As the world’s most valued gemstones, diamonds are an extremely popular purchase in Abu Dhabi, where the stone is renowned for its high quality. Cartier, for instance, takes a creative and stylistic journey to the heart of the joys and delights of Middle Eastern culture and its wares are a highlight of the region. Femininity finds expression here in the form of bejewelled arabesques and volutes, and the colours and splendour of gemstone ornamentation.
Diamond, meaning ‘unbreakable’ in Greek, is the hardest substance known to man. So while it is highly unlikely that they will break while in their natural environment, diamonds are in fact ‘breakable’ if they are hit along certain grain lines (yet this doesn’t counteract their beauty). All diamonds are unique and withhold the beauty of individual taste, which comes down to the four Cs – carat, colour, clarity and cut.
First, the carat is the weight in which the diamond is measured: one carat equates to one fifth of a gram. Carats are divided into 100 points, so a 10-point diamond weighs 1/10 of a carat. Generally, the higher the carat, the higher the price. Second, there are many colours of diamonds, including blue, pink and even black, which are graded from D (colourless) to Z (light yellow). There are also ‘fancy colour’ diamonds, which have a high saturation of colour and are very rare.
www.cartier.com/find-boutique
Third, the clarity of a diamond refers to its internal and external characteristics, which basically come down to whether or not the stone has any flaws. Flawless stones are graded as ‘FL’, whereas imperfect stones (ones that have inclusions that can be seen with the naked eye) are labelled ‘I’. Finally, the angles and proportions at which the diamond has been sculpted, as well as its symmetry and polish create the cut of a diamond. A well-cut diamond will seem to be illuminated from within because of skilfully cut angles that reflect the light off one another; therefore, if the diamond is not cut well, the light inside it will tend to escape through the sides or bottom, thus not sparkling as much as it could.
www.graffdiamonds.com
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