Jared vs James Allen on a 1-Carat Total Weight Halo Diamond Engagement Ring:

In this blog post, I’ll show you exactly how to get a better deal on a 1-carat total weight halo diamond engagement ring.

We’ll compare Jared and James Allen.

Today’s diamond engagement ring shopping adventure: a 1-carat total weight halo diamond engagement ring at Jared vs James Allen

I’ll show you how to select a diamond at Jared. Then I’ll show you how to search for — and find — the same quality diamond (actually better) at James Allen. For much, much less.

Jared Entry in this Smackdown

The Jared entry is a nicely designed halo:

Diamond Engagement Ring 1 ct tw Round 14K White Gold

Careful! Make sure you understand what 1 ct tw means! It means 1-carat total weight. The total weight means that the figure is the total of:

1. The center diamond.
2. The accent “halo” diamonds that surround the center diamond.
3. The “pave” diamonds which line the shanks down either side.

So, that’s not a 1-carat diamond in the center. Just so you know.

So let’s sum up all the specs of this Jared diamond engagement ring:

CARATS: The center stone is listed as (incredibly vague!) “1/2 to 1 carat”. The total carat weight is listed as 1 carat weight in total.

COLOR: I

CLARITY: I2

SHAPE: Oval (It’s called “Round” on the site, but that’s 100% an Oval shaped diamond.)

CUT QUALITY: Not specified. This is a huge drawback, because cut quality is probably the most important specification of a diamond.

METAL: 14K White Gold

NUMBER OF ACCENT DIAMONDS: 32

PRICE: $2,199 … I feel sure we can beat this price at James Allen, and get a better diamond.

Let’s try …

James Allen’s Better Halo Diamond Engagement Ring for Less Money than Jared

I’ll select a setting at James Allen which has 36 accent diamonds in it, totaling 1/4-carats all together. And I’ll add a center stone of about 3/4 carats.

This will create a total carat weight, just like the Jared ring, of 1 carat, all together.

First, the setting at James Allen (everything but the main center diamond)

Here is the setting at James Allen. (This is just the setting. We haven’t yet selected the center diamond to go into it.)

Boom, that is done: we’ve selected a SETTING which is better, actually, than the Jared setting, in my opinion.

The SETTING is equal in METAL (14K White Gold).

The SETTING is better in accent diamonds’ CLARITY (VS2 to SI1):

The SETTING is better in COLOR (G to H):

Accent diamonds are never or rarely graded for CUT QUALITY.

The TOTAL CARAT WEIGHT of the setting alone is 0.26 carats.

As for CARAT WEIGHT, we don’t know how much the accent diamonds total up to at Jared. (We do know how much the entire ring totals, including the main center stone, at Jared: 1 Carat. We just don’t know how much the little accent diamonds total. That’s no big deal, since we will compare apples to apples by making a ring at James Allen which will total, altogether, 1 carat including the center diamond and the accents — just like the Jared ring.)

How to select that setting:

Simply go to the setting product page and choose “Select this Setting”.

Second, let’s find a better diamond… for less money! And finish making the ring

After you select “Select This Setting”, you will add a diamond. You can choose “Add a Diamond” in the popup menu. OR “Choose a Diamond” in the top navigation. Both take you to the same awesome page …

Set your James Allen filters as shown here

Click and then notice the details on the first diamond in the row. (Since only individual, unique diamonds are sold in this section of James Allen, it’ll probably be gone by the time you try this. But you’ll find a very similar diamond, for sure, following these directions.)

So this is what you get in this particular diamond. (And I didn’t cherry pick. I just went with the first search result on the day I ran this comparison.)

CARATS: The center stone is 0.90 carats. So the total carat weight is going to be 0.26 carats for the setting + 0.9 carats of the center stone = 1.16 carats. That’s more than 10% larger than the 1 total carat weight ring at Jared!

COLOR: H (That’s one whole grade better than the Jared diamond.)

CLARITY: I1 (That’s like a half grade better than the Jared!)

SHAPE: Oval

CUT QUALITY: Not specified. (Same)

METAL: 14K White Gold. (Same)

NUMBER OF ACCENT DIAMONDS: 36. (This is four more accent diamonds than the Jared ring!)

PRICE: $2,070

Conclusion: You’ll save $129 and get a significantly better diamond at James Allen

To build this ring at James Allen, start with this setting and follow the easy directions in the article above. Most rings at James Allen are “built” by the customer. Also, the diamonds at James Allen are totally unique (you get to choose them). So, there’s not a straight link that I could give you to the entire ring.