Brian Gavin Diamonds carries 3 lines of round diamonds, their signature Hearts & Arrows, their Brian Gavin Blue, and their Brian Gavin Select. For this review, I will focus on the first two, as the Select line seems to be ‘selected’ generic round diamonds.
Brian Gavin Heart & Arrows
As always, I will first look at Brian Gavin Diamonds’s marketing material and see how their product stacks up. Brian Gavin Diamonds (BGD) markets their signature H&A as having “Optimum Performance” in terms of cut. They further go on to say that their objective is to enhance the ideal cut by creating “an ideal balance between optimum brilliance (return of light to the eye) and the scattering of light, or ‘fire’…” Towards the end of the marketing page, they finish by emphasising a “cut beyond brilliant” meaning that their signature-cut diamonds are “optically balanced for maximum visual performance”. In order to achieve this, BGD promises to sacrifice valuable carat weight without compromising the beauty of the diamond.
There are several ideas thrown into this marketing pitch that needs clarification for prosumers. First, it seems to suggest that there is such thing as optimum performance. Now my readers will know that I have been pointing out the fact that maximum light performance is not necessarily a good thing. Does that imply that there isn’t an optimum performance in diamonds? What BGD seems to tell us is that the BGD Hearts & Arrows is designed so that it achieves a balance.
My opinion is that it is definitely possible to design a diamond to have this balance between all the competing characteristics of diamond and that such a diamond may rightfully be considered optimum. That is, if all these characteristics are of equal importance to the consumer. But I will hazard a guess to say that a lot of people will have personal preference toward one characteristic or another, in the same way that some people prefer higher clarity and some people prefer a larger carat weight or colour. This highlights the importance of my next tutorial on the character of diamond in your purchasing decision.
The fact is, that optimum depends on your personal preference, but by purchasing a Brian Gavin signature Hearts & Arrows, you are choosing Brian’s preferences as to what is considered the optimum. Without going into further discussion on what will be covered in the tutorials, I will simply say that it is my opinion that to aim for a universally accepted version of optimal beauty takes away the romance of choosing a diamond by understanding your preference for a diamond’s character.
I randomly selected 6 GVS2 BGD Hearts & Arrows for this review.
Comparison Table
Lets look at the proportions for the BGD Signature Hearts & Arrows diamond. First, table percentage ranges from 56 to 57%. The first thing I think is ‘fine’, but as your knowledge of diamond grows, you may ask the question: “Why not 55%?”. Although a part of table percentage is consumer preference, it is an area that is also used to save weight sacrificing some fire by having a shorter crown. I only mention this because BGD claims to sacrifice carat weight to “optimise performance”.
The depth % ranges from 60.9 to 62%. I will take a closer look at the diamond with 62% depth later on. The crown angles in this selection range from 33.7 all the way to 34.9 degrees. At first glance, it seems like a variance of over one degree in crown angle suggests that the brand is not fixed on achieving a particular look in terms of light performance. Again, I will take a closer look at some of these diamonds in a bit.
Now compare the above with the pavilion angles. All but one diamond is cut to a pavilion angle of 40.9 degrees. Brian Gavin has gone on record to say that his father had trained him that there is no reason to cut a diamond to a pavilion angle of over 41 degrees unless the objective was to save weight. Whether this position is accurate is something that I would like to avoid in these reviews as these are areas where there is a wide range of differing views among vendors. For example, Karl K, a prosumer that I respect a lot and a diamond designer has stated several times that he has a soft spot for diamonds that are cut to a 34/41 CA/PA relationship. For my opinion on this matter, you will have to wait until my tutorial on the character of diamond.
It is sufficient to note in this review that this is obviously part of what Brian considers as his signature. It is entirely up to you, after all your research, whether your preferences are inline with him or not.
Let’s look at the lower girdle percentage. Unsurprisingly, these are cut to very precise lengths just like the pavilions with a range of 76 to 77%. Finally, the girdles themselves range in between 0.9% to 4%, with 4 out of the 6 diamonds having thin to medium girdles. It is difficult to form an opinion on the girdles, in this range, the thickness of the girdle does not affect the appearance of the diamonds. Whether there are other issues with regards to upper girdle indexing or ‘painting’ will have to be evaluated later. A detailed explanation of painting is a prosumer level 3 topic. For now, it is sufficient to think of painting as a way to manipulate the girdle, either to retain weight sacrificing contrast, or to increase light return by sacrificing weight. Again, BGD states that they would sacrifice weight for beauty, I would like to see if any of this weight is added by using girdle techniques.
