When Jeff Lamb decided to pop the question, he didn't know the first thing about diamonds. He googled "engagement rings" and learned he was supposed to judge a stone by its size, cut, color and clarity — but that only made him more confused.
So Lamb, now a graduate student at Shida University, asked his future sister-in-law for help. They looked at several stores, then she suggested Tiffany & Co, the New York-based retailer made famous by the 1961 Audrey Hepburn movie Breakfast at Tiffany's. "What's so great about Tiffany's," Lamb asked his girlfriend's sister. "It's Tiffany's," she said.
Lamb felt she had a point. "You can look on the Internet and arm yourself with this knowledge," he said. "But then when you walk in a store — unless you're actually trained — there's no way you're going to know how much the value [of a ring] varies depending on how yellow a diamond is, or how much one minor imperfection is going to affect the cost."
PHOTO COURTESY OF VAN CLEEF & ARPELS
He went with the name brand because "I knew that I got a good-quality diamond," though he admits he paid a premium for that kind of certainty.
Popular in Western countries since, so the story goes, the Archduke Maximilian of Austria bought one for Mary of Burgundy in 1477, the purchase of diamond engagement rings as distinct from and in addition to traditional wedding bands is becoming increasingly popular in Taipei, staff at jewelry stores say.
Catering to this market are international luxury boutiques, family-owned jewelry shops and countless counters in department stores. It's a wide array of choices that, depending on one's point of view, can make engagement-ring shopping a bargain-hunter's dream or a confusing nightmare.
"If you compare the same quality goods I think it's cheaper in Taiwan than in the States or Hong Kong," said Katy, a saleswoman at Yeng Sang Jewelry store (裕生銀樓), at 21 Hengyang Road, Taipei (台北市衡陽路21號). (Katy's employers called after the interview to request that her full name not be printed in the newspaper, citing security concerns.)
Her store has been in business for four decades. In addition to diamond jewelry, it stocks precious stones like emeralds and rubies.
Katy studied at the Gemological Institute of America (GIA), a nonprofit group that certifies the quality of diamonds and trains diamond appraisers. She has worked in the jewelry business for 15 years, including 10 years in the US, and chooses stones and setting for the store's jewelry.
Like similar stores clustered on Hengyang Road, nearby in Ximending and further away on Yenping North Road (延平北路), the family-owned Yeng Sang Jewelry is a holdover from a time when Taipei residents relied on word-of-mouth, rather than advertisements in the media, for consumer information.
These stores keep prices low by buying their diamonds directly from the mines and working with their own manufacturers. They have few employees and do not purchase advertisements in newspapers, thus keeping overheads low. Their prices are lower than stalls at department stores, which pay a premium for their location and tend to focus on jewelry with smaller stones.
One of the best features of a place like Yeng Sang is that these jewelry stores act like tailors. Customers can bring an old diamond to be set in a new design, or they can bring a picture of a ring they like and ask the store to make something similar.
But not all independent jewelry stores are the same. A few have been known to pass off diamonds as being of a higher quality than they actually are.
To be certain, shop at an older store — some jewelers say a store that has been in business for more than 30 years — and one that has been recommend by a friend.
And ask for a stone that has been certified by the GIA or a similar organization (the others are the HRD, IGL, EGL and AGS). You pay more, but this certification guarantees that the diamond's "four Cs," these being carat (or size), its color (the less yellow a diamond is, the better) its clarity (or the quantity and number of impurities in a stone) and its cut, which influences how much sparkle a diamond has and determines its shape. Round is the most common cut; others include the emerald, heart and marquise cuts.
As a general rule of thumb, customers in Taiwan value the quality of a stone more than its size, which means they look for diamonds that have a clarity of VVS2, VVS1, or IF, short for "internally flawless," and are graded E or D, which means they are essentially colorless.
Unfortunately, most of these factors are difficult for the untrained eye to perceive.
"Our company is more than 100 years old. The diamonds we pick are the best, and we really care about the quality," said Dorothy Jong (楊倩倩), retail manager for Paris-based jeweler Van Cleff & Arpels.
Larger diamonds at the company's boutiques have a Kimberly certificate, which means that they were not mined in a conflict-prone part of the world. Smaller 0.2- or 0.3-carat stones are GIA-certified.
A place like Van Cleef & Arpels also offers more certainty that a diamond was skillfully cut. The right cut brings out the best in a diamond, and whether it was that or a trick of lighting, the diamonds at the company's Taipei 101 store, where Jong was interviewed, certainly seemed to possess an above-average degree of sparkle.
"If you go to a local store you can get the same quality diamond," Jong said, "but if the cutting's no good the shine doesn't come out." In addition, she said, the boutique's designs are of "an international standard ... . When you wear the good craftsmanship, it's as beautiful on the outside as it is n the inside," she said.
"If I had a lot of money I would definitely go to a [luxury brand boutique] — that's for sure," said Kenny Su (蘇上紹), who works at the family-owned Chien Bao Jewelry (千寶珠寶公司) store at 53 Chengdu Road (台北市成都路53號) in Taipei's Ximending. "If not, I would ask friends who recently got engaged."
Su said a 0.3-carat diamond in a platinum setting that would sell for NT$90,000 or more at a luxury brand store goes for NT$40,000 to NT$50,000 at a place like his.
"It's the same style, the same stone, but inside it doesn't say 'Tiffany,'" said a nearby jeweler. "They have their reputation, but so do we."
If you want to shop at an independent jewelry store like Chien Bao or Yeng Sang, Su recommends you first do some homework. Ask friends to recommend a place they bought a ring at. Try to visit stores in different parts of town, at least three, preferably five. And look for one that is tastefully decorated and has a "professional" feel.
Also, be prepared to bargain, but not too much. Because of the local preference for buying goods at a discount, the NT dollar amount listed on the price tag will be lowered by 40 percent or more the moment a customer shows interest.
"Taiwanese people like to bargain," Su said. "But too much haggling is a kind of ma fan. You shouldn't have to bargain too much, and a place shouldn't offer a different price to different people."
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