December is more than Santa, mistletoe and holiday sales — it’s also engagement ring season.
Those shiny baubles proliferate more in December than in any other period of the calendar. An American Wedding Study conducted by Condé Nast Bridal Group reported that 15 percent of all proposals occur in December — double any other month.
Modern Bride executive editor Kara Corridan sees the phenomenon as a direct result of the holidays. “Engagement rings make for memorable presents, and family get-togethers are the perfect time to celebrate the engagement,” she said.
Jewelers, of course, happily plan for the one-two punch of holiday gift-giving and wedding-proposal purchases.
“We make sure every year that on the accessible end we have a new product…and on the high end [as well],” said Emmanuel Perrin, chief executive officer of Van Cleef & Arpels and president of its North American subsidiary.
The companies also rely on advertising and marketing campaigns, said David Sternblitz, vice president and treasurer of Zale Corp., which owns Zales Jewelers and Bailey Banks & Biddle, among others.
This year, however, there’s been a new challenge. The diamond jewelry industry has had to deal with potential fallout from the release of the movie “Blood Diamond,” starring Leonardo DiCaprio, which deals with so-called blood, or conflict, diamonds, which have been mined and traded to finance illegal activities and violent conflicts.
Sternblitz pointed out that the film, which is set during Sierra Leone’s civil war in the Nineties, predates strides such as the Kimberly Certification Process, an international alliance instituted in 2000 that tracks stones in hopes of eradicating conflict diamonds. Possibly as a result of these continuing efforts among diamond retailers, Sternblitz said, “we haven’t gotten a lot of customer response from the movie. It doesn’t appear that it should impact the diamond business.”
Perrin agreed with Sternblitz, saying he had not seen any negative impact on diamond sales. “[Van Cleef & Arpels] has always been very careful in working with its stone suppliers. We have been part of the more recent initiatives to eradicate the problem. We’re one of the founding members of The Council for Responsible Jewellery Practices.”
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In addition, Perrin said the increased media scrutiny would “send more customers to a store like ours, which has a good reputation.”
An engagement ring shopper will seek out a reputable retailer and try to find a sparkler that will last the test of time without losing its luster or, more important, going out of style. For this reason, the classic diamond solitaire ranks as the top seller of the engagement ring sector.
“When you buy an engagement ring, you really want something that’s classic, that will last forever. They want quality, and they want amazing stones,” said Alyce Alston, ceo of De Beers North America.
Although the popularity of certain cuts for engagement rings rises and falls, the perennial top seller by all accounts is the round cut, followed by emerald-cut diamonds. Fancy cuts like pear, princess, heart, Asccher and marquise (of which Graff has reported an uptick) come in and out of fashion fairly frequently.
De Beers reported that 80 percent of its engagement ring sales are in round cuts, like its De Beers signature solitaire, which starts at $8,500. The Cartier Solitaire 1895, that brand’s most popular engagement ring, starts at $4,650 and is also a round-cut diamond solitaire. Bailey Banks & Biddle’s best-selling Endless Love engagement ring (retails at $11,600) is a round-cut diamond solitaire, as well.
Harry Winston’s most popular engagement ring is a classic emerald-cut diamond solitaire that is priced upon request. Tiffany & Co. has had similar success with its square-cut diamond solitaire Lucida engagement ring, which starts at $1,970.
Zale’s best-selling engagement ring is a 2-carat emerald-cut diamond ring that retails at $4,999. Van Cleef & Arpels also vouches for the emerald-cut trend, with a best-selling diamond solitaire that starts around $22,000, depending on the quality of the stone and the carat weight.
For those who can spend just about any amount, there is considerable movement in the higher price points in colored stones. Harry Winston has seen an increased market in its blue and pink stones, like its fancy-intense pink diamond ring with 6.1 carats and two adjacent trapezoid-shaped diamonds, each 1.18 carats (priced upon request). Van Cleef’s high-end Pierres de Caractère (“Stones With Soul”) collection also boasts an array of colored diamonds, including a 17-carat sapphire ring that starts at $670,000.
These rings are not for your typical first engagement. The “big chunks, the big [rings] in the high end…are more for your second, third time around,” Alston said.