Departments · Jewellery and watches
Jewels
Carat, colour, setting and size. What makes a piece worth keeping, what auction houses know, and how to buy a watch you will hand on.
Jewellery is the only part of a wardrobe that can be handed to a grandchild, which changes how it should be bought. The questions that matter are technical and answerable: what karat, what setting, whether the stone is cut for brilliance or for size, and whether the piece can be repaired in thirty years by someone who is not the original maker.
We explain the four Cs without the sales patter, and we say plainly where the money is wasted: on certificates for small stones, on brand mark-ups that vanish the moment you try to resell, and on white gold that will need replating every few years when platinum would not.
Watches sit here too, because a good one is jewellery that tells the time. We look at movements, at case sizes that suit a smaller wrist, at the vintage market and its traps, and at the few pieces under two thousand euro that hold their value honestly.
In this department
The latest in Jewels
Jewels Diamonds
The Four Cs, Without the Sales Patter
Cut, colour, clarity and carat, in order of how much they matter to how a stone looks. Where to spend, where to stop, and what a certificate is worth.
Jewels Metals
Karat, Colour and What Survives Daily Wear
Nine, fourteen or eighteen karat, white gold or platinum, plated or solid. The decisions that determine whether a piece lasts a season or a lifetime.
Jewels Watches
Your First Serious Watch
Quartz or mechanical, 28 or 36 millimetres, new or vintage. How to buy one watch that will still be right in twenty years and will fit a smaller wrist.
Jewels Vintage
Buying Jewellery at Auction
Estate jewellery costs a third of the retail equivalent and is the only category most people can resell without loss. What to look for and what to walk away from.
The tool for this
Jewel Box
A ring gauge printed to scale, a chain length visualiser that shows where each falls on a neckline, and twelve stones compared by hardness and daily wearability.
Reader poll
The first serious piece a woman should own?
Questions we get asked
Are laboratory grown diamonds a bad investment?
They are not an investment at all, and neither are most mined stones bought at retail. Grown diamonds are chemically identical, cost roughly a fifth and have fallen steadily in price. Buy them for pleasure, buy vintage if you want to keep value.
What ring size should I order online?
Measure at the end of the day when fingers are largest, at body temperature, and measure three times. The Jewel Box tool prints a scale ring gauge you can check against a ring you already own.
Is a vintage watch a sensible first watch?
Only with a serviced movement and a dealer who guarantees it. Budget three to six hundred euro for a service every five years, and avoid anything with a replaced dial if you care about resale.
How should pearls be cared for?
Last on, first off. Perfume and hairspray dull the nacre, and the silk thread stretches with wear, so restring every two or three years if you wear them often.
Keep going
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