Diamonds Boca Raton Selections – Only the Best

The diamonds Boca Raton demands are unlike any other. They’re, simply put, the best. Our discerning clientele know what they like and make no apologies for it, and as proud members of the Boca Raton community, we’re uniquely poised to satisfy this very specific demand. We know our clients want the best, and we know they want something no one else has. We also know they won’t settle for anything less than a competitive price. It’s what we’ve learned over the last three decades, and it’s what we’ve perfected.

Now, we’ve added to the selection of diamonds Boca Raton can choose from. After more than thirty years in our beautiful West Boca Raton showroom, we knew the time was right to grow our offerings. We built Diamonds by Raymond Lee, our bridal-centric East Boca location to expand our empire to another Boca border and better serve our clients out East.

Each location is unique, but both offer the same excellent quality and range of services. And most importantly, both locations offer an incredible selection of Diamonds in Boca Raton: diamond jewelry, estate jewelry, bridal jewelry, and more, plus on-site workshops and experts to care for your diamonds.

Diamonds in West Boca Raton

Raymond Lee Jewelers has been a part of the Boca Raton fabric and we’ve seen the city grow larger and more beautiful around us. At this location, we focus on our designer estate diamond jewelry – diamonds from Tiffany & Co., Bvlgari, David Yurman, David Webb, Cartier, Chanel, Chopard, Roberto Coin, Van Cleef & Arpels, and more.

In addition to our estate contemporary jewelry, we also buy and sell rare vintage and antique diamond jewelry, designer and otherwise. While our East Boca location does house some of our luxury estate diamond jewelry, the majority of our collection is at the West Boca location.

We also offer important, large diamond jewelry at this location. Both private label and estate bridal, parures, diamond earrings, bracelets, and necklaces – you name it, if it’s covered in diamonds we have it at Raymond Lee Jewelers.

Diamonds in East Boca Raton

Our East Boca location, like we mentioned, also buys and sells estate diamond jewelry and large, loose diamonds ranging from contemporary to antique. However, this location specializes in designer diamond jewelry, especially from the top names in bridal jewelry.

Our diamond engagement rings and wedding rings hail from a who’s who of prestige bridal designers, including A. Jaffe, Gabriel & Co., Henri Daussi, Simon G., Verragio and Tacori. We also pride ourselves on our custom diamond jewelry design work and our private label diamond jewelry. Our eternity bands in particular are the must-have bridal accessory for the diamonds Boca Raton covets most!

We also house the majority of our loose diamond collection at this location. Ranging from half a carat to twenty carats, our collection has offerings for every client’s specifications, needs, and budget. Our expert diamond buyers hand select and curate our diamond collection to serve every client, using their lifetime of experience to choose the very best diamonds. Each one of the diamonds in our collection represent a unique blend of budget-friendly characteristics, beauty, highly sought-after certificate specifications, and even the rarest diamonds otherwise found only at the elite auction houses.

That’s the focus of each of our stores, specifically, when it comes to diamonds. But what do you need to know about the best diamonds Boca Raton has to offer? The stones themselves? Well, you need to start with the ABC’s. And in the world of diamonds, those are the 4 C’s.

Cut

A diamond’s cut specifically refers to its polish, symmetry, and proportions. It does not refer to the diamond’s shape (pear shape, heart shape, etc.) it’s really about the way a diamond interacts with light, which is what makes a diamond sparkle. It’s for this reason that we always say that cut is the most important of the 4 C’s: it’s what makes your diamond act like a diamond!
Fire: refers to the colors that a diamond’s interior reflects; they’re flashes of color on the visible spectrum that result from the diamond scattering white light into the colors of the rainbow.
Brilliance: is the reflection of that white light after it hits a diamond’s facets. It is the contrast between these white light flashes and the shadows created by the diamond’s cut. The greater the contrast, the greater a diamond’s brilliance, and the better its cut.
Scintillation: is the amount of sparkle a diamond produces, or the light source illuminating it is moved.
A diamond’s cut is determined by a professional Gemologist, and it’s assigned on a range from Excellent to Poor.

Color

Color is the most straightforward of the 4 C’s, and also the hardest to detect. It ranges from D (colorless) to Z (light colored diamonds). While the differences between each individual grade are next to impossible to spot, the differences between the color grade brackets are much easier to see.

