An important aspect of a diamond is its weight. Diamonds are measured in carat and 1 carat equals exactly 0.2 grams. The word carat is actually derived from the word “Carob” which is a specific bean of the locust tree. As most Carob seeds are very even in their weight distribution these seeds were used to measure fine jewellery in the past.
For today’s standards this seems like a very unreliable method to measure the weight of a diamond. Still, the word carat survived.
Is carat weight the most important factor when buying a diamond?
No, and I hope you already know that!
A diamond is all about looks, brilliance, fire and scintillation. All these characteristics are determined by the diamond cut! Only a diamond with Excellent cut proportions will provide you with the maximum of brilliance that you should be looking for.
Of course, if you have a diamond with a great cut, more carat weight will make the facets of the diamond appear larger which in turn will return more light and sparkle to the viewer’s eye.
Still, it should be your main priority to make sure that you get the best possible cut so that you can then adjust the carat weight accordingly.
Far too many people are focused on the carat weight because this is the first question that you will likely be asked by relatives and friends. For many people it is a matter of prestige to be able to say that one’s diamond has at least 1 carat in weight. In order to make the diamond affordable many people therefore compromise on the cut. I would advise that you do not do that!
Why exactly is the cut more important than the carat weight?
I want to demonstrate this fact to you by showing you the two outlines of two different diamonds. Both diamonds are exactly one carat in weight.
The diamond on the left side has a pavilion depth of 66.4 % and thus a lot of hidden weight in it. The diamond therefore only measures 6.2 mm in diameter. The diamond on the right side however has only a depth of 61.7 %. This is the optimal depth according to super optimal diamond cut proportions!
This results in the diamond being 6.5 mm in diameter. This makes a very noticeable difference as with every mm more in diameter the surface of the diamond increases exponentially (you might remember the formula π * r² back from school). A larger surface means more light being returned to the viewer’s eye and thus a larger amount of brilliance, sparkle and scintillation!
Thus, by choosing a better cut your diamond appears larger and thus seems to have more carat weight. You would therefore wonder why there are people out there who pay more attention to carat weight than to the cut grade! Sadly, these people are mostly misinformed or they don’t really care about the beauty of the diamond but just want to be able to say that they bought a diamond with such and such carat weight.
How does an increase in carat weight affect a diamond?
The carat weight of a diamond impacts both the price and the size of a diamond. A diamond with two carat does not appear twice as large as a diamond with one carat. This is due to the fact that most of the diamond weight is retained within the depth a diamond.
If you want to have a general idea of what the diamond with your specific carat weight will look like mounted onto a ring setting you can use the James Allen carat size simulator.
Furthermore, the price per carat increases exponentially. This is simply due to the fact that any finished diamond is yielded from only one piece of rough diamond. To obtain a bigger diamond the rough diamond will also have to be bigger. As large rough diamonds occur far more rarely in nature than its smaller counterparts, the prices increase accordingly.
Here is a table I have created with round cut diamonds that I have found on James Allen with all the same parameters in cut, color, clarity apart from its carat weight. As you can see the price increases exponentially:
All other things being equal the price of a diamond increases exponentially the more carat a diamond has