Now lets go back and take a look at some of those red flags starting with the 62% depth. A closer look at the proportions of that diamond reminds me of typical proportions of an ACA. The 1.012 GVS2 serves as a good comparison stone. Below are the two idealscope images.
34.4:40.9 CAPA34.9:40.9 CAPA
Now if you haven’t read my tutorials on light performance you should go read it here. When we compare these idealscopes, focus on the relative reds within each individual idealscope image. The image on the left is the 1.012 GVS2 and the right is the 1.010 GVS2. What is evident is that the reds under the table on the left diamond is relatively darker than the reds in the rest of the diamond.
More subtle is the fact that I can see slight painting of the upper girdle facets, you can see this from the slightly darker shades of red in the upper girdle facets. Brian Gavin is a master of his craft, many of his diamonds exhibit what he terms crown-only painting. How crown-only painting affects the beauty of a diamond can only be decided by you. Don’t worry if all this blows over your head because these are prosumer level 3 topics. For now, just understand that they are techniques that cutters use to retain weight while maintaining the beauty of the diamond. Perhaps the only sacrifice is loosing some contrast at the edge of the diamond. However, I cannot fault BGD for doing this as it only makes commercial sense, although I still like my readers to be aware of this when making their decision.
The idealscope of the diamond on the right shows that the light return in this diamond under the table is weaker than the rest of the diamond. Unsuprisingly, this is consistent with the look of an ACA. What I can say with confidence is that these two diamonds have a different character and therefore it seems my previous observation that BGD signature Hearts & Arrows are not cut to any single particular look like the ACA seems to hold true. What this means is that the 62% depth is not something I would worry about.
Now lets have a closer look at the diamond with a 33.7 crown angle. Below is the idealscope image.
33.7:40.9 CAPA
First let me say that when we’re talking about super-ideal cut diamonds such as the BGD Hearts & Arrows, we can take proportions to greater limits than what I suggested as a general filter on Blue Nile in my tutorial on How to Pick Diamonds. Remember on the GIA diamond grading certificate the diamond above would be stated as 34/41. This may be what Karl K was on about when he said he had a soft spot for these diamonds because the reds on this diamond seems to be the most uniform out of all the ones I have reviewed so far. You can see that a 33.7 degree crown angle is very complementary to the 40.9 degree pavilion angle in terms of light return. Again, whether this is the diamond for you depends on whether you prefer it in terms of its character. Summarising so far, I have reviewed at least 3 diamonds all exhibiting a different character in terms of light performance alone.
Now some of you may look at the idealscope images and question the optical symmetry despite BGD’s reputation. I will use the 1.010 GVS2 above as my example. Below is a picture of the hearts image.
H&A
If you don’t know how to judge H&A, please read my tutorial on The Truth about Hearts and Arrows. All I can say is that this picture speaks for itself and truly represents what it means to purchase from Brian Gavin. The hearts image is the most reliable image to judge H&A, it really is all in the hearts. Just remember that when you look at idealscope images that you are looking at light performance whereas you are judging optical symmetry when looking at the hearts and you will do just fine.
Brian Gavin Blue
Brian Gavin Diamonds markets their blue line towards two kinds of consumers. The first kind are those who love the effect of fluorescence, the second kind are those who are seeking value for money. On Prosumer Diamonds, I am expecting my readers to know what fluorescence is and how its graded, and their general comfort level regarding fluorescence. What I do need to mention is that the GIA reports that around 20% of diamonds exhibiting very strong or strong blue fluorescence will have a hazy look to the diamond.
very strong fluorescence in direct daylight
very strong fluorescence in natural daylight
Notice the strong blue fluorescent diamond on the left vs a diamond with negligible fluorescence in both direct sunlight and natural daylight conditions.
Brian Gavin Diamonds addresses this concern by guaranteeing that the stone has “no negative effect on the diamond’s performance whatsoever”. The BGD Blue is also marketed to be cut to super-ideal proportions. An interesting thing is that right after this statement, BGD Blue’s are may have an AGS 1 grade in polish and symmetry. If this confuses you, perhaps you can check out my response to a post by blackprophet that can be found at this link.
Lets have a closer look at the BGD Blue’s to see if they really do represent such good value for money. Below are the specs of a random 1.013 GVS2 BGD Blue.
BGD Blue Proportions
Below is the idealscope.
BGD Blue Idealscope
From the idealscope, it seems that at least in terms of light performance, BGD’s claims hold true. However, because BGD tells us that the BGD Blue line can have physical symmetry issues, they are NOT marketing these as H&A. This should be obvious otherwise they would call these BGD Blue Hearts & Arrows!
