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0.75 ct radiant cut, W-X colour, VS2, 18K yellow gold
A GIA-certified radiant cut diamond of 0.75 carat, clarity VS2, graded W-X on the colour scale, held in four claws on an 18K yellow gold band. Report 6511297647.
What W-X actually means, and why it is the interesting part
The GIA colour scale runs from D to Z. D is colourless; Z is the last letter before a diamond stops being graded on that scale at all. W-X sits two steps from the end — which sounds like bad news until you understand what the scale is measuring and where it stops.
The letters describe the absence of colour. They are assigned by looking at the stone table-down in neutral surroundings, comparing it against masters, and asking how far it has drifted from colourless. Past Z, that question is abandoned. A stone with more colour than Z is no longer a poor D; it is regraded on the fancy colour scale as Fancy Light Yellow or higher, and the price goes up steeply rather than down.
So the far end of D–Z is a strange place commercially. A W-X stone carries a warm, honeyed tint that is plainly visible and entirely stable — and it is priced as the bottom of the colourless scale rather than the top of the fancy one, despite looking much closer to the latter. You are buying visible colour at the price of the absence of it.
Why a radiant, and why yellow gold
Neither choice is decorative. A radiant is a cut-cornered rectangular brilliant — brilliant-style faceting on the pavilion rather than the flat parallel planes of an emerald cut. Brilliant faceting bounces light through more of the stone’s depth before returning it, and every bounce passes through the body colour. That is precisely why fancy yellow diamonds are so often cut as radiants and cushions and almost never as emerald cuts: the cut concentrates colour. Here it is doing that job on purpose.
The 18K yellow gold does the rest. A W-X stone set in white gold is asked to be something it is not, and the eye reads the warmth as a flaw against the cold metal. In yellow gold the same tint reads as intention — the stone and the mount agree with each other, and what would look like a compromise in one setting looks like a deliberate warm-toned ring in the other.
Specification
- Stone: natural diamond, radiant cut, 0.75 ct, colour W-X, clarity VS2
- Certificate: GIA 6511297647
- Setting: four claws, 18K yellow gold
If you want the warmth taken further
Past Z the scale changes and so does the pricing. See the fancy-coloured stones in engagement rings for what a graded Fancy Yellow costs by comparison — it is the clearest way to see what this stone’s position on the scale is worth.
Buying from Antwerp
In stock at our workshop in the Antwerp diamond district. The band carries no stones, so it sizes freely. Shipped insured, boxed, with the GIA report.
