As one of New Zealand's premier jewellers, our clients (both in our showroom and online) frequently ask us questions about how to choose the perfect ring. Your engagement is a special time in your life and you want the ring to signify your love and commitment. You also want to be confident you are buying a ring that holds value commensurate with its cost, and that you are making an educated purchase. 

At Jens Hansen, we celebrate the love you share with your partner and want you to have a meaningful symbol to share on your special day (and for the rest of your lives.) We also know there are many resources available to help you choose your engagement ring on the internet. This buyer's guide aims to simplify your research by focusing on the most important aspects of a ring you should understand including choosing the right metal, choosing the right stone, choosing the right setting, and choosing the right band. 

Finally, as you learn about choosing the perfect engagement ring for your partner, look for our PRO TIP notations, which address common buyer concerns or provide expert insight to help be a more informed consumer.

Ready to learn about how to buy an engagement ring? Great! Here we go!

Your ring can come in any precious metal, and your choice primarily rests on personal tastes. Some buyers simply like the look of one particular metal more than another. Keep reading to learn more about the advantages and disadvantages of each of the most popular precious metals most commonly used in engagement rings. 

Generations of couples in love have chosen gold for their engagement rings because of its value and durability. Plus, gold is timeless and never goes out of fashion. Gold's natural state is too soft to create jewellery, so it's commonly combined with a variety of alloy metals. These metals, which reduce gold's purity, are responsible for different colour variations. Higher karats (kt) signify more pure gold. For example, 24kt gold is pure gold and 18kt gold is 75 percent pure gold mixed with other metals. The most common colours of gold include:

PRO TIP: 18-karat gold provides the best balance between durability and purity for engagement rings, making them suitable for everyday wear.

PRO TIP: Ensure you have sterling silver by looking for a "925" stamp on the inside of the ring. Also, beware of retailers who try to pass off inexpensive silver as titanium, white gold, and other more expensive white metals.

When you are choosing a diamond, cost and budget will factor into the stone you pick for an engagement ring. Diamonds can range from a few hundred dollars to hundreds of thousands of dollars. Jewellers price diamonds based on the 4 Cs: cut, carat, clarity, and colour. In 1953, the Gemological Institute of America (GIA) created the 4 Cs and their International Diamond Grading System to evaluate the quality of stones. Today these are the accepted standards for jewellers to evaluate diamonds.  Stones that rate the highest in all four areas are the most expensive. As price decreases, you lose quality in at least one of these areas; however, keep in mind perfect diamonds do not exist. Keep reading to learn more about the 4 Cs, so you can make the best choice for your engagement ring.

When you think of diamonds, you think of sparkle. It's the cut of a diamond that provides a diamond with the majority of its brilliance. You might think of a specific cut as the shape of a diamond, such as princess cut, round, emerald, or marquis. Yet, the cut grade of a diamond is more concerned with how a diamond's facets interact with light. A facet refers to a surface on the diamond that reflects light. Many of today's diamonds have a 58-facet cut maximizing their brightness, fire, and sparkle. However, a newer method to cut diamonds results in 74-facets. These Riente Diamonds^TM are visibly superior to other diamonds because of their maximum sparkle.

PRO TIP: Only buy diamonds that have been cut by a highly-skilled jeweller. Poorly cut diamonds aren't as valuable, nor do they have the same sparkle.

Diamonds can be cut in a variety of styles, here are some of the most common:

The carat of a diamond is the most straightforward of all aspects used to evaluate a stone. Carat refers to the weight of a diamond. All other aspects of a diamond being equal, stones that weigh more are worth more. Yet, the largest diamonds are not always the most valuable when their cut, clarity, or colour isn't of a high standard.

PRO TIP: Online jewellers sometimes list the total carat weight of a ring, not the largest stone. You want to ensure you get the carat weight you are paying for and the description lists a separate carat weight for smaller diamonds on the ring.

A diamond's clarity refers to how many blemishes and inclusions it has. Diamonds without any blemishes or inclusions are flawless and as common as unicorns, so you can expect that the diamond you choose has at least some small flaws. The GIA has six broad categories of grades of clarity. They include:

• Flawless (FL) diamonds have no blemishes or inclusions visible when magnified 10x.
• Internally Flawless (IF) diamonds might have a blemish but have no inclusions when magnified 10x.
• Very, Very Slightly Included (VVS1 and VVS2) diamonds have slight inclusions difficult for a diamond expert to see when magnified.
• Very Slightly Included (VS1 and VS2) diamonds have slight inclusions which take considerable effort to pick out when magnified 10x.
• Slightly Included (SI1 and SI2) diamonds have noticeable inclusions when magnified.
• Included (I1, I2, and I3) diamonds have obvious inclusions when magnified, which often impacts transparency and brilliance.

PRO TIP: Jens Hansen recommends that the stone for your engagement ring is rated at least VS1.

Diamonds can be colourless or come in a wide range of colours. Some disagreement and confusion exists over the value of colour as it relates to a diamond. In most cases, brown, grey, yellow, and orange hues are less valuable, and blue, pink, and red hues are more expensive and rare. When choosing the colour of the diamond for an engagement ring, you should pick a stone you love, or you know your partner will love, regardless of the colour.   

You can choose from a wide array of settings for your engagement ring. No one setting is better than another in terms of value. Ultimately your choice will depend on the lifestyle of the person wearing the ring and how the setting looks. For example, those with active lifestyles should consider a simpler setting that won't catch on things. Others might be more inclined to choose elaborate statement settings with higher profiles. Below are some popular settings you can choose for your engagement ring:

Like the colour of a diamond and settings for your engagement ring, the type of band you choose depends heavily on your personal taste. You can find bands in many different styles. The most popular styles are traditional, Euro-style, and Cathedral bands, but you can also find more non-traditional styles such as straight bands, tapered bands, reverse-tapered bands, and more.

These are just some of the many band types you can choose from:

Part of choosing the band, also means finding the right size. Keep in mind that wide bands fit tighter than thin bands. You can use our ring-size guide to help you find the right size for your engagement ring. If you don't have the size, you will need to take some measurements. If you are buying an engagement ring for a partner, this might be challenging, but you can do it! Try wrapping a piece of string around their finger while sleeping and mark it. You can also talk to friends or family members to find out the right ring size or find a ring your loved one already owns that you know fits.