Is Your Engagement Ring Up To It?

Posted on 3 Aug, 2016 by Paul Nilsson

At GemLab, we provide jewellery owners and insurance companies with independent reports on damaged jewellery items that are the subject, or potential subject, of an insurance claim. For the claim to be accepted the damage has to have been caused by an accidental event. In the case of a diamond falling out of a ring because of wear and tear to the claws most insurers will cover the diamond loss but not the cost of repairing the setting. If, however, the loss can be shown to have been caused by a design or manufacturing fault, or the ring had been subjected to use it was never designed for, acceptance of the claim may be denied.

In the Fair Go program even though the owner had purchased her engagement ring a full seven years before the diamond fell out her insurance claim was turned down. The reason given was that the "invisible setting" style of her princess cut diamonds was not suitable for everyday wear. This finding was backed up by the prevalence of similar losses from this style of ring setting. In other words the jeweller who sold the ring in the first place should have told the client the ring was suitable for occasional dress wear only.

Most fiancees expect that their engagement ring will be suitable for day to day wear but the fact is some ring styles and some gemstones lack the durability required. Examples are mountings that are too thin and light weight, settings that do not protect the stones sufficiently, and gemstones that are soft or break easily such as emerald, opals, tanzanites, and pearls.

The best advice we can give to engagement ring shoppers is to buy from a reputable New Zealand jeweller, make sure you tell them how often you intend to wear the ring, and then to take it back to them for a yearly check-up. Oh, and of course to have our gemmologist valuers here at GemLab provide you with an independent valuation report.

See the Fair Go video here - http://tvnz.co.nz/fair-go/disappearing-diamonds-video-5664416