THE 4 C'S OF A DIAMOND
Cut
Many people confuse the quality of the cut with the shape of a diamond. The cut is the only direct influence of human beings to the diamond. A good cutter could play with the shape and the quality of the cutting to improve the quality of the diamond. The cut will influence the fire and sparkle of the diamond. Created in 1900 the brilliant cut is the most used cut. The Brilliant cut consists in 57 or 58 facets (with or without culet).
The cut for the watches setting is very demanding due to the fact that the diamonds are small and the setting in the stainless steel asks a perfect cutting. Certina diamonds are cut in the traditional Brilliant style without culet.
The Certina’s diamond certificate shows a 32/24 which is the total number of facets (crown-girdle/pavilion) excluding the table.
Colour
The colour describes the amount of colour the diamonds contains. The diamonds may be green, red, pink, blue and many other fancy colours. The most common colours are brown and yellow. The diamonds we use in the watch industry are yellow. The scale of colour ranges from colourless to pale yellow with an infinite variety of subtle intermediate hues. The rarest of the diamonds colours are white or colourless. So, the more colourless the diamond is, the more valuable it is.
For the colour grading many scales exist. The most used are the “Wesselton scale” for trade and the “D to Z scale” (from GIA) as official scale.
The colour scale is broken down as it follows:
| |
| Hue |
GIA Scale |
Wesselton Scale |
| |
| Color Less |
D |
Jager |
| E |
River |
| F |
River |
| |
| Near Color Less |
G |
Top Wesselton |
| H |
Wesselton |
| I |
Top Crystal |
| J |
Crystal |
| |
| Faint Yellow |
K |
Top Cape |
| L |
Top Cape |
| M |
Cape |
| |
| Very Light Yellow |
N |
Low Cape |
| O |
Very Light Yellow |
| P |
Very Light Yellow |
| Q |
Very Light Yellow |
| R |
Very Light Yellow |
| |
| |
S to Z colours |
|
| |
The colour of the Certina diamonds is Top Wesselton due to the fact that the setting in white metals does not allow any colour.
Clarity
The clarity describes the clearness of a diamond. Most diamonds have imperfections in them. The internal and external imperfections are classified under the term "inclusions". The clarity is determined by the severity of the inclusions.
The clarity scale is broken down as it follows:
| |
| FL, IF |
Flawless, Internally Flawless |
| |
| VVS1, VVS2 |
Very, Very Slightly Included |
| |
| VS1, VS2 |
Very Slightly Included |
| |
| SI1, SI2 |
Slightly Included |
| |
| I1, I2, I3 |
Included |
| |
Carat-weight
The carat is a standard unit of measure that defines the weight of a diamond (and gems).
One carat is equal to 1/5 of a gram (in the trade, the diamonds are also measured in points, i.e. 1 carat = 100 points).
Certina certifies that its diamonds are in respect with the Kimberley process certification scheme and the “System of Warranties”:
"Our diamonds have been purchased from legitimate sources not involved in funding conflict and are in compliance with the United Nations resolutions. We hereby guarantee that these diamonds are conflict-free, based on personal knowledge and/or written guarantees provided by the supplier of our diamonds."
CONFLICT DIAMONDS AND THE KIMBERLEY PROCESS
Requirement for a written guarantee within the diamond trade