10 Reasons to Choose a Sapphire Over Diamonds for Engagement Rings and Beyond

1 | No Monopolies Setting Prices

Sapphires are not a part of the diamond monopoly and their controlled market. Instead, sapphire prices are decided by market demand which is dictated by supply, rarity, locality, clarity, and most importantly—color. There is no opportunity for any singular organization or company to manipulate the market by limiting the supply of sapphires entering the market. Instead, most sapphire mining is accomplished by individual artisanal miners and sold to small business dealers creating a decentralized market.

2 | Great Responsibly Sourced Options

There are plenty of responsibly sourced stones available from countries that you can have confidence in buying from including Australia and the USA. Every sapphire owner has the option of finding out where their gemstone was mined by sending it to a professional laboratory for origin testing. We recommend the Gemological Institute of America (GIA) as it’s the most reputable and reliable gem laboratory in the world. Testing of this kind usually run $70 ($85 with origin testing). Diamonds on the other hand can not have their origin determined if not directly traced from the mine meaning it’s impossible to find out where diamonds on the market come from. Similarly to how Costco labels 5 countries as the source for their macadamia nuts, DeBeers does this to avoid advertising that some of their stones come from countries with less than stellar records when it comes to human rights, political conflicts, and other major issues that are associated with some regions of the world.

3 | Cost Effectiveness

Sapphires are more cost effective than diamonds and buyers can easily get more bling for their buck with similarly sized (or bigger!) colored stones. For example, your average near colorless 1ct naturally formed and untreated diamond with no visible inclusions sells for $5000-7,000 where a sapphire of comparable clarity and size will cost on average $1500-3000. That’s up to $4000 that can be saved or spent elsewhere on your special day, go ahead and invite the 3rd cousins! One thing to note for the sapphire shopper: there is a wide range of value for sapphires so do be aware that tip top color and clarity will demand higher budgets and be more comparable if not more expensive than similarly sized diamonds. For example, untreated Kashmir sapphires can demand higher values than diamond. That’s the one of the cool things about wearing a sapphire, your average person will have no idea how much you actually spent but be impressed either way.

4 | Durability

People sometimes think their only engagement stone choice is a diamond because of how durable they are but that’s not always true. Sapphires of all colors are nearly just as hard and durable as diamonds without the limitations and price of a diamond. In fact, a diamond is rated 10/10 on Mohs Hardness Scale and sapphires score a 9/10 in comparison. While it is undeniable that a sapphire can be slightly easier to scratch, this does not necessarily mean that a diamond is always more resistant to chipping due to the perfect cleavage (or linear planes of weakness) of diamonds. Any gemstone, diamond or sapphire, can break with the wrong combination of force, the right angle, and bad luck so choose the gemstone you will be most happy with.

5 | Synthetic & Lab Grown Sapphires Are Not As Sneaky As Lab Grown Diamonds

Unlike diamonds, it is possible to determine if a sapphire is natural or lab grown with high certainty using standard gemological testing methods available to all gemologists and some fine jewelers. No one, regardless of what they claim, can visually tell the difference between natural and lab grown diamonds, even the most sophisticated over the counter machines out there can be wrong. This is a genuine concern that has been hitting the news cycle a lot this year as the jewelry industry struggles with the influx of increasingly low priced lab grown diamonds and the fact that only an advanced Gemological laboratory like the Gemological Institute of America can determine if a diamond was naturally formed or not. There are currently no over the counter diamond testing tools that can distinguish between natural and lab grown diamonds with 100% accuracy although some can be great guessers. Sapphires luckily do not have this problem and a professional gemologist should be able to determine if a sapphire is natural or synthetic without problem. Here’s a quick run down of what I personally look for as a GIA Graduate Gemologist: Color zoning is the first detail to examine, look for angular (natural) vs rounded (synthetic) growth striae under magnification as this is the easiest way to identify a natural vs synthetic sapphire. Natural sapphires have a hexagonal growth pattern (even though they belong to the trigonal crystal family) so the angles you’ll find in a natural sapphire will have hexagon-like angles of 60 degrees if unaltered (squished or distorted by further geologic processes after forming) making these angles rather easy to identify. Not all synthetic sapphires will show obvious color zoning so the next things I check are the stone’s inclusions and absorption spectrum which will usually be fully diagnostic for identifying the stone’s formation process.

6 | Diamonds Can Still Be Involved

Diamonds make wonderful side stones! You can still have diamonds and have all the scintillating sparkle surrounding your special sapphire in the form of a halo, hidden halo, pave band, two side stones like half moons for a three stone ring, and many more dazzling accent features allowing extra creativity in the design process. It’s not that we dislike like diamonds, we just love the way they look more with sapphires involved.

7 | Sapphires Come In All Colors

The limitless rainbow of colors that sapphires can be found in gives more freedom to express the wearer’s style and your unique love. Although best known for their blue or teal hues, pink and yellow sapphires are growing greatly in popularity every year. Red sapphires are by far the most valuable sapphires and have a special name—ruby. Parti sapphires are the gemological name for bi-colored or two (rarely three) toned stones. Other sapphire colors you might see while shopping are purple, green, orange, colorless, and everything in between.

8 | Sapphires Are Fit For Royalty

Channel the princess vibe and write your own modern fairy tail with a sapphire engagement ring. There’s a reason we all think of Kate Middleton and Princess Diana when we think of Sapphires—it’s a timeless classic as much as it is a bold jewelry choice that stands out in the crowd of plain diamonds. Something important to remember is that Kate Middleton is never worried about matching her blue sapphire, she rocks it with everything and you can do the same with any color sapphire. 

9 | Natural Sapphires Can Keep Their Value Better Than Diamonds

We do not have a crystal ball (well we do have a selenite one, its just not magical unfortunately) but when looking at historical gemstone values for this century it appears that sapphires have the potential to not only maintain their value but to appreciate more than comparably priced diamonds (keep in mind that the value of the stone is different from the value of a designed and manufactured ring).

10 | Sapphires Represent Love & Perfect Chemistry Better Than Diamonds

Sapphires are a better representation of the chemistry between partners celebrating their love for each other. Marriage is about two people and, unlike diamonds that are solely composed of carbon, sapphires are created by two elements: Aluminum and Oxygen. In order for a sapphire to form it must have the perfect chemistry, environment to grow, and time to flourish just like an any real relationship we experience.