BGD has been very smart about not making this point obvious while at the same time maintaining full disclosure, I would even go so far as to speculate that their signature H&A idealscope images are taken in order to make the symmetry issues in the BGD Blues less obvious. Of course, none of this is substantiated and you can make your own decisions.
When purchasing a BGD Blue, I recommend finding one that has AGS0 in both polish and symmetry grades. You can also try to request a hearts image for the stone in question. I have been made aware that some vendors that don’t post such information can still get it to you if you ask nicely.
The final point about purchasing a BGD blue is that you really go understand and manage your expectations with regards to purchasing a fluorescent stone. I will not mention here and there are a lot of resources out there, such as Pricescope Forum, that can help you figure this out. I will mention that fluorescence has a huge impact on price. It would not surprise me to find them up to 20% cheaper than comparable stones without fluorescence. Fluorescent stones are also harder to sell as the market for them is much smaller and therefore the resale value of these stones will likely be adversely affected.
Price
When you buy from Brian Gavin Diamonds, you are paying for a quality brand and craftsmanship. Do not expect the prices to be cheap, a 1.232ct HVS1 H&A was listed at a price of $12,144 and a 1.236 HVS1 BGD Blue was $10,088. Compare this to a 1.223 HVS1 ACA from Whiteflash listed at a price of $11,716 and a 1.260 HVS1 Expert Selection from Whiteflash listed at a price of $10,639. All of the prices above do not take into account any discounts so the first thing to do is ask if you can get a Pricescope discount of up to 5%.
Information Provided
The BGD H&A’s come standard with AGS Platinium Light Performance Report, actual picture, ASET, Idealscope, and Hearts Image. An eye-cleanliness assement will be given for SI1 and SI2 stones. It would be nice though if they could give more information such as the variances on their diamonds from a Sarin report. The BGD Blue’s don’t come with a hearts image but have an actual picture of the blue fluorescence. I have to mention that these pictures do seem to exaggerate the fluorescent effect. Please make sure you manage your expectations accordingly with your research. As for the information in general, they seem to be fairly standard and it would be nice to see more information regarding the variances of the proportions given.
Ease of Searching for a Diamond
I think it may be best if I disclose the system that I am on. I currently use Mac OS 10.8.4 on Safari 6.0.5 viewing at a resolution of 1440×900. BGD makes it fairly easy to filter diamonds into their different lines. The only caveats I have found is that they do not allow me to type in values for carat weight and price so the user is forced to use the slider. Furthermore, the Clarity and Colour sliders are a bit difficult to use because SI1 and SI2 and the colour M show up on a different line and I can only tell my selection by the highlighted colour. It would be nice for them to add the ability to expand the diamond search to see more information about the diamonds such as thumbnails, but the speediness of the site makes up for it to some extent. I also find that their “Similar Diamonds” tab and “Diamond Comparison” tab seem to be more more user friendly as it only displays when I click on them and the 6 results returned also seem very helpful.
Value Adding Policies
BGD offers a 15-day inspection period on diamonds. This I would say is below industry average. BGD also has a lifetime upgrade program. For this please pay a bit more attention. BGD offers 100% of the original purchase price for upgrading a BGD Signature H&A diamond. If you are upgrading a BGD Blue, you get 100% of the original purchase if you upgrade to another BGD Blue. HOWEVER, if you upgrade to a BGD Signature H&A diamond, you ONLY receive 95% of the original purchase amount. Curious, but worth knowing! Also worth knowing is that the conditions of ALL upgrades require an upgrade of 2 of the following 3 stats: size, colour, or clarity. This is fancy wording for you must upgrade either 1 grade in colour or 1 grade in clarity even if you go for a stone that is only 0.01ct larger in size. I would rate this upgrade policy as average for the industry. It is also interesting to note that BGD will upgrade AGSL graded ACA stones graded between September 1998 and 30 November 2008. Finally there are $50 and $100 referral checks available depending on the referral purchase amount. For details, you can read it yourself at BGD’s website.
Conclusion
Brian Gavin Diamonds cut and sell some of the world’s most beautiful diamonds. They however do not have a particular look to them and therefore I find their claims that each one achieves optimum performance in all lighting conditions not to hold up. However, there are definitely perfectly cut diamonds that fit each individual’s personal preferences in terms of the character of the diamond. BGD excels in sculpting picture perfect hearts & arrows, but if this is what you want, you won’t find it easily in their BGD Blue line. The BGD Blue line is up to 20% cheaper than their signature H&A, but when compared to other vendors, there are cheaper options out there. Find a BGD Blue that is cut with the optical symmetry of a BGD H&A and I think you may have yourself a winning combination!
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