Why do luxury brands such as Van Cleef & Arpels, Tiffany & Co, Bvgari, Cartier, and others charge so much more than comparable fine jewelry elsewhere? As assumed, you aren’t just purchasing a designer piece, you’re also purchasing what’s behind the name as representation. It is usually the luxury designers who set out inspiration for other companies’ designs. There are still some differences I see in luxury designer pieces, vs other fine jewelry. One element is the finish work under magnification. While most people don’t think to pull out a stereoscope and examine the basket setting beneath their stone, many of the luxury brands employ master jewelers who care about details, seen and unseen.
Another benefit of some luxury designers, is the ongoing artistic ad campaigns and presentation material. I was shocked upon receiving recognition papers printed on fine very thick card stock—almost like wood, from one company! Catalogs may be beautifully finished hard bound books. This can’t be cheap! But the stunning presentations can certainly make one feel special, and look forward to added perks and attention with their next purchase. Bottom line, when you purchase a luxury designer piece, you are buying the rights to some of the prestige behind it.
While some luxury brands will offer a modest guarantee, the assumption may be, because it’s well made, it should not require the same after-care another fine jewelry piece might need. It’s also expected only the finest gems and best manufacturing is presented.
But let’s look at companies selling fine examples of jewelry, such as Shane Co. or Na Hoku, amongst others. Many of the pieces in these stores are half the cost—if not much more. When buying from a community fine jewelry store, you might not be receiving the same quality of add materials, but a different strategy is used. Since pieces may be mass produced, there are likely corners cut that are not otherwise necessary to achieve the look. Jewelers aren’t expected to take the same amount of time on the finish work, for one. Rather than receiving diamonds in the VVS/colorless range, you might be settling for SI/GH. Or, instead of 18k or platinum, you might be dealing with 14k in white or yellow gold. This is still a remarkable step up from most jewelry out there which tends to be in the I/IJK range and 10k or sterling silver. Most of these details between the VVS and the SI aren’t noticed with the average naked eye. Gold can even be tricky for the average person to identify, solely on color.
Fine jewelers are more likely to offer limited lifetime benefits. This brings the consumer back into the store in regular intervals; in time to see what’s new. Your mandated cleaning and inspections may be required and signed off on, in order to maintain a warranty. It’s brilliant really. You go into the store after 6mo, the sales associate inspects and cleans your jewelry while you are left in the store to browse—and hopefully find interest in something.
Many fine jewelry stores are now selling you their warranties. They make decent money off the services they offer if you don’t have one. By reminding you of the way jewelry may wear down over time, they are selling assurance that they will take care of that normal wear