Buying an engagement ring

As I only can see with dollar sign glasses; you got yourself the better ring didn't you?

Lady has been treated with posh gold and for me.....at least it matches my titanium Protrek dial

Congrats !

CONGRATULATIONS!!!!

Regardless of how many months salary you wan to blow on it, its really the sincerity that counts Breezy

I assume you've already read up on the 4Cs of diamonds before making the trip to the jewelers? Loads of male friends of mine (even my husband!) were initially rather overwhelmed by the information overload on diamonds at first!

http://www.thediamondbuyingguide.com...fdiamonds.html

To the human eye, its the colour that matters most. If you can help it, get something no less than a D, E or F coloured. As for the cut, it really depends on the girl's taste but you cant go wrong with a platinum round cut engagement ring. Timeless

Have you considered Amsterdam? Diamonds there are pretty reasonable.

Watch out for the big names like Tiffanys and Cartier as they tend to inflate their prices because of the brand name but in my experience, their diamonds are just not all that.

Once again, congratulations to you and the lucky girl in advance

Hey Congratulations when is the big day?

Can recommend these folks -

http://yellow.local.ch/en/q/Zurich,%208001/berk*.html

They're really nice, friendly and helpful. They mounted a number of stones in a superb ring. Stones themselves came from Antwerp, so I second the "trip to Antwerp" suggestion too :-)

.

How about trying to find someone to make it? We did this when it was a months salary and I forgot to deduct the VAT! Oh well - we went to a guy who had lots of rings in a book to look at and then we chose stones and hey presto - he made it exactly as we wanted. I had a sapphire and 2 diamonds - he set the sapphire so it looked like a better stone!

Well done!

We already had one. Officially wedlocked in a small Gemeinde room

More ceremonial wedding will follow later....

Hello

Hubby got mine in Kurz, they have a good selection They are also in Bahnhofstrasse.

I tend to agree with the diamond not sticking out but then again everyone should get what they wish for... one thing to think about though is the fit to the wedding ring... yes, I know it is ahead of times but good to do anyway

But back to your question...

We bought our wedding rings on this site: http://www.123gold.de/trauringe/

they do also diamond soliatires etc.

We went to the shop though but ended up with pretty much the same as we would have ordered online. The nice thing here is that you configure your own ring so you have soemthing unique.

They have german prices and take off VAT which helps. You of course then pay swiss VAt etc. I think it took about 2 weeks to be delivered.

Cheers,

K

And I was still at the 1 month salary rule, especially in CH with the salary levels

Hubby was cheeky though and got mine before he finished being a PhD research assistant and started as a banker... smart him

And... I also got him a real nice engagement present 8a watch) as I really believe in gender equality

Ciao

K

I advise some caution about buying on the internet in the hope to save money. The store mark up on precious stones is at least 100%. But the good ones will assure you that you are buying stones of a certain quality and back this up with a certificate of insurance. After all they have a reputation to protect and want to be selling rings to your friends and even your children!!

Do not forget that jewelry above a certain value is not covered by standard household insurance and you must provide specific information and pay an extra premium. You might get lucky on the internet but I would only buy from someone where I was sure they were honest in the appraisal. After all, this is your soon to be spouse and you would not want her to wear a ring that you thought was a sapphire and diamond and then find out it was zircon and paste (can happen).

Congratulations and good luck whichever and wherever you buy the lucky lady the ring!!

Conflict -free diamonds are expensive, some are turning to Moissanite.

I bought my wife's engagement ring at Kurz in Zürich, Bahnhofstrasse. There is also a Kurz in the Glattzentrum, at the big atrium on the 3rd floor I believe in the centre.

Kurz provided good advice (upstairs, nice seating area, you get a coffee etc -- do come at a quiet time of day say Sat 10am or so) and took their time to explain and show the various models they offered. A very good design range from very classic to more modern. I looked for the classic solitaire ring, and found/preferred a so-called 4-prong setting above the more old-fashioned 6-prong setting. The 4-prong apparantly allows more light to enter the diamond producing extra sparkle I was told and I liked it more.

My wife was on cloud-9 when she saw the ring and has worn it every day since.