D-F color diamonds are rare, expensive, and – you guessed it – colorless. Diamonds of this grade are very valuable, and should be set in white gold or platinum to maintain the stone’s colorless appearance. When purchasing a large stone, opt for a color grade in this range, as the concentration of color increases along with carat size.

G-J diamonds are near colorless and are a fantastic blend of beauty and budget. Their color is still barely perceptible, but they can be half the price of a diamond in the near colorless range. This is a great option for brilliant cut diamonds with plenty of facets to disperse the color, like round brilliant, pear, marquise, oval, princess and radiant.

K-M colored diamonds are faint colored. These grades may not appear outright colorful, but will have a warmer tone. Their prices are a fantastic bargain compared to colorless grades, and can be set in yellow gold, or even a warm rose gold, for a warm, beautiful appearance. If you’re shopping for earrings, this color range is a great way to save money, especially because your diamonds’ color will be so heavily influenced by your hair color and whatever color shirt you’re wearing.

The next categories are N-R (very light color) and S-Z (light color). These diamonds have a noticeable yellow or brown-yellow tint, but are much less expensive than higher grades. These stones can work to your advantage, especially if you’re in the market for a yellow diamond. These stones can be set in yellow gold mountings that hug the bottom of the stone, reflecting even more yellow warmth into them. As you can see from this example, it creates the appearance of a fancy yellow diamond at a fraction of the cost.

Clarity

Diamond clarity refers to the internal and external characteristics of a diamond. Most diamonds have some sort of markings, and the ones that don’t are exceptionally rare and very expensive. Many, many diamonds (actually the majority of our diamonds) have internal or external characteristics that are not visible to the naked eye.

Diamond imperfections are separated into two categories: inclusions – internal diamond flaws – and blemishes – those flaws on a diamond’s surface.

The best, and rarest grade a diamond can earn is Flawless. These diamonds, as the name implies, are perfectly free of both blemishes and inclusions when examined under 10x magnification.
The next best is internally flawless, meaning that the diamond shows no inclusions on the interior, but may still have slight blemishes. Anything flawless is a loose diamond, as the prongs used to set a stone automatically render it internally flawless once mounted.
After internally flawless, the grades enter the Very, very slightly included category, including VVS1 and VVs2 grades. These diamond exhibit miniscule flaws that are difficult to detect even at 10x magnification.

After this category is Very Slightly included, which, as you may have guessed from the elimination of a “very”, is the next step up for visibility of inclusions. These diamonds are graded VS1 or VS2. We think that VS diamonds are the best way to get a great deal on a beautiful diamond.
After this, the SI or Slightly Included category grades diamonds SI1 or SI2 that have fairly noticeable flaws to an experienced grader under a 10x magnification. They are still beautiful diamonds, and the flaws are vastly unnoticeable to the naked eye or the average jewelry lover.

Carat Weight

We saved the best for last – you’re still reading right? Thanks for hanging in here. This is the most important of the 4 C’s for most of our clientele. It’s the one that most people are familiar with, if they’re familiar with the other 3 C’s at all. But there’s still plenty to learn.

Carat is a unit of mass, and doesn’t actually refer to a diamond’s size. It’s equivalent to 200 milligrams (about the weight of a paperclip) and is measured just as often in fractions. So when you hear a jeweler describe a diamond as a “seventy five pointer” he or she means a .75 carat diamond.

Obviously, most diamonds that weigh more (higher carat weight) also have a larger diameter (and therefore look bigger.) But sometimes you strike gold – or diamonds – with a stone that looks bigger than its carat weight. This is what we in the industry refer to as “good spread” and it means the diamond perfectly balances its proportions for maximum surface area without hindering the rest of the all important factors that determine cut.

Diamonds are priced per-carat, and the prices jump exponentially as diamonds get bigger. A two carat diamond is usually much more expensive than just double the price of a one carat diamond. You can save money by buying a diamond that weighs just under your desired carat weight – for example a .98 carat stone, rather than an even 1.00 carat. This way you’ll get a diamond that looks nearly identical in size, but is priced at a lower per-carat point.

The 4 C’s are diamond fundamentals, and we highly recommend every diamond shopper get acquainted. But the best thing you can do to ensure a smooth diamond buying process and a financially sound purchase is find a jeweler you trust. And if you’re shopping for the best diamonds Boca Raton has to offer, you now have not only one, but two, of the very best options.