Recently, a client brought a months-old ring she had purchased on a cruise. The centre stone was a natural fancy-colour, radiant-cut diamond flanked by a pair of tapered shield-cut white diamonds. Unfortunately, one of the shoulder stones had fallen out and was gone forever.
I didn’t need a loupe to see the reason for this loss: the white gold claws that were supposed to hold the stones were not only tiny, they barely clasped the diamonds. Further, the outer claws had broken off entirely and the other shoulder stone claws were hanging by a thread.
Fortunately, the client had insured her ring and the policy covered the replacement diamond and necessary repairs. However, we ended up having to replace both shoulder diamonds, as it was not economically feasible to match the fancy cut of the remaining stone. Buying a new matched pair and selling the salvage stone back to the insurance company proved the simplest course of action. While we were at it, we not only replaced the white gold claws for the shoulder diamonds, but also installed new, heavier yellow gold claws for the centre stone. The rest of the ring was decent quality and now the client has a ring that will give her years of security and pleasure. Plus, I won’t see it back for repair any time soon!