Kurz gives you a certificate that it is guaranteed blood-free diamond. Besides, they service the ring once a year for free (clean and make it extra shiny again). Make sure you know the size of her ring as they will/might charge you CHF 50 to make the ring smaller or bigger (which I found unpleasant surprise after having spent so much - I managed them to waive this fee)

I also had a look in the Christ and although they have quite a wide range, its more a what-you-see-is-what-you-get shop and the quality of advice differed greatly. It's a bit more mainstream. For classic solitaires their designs were good but not great. The shop assistants ranged from very uninterested 20-something year-old just showing what I asked to show, to a quite okay level of service, information and advice. In the end the bit extra I paid at Kurz was well worth it. A .25 carat solitaire ring, ( C olor H, "transparant", C ut: brilliant, C larity SI-1) was priced about CHF 2'000 a year and a half ago, about the same at Christ and Kurz, perhaps a few hundred francs difference.

I fully agree with the post about bewaring to buy on internet!

Ahum ... for example this .25 carat solitaire from Quelle sells for CHF 1'295 on-line but not mentioned the clarity and colour...

Basically you will get what you pay for -- especially in the diamond business it's key to buy from a source you can fully trust, with a good reputation and not try to cut corners and go for the "bargain" out there -- this diamond will likely have bigger impurities which translates in a lower price.

On how much to spend on the ring: bogus "rules" about month-salaries ... it's more about how much you are willing to spend in your circumstances roughly, what your future fiancé would (still) feel comfortable wearing and trust me the look on her face will be absolutely priceless and a moment you'll remember for the rest of your life ! Good luck and you can PM me for further questions anytime.

Sorry i cant really give much advice about where to purchase the ring, although i did work for a long haul airline for many years and alot of the girls used to drag their fiances to Johannesburg to buy a big diamond alot cheaper than the UK. Apparently you can go to the factories direct & choose diamond & setting & they make it up for you. This is only really an option if you work for an airline as you have to go back to pick it up,although i suppose you could combine it with a holiday....Joburg wouldnt be top of my list for fun holiday destinations though!

The reason im posting is to say make sure you choose an appropriate setting for the ring,mine has just literally snapped where the diamond joins the band. This is really upsetting not to mention alot of hassle getting it back to the jewellers in Scotland where hubby bought it to be fixed. It was not a cheap ring its made of platinum & has a single carat diamond,its just what he chose me was designed for the kind of woman who doesnt do much i think! It is a very delicate unusual setting which looks stunning but has proved to be somewhat impractical.

So my word of advice is consider your future wifes lifestyle when picking the ring she'll be wearing for many years to come.

My brother presented his fiancee-to-be with a ring fashioned out of a paper-clip *

I don't think he ever did replace it with a real ring.

He's got married (to her, amazingly) and they now have two children.

* There's a Stationery shop in Rennweg off Bahnhofstrasse, Zurich.

I'll be off to Kurz this weekend and maybe a few of the other recommendations listed! Good advice one and all.

I suppose I am risking a groan- I don't think that the ring is that important. For years I got one ring after the other, each one was supposed to be a sign of renewed commitment Now I have whole collection, don't wear any at all and was never more happily married. Although my husband still likes to wear his, he likes to twirl it on his finger.

Last year I bought two platinum rings from Amazon. To be clear, from Amazon US web site; www.amazon.com .

Amazon calculated and handled all the Swiss customs and VAT costs. arrived in 3 days. We even returned the first pair of rings, when we decided they were slightly loose. We just paid the return shipping. To my surprise Amazon also paid back the initial VAT and customs charges and sent us a a new pair with a new order.

For diamond rings, Amazon has a nice flash application where you can build your diamond ring. Just make sure, you order your ring from "Amazon collections" not a third party seller via Amazon.

You could also try www.bluenile.com . It looks like they have a site for Switzerland, and you can build your own ring, with very exacting specifications for stones that are GIA certified. I do not know about whether you can get anything certified by the Kimberly process (conflict-free) but to be honest, that system has loopholes, and thus it is no guarantee that the stone is truly clean in that sense. But, that is a topic for another discussion....

Hi Breezy

My boyfriend is also trying to figure out the whole ring thing, but is unfortunately ignoring all my not so subtle hints. Anyway I know of a designer in South Africa who frequently travels overseas to deliver and from what I heard she is very good - have a look at the references page:

http://www.petrajewellery.co.za/