The modern princess cut diamond ring is result of over five hundred years of refinement of the art and science of diamond cutting. Princess cut diamonds take advantage of the natural molecular structure of diamonds in order to create the maximum amount of sparkle and shine, which is technically known as "fire." Princess cut diamond rings have a great deal more of this fire than most traditional round cuts.



Two Pyramids

If you can visualize two pyramids joined at the base - an eight-sided polyhedron, or octagon - you know what diamonds look life when they first come out of the ground. The reason for this has to do with the shape of the carbon molecules that make up diamond crystals. When jewelers finally learned how to cut this substance, they simply followed the gem's natural shape. Princess cut diamonds represent the pinnacle of the diamond cutter's art.

Three Years of Study

Princess cut diamonds first appeared almost thirty years ago, and was the innovation of a Los Angeles diamond cutter named Israel Itzkowitz. Prior to this time, the stones used in diamond rings were either "round cut" - with equal cuts around the face of the stone - or "square cut" - meaning that four sides were long and the other four were short, so the face of the diamond approximated a rectangular shape.

A Princess cut diamond ring is the result of three years of intense study on the part of Itzkowitz in his attempts to come up with a cut that combined the best features of both the round and the square cuts.

Current Style

Princess cut diamonds, also called "modified square brilliant," are the second most popular choice today for diamond engagement rings and other jewelry. Both traditional white and the wide range of colored diamonds account for most of the mounted and loose diamonds sold today.

One of the reasons that Princess cut diamond rings are rapidly gaining in popularity is not only because of its brilliance compared to other cuts; it is in fact the most economical way to cut a diamond. Of all diamond cuts, the princess cut wastes the least of the original stone, so it retains substantially more of its original weight. Because of this, these pieces are less costly than similar rings with round cut gems. All around, a princess cut diamond ring represent the best jewelry value on a per-carat basis.