Nederlands
Français
Italiano
Drilled round diamond necklace, 0.50 ct lab grown, 18K rose gold
A 0.50 ct lab grown round brilliant diamond, F colour, VS clarity, pierced through the girdle and threaded onto an 18K rose gold cable chain. One piece, made in our Antwerp workshop.
The diamond is drilled and the gold goes through it
There are no claws on this piece, no bezel, no cup, no metal touching the face of the stone anywhere. Each diamond is pierced with a laser and a length of 18K gold passes straight through the body of the crystal. The stone is not held by the setting — the stone is the setting, a structural part of the piece, carrying its own weight on the gold that runs through it.
Why this is difficult
Diamond is the hardest material there is, a 10 on the Mohs scale, and it is also brittle along its cleavage planes. Drilling one means vaporising a channel through it with a focused laser, slowly, without generating the thermal stress that would split the stone. The hole has to run perfectly perpendicular to the girdle and dead through the centre of mass, because a channel even slightly off axis makes the diamond hang crooked for the rest of its life and there is no correcting it afterwards. Stones are selected for this: any inclusion sitting near the drill path is a reason to reject the stone before work starts.
What you get for the trouble
Two things a set stone cannot give you. First, light: a claw or bezel always covers part of the crown and shadows part of the pavilion, and here nothing does. The whole surface of the diamond is exposed, so it returns light from every angle including from behind. Second, movement: with a single point of contact the stone pivots freely as you move, and the piece flickers continuously instead of sitting still.
Wearing it
A drilled diamond is as durable as any other — the channel removes a negligible amount of material and sits in the thickest part of the stone. The practical difference is that there is no metal rim protecting the girdle, so this is jewellery to treat as jewellery: take it off before sport or heavy work, as you would any diamond piece. The gold link through the stone is checked and, if needed, tightened free of charge whenever the piece comes back to us.
The round brilliant gains the most from being drilled
Of all the shapes, the round brilliant is the one designed to return light from every direction — 57 facets calculated for exactly that. A claw setting undoes part of that work: it shadows the pavilion from behind and covers a section of the crown. Drilled, nothing does. This is the closest you can get to seeing what a round brilliant actually does with light, because for once nothing is in the way.
It turns as you move
Hanging on a single link through the girdle, the stone rotates freely. A round is symmetrical, so it never looks wrong from any angle — it simply keeps catching light from new directions as you move. Set stones cannot do this; they face one way and stay there.
Half a carat on rose gold
About 5.2 mm across, on a fine 18K rose gold cable chain. Warm chain, colourless stone, and no metal anywhere near the diamond.
Related — the drilled diamond collection
Every piece in this collection is built the same way: the diamond is pierced and the gold runs through it.
- round brilliants, 2.00 ct drop earrings, white gold — €1,279
- 1.00 ct round necklace, white gold — €999
- 12.10 ct rivière necklace, white gold — €4,633
- 0.50 ct round pendant, rose gold — €589
- pear cuts, 2.00 ct drop earrings, white gold — €1,430
- hearts, 2.00 ct drop earrings, white gold — €1,475
- 0.30 ct heart necklace, rose gold — €649
