm in Durham so it would be quite a trek, but we have some time off shortly and may have a 'romantic' shopping trip.

We used to go home to Birmingham every few weeks when we lived in Durham (ushaw moor and south crescent) and it took less than 2 1/2 hrs. Have to be honest and say that we preferred the North east to Birmingham and would never have made the trip back if it were not for family reasons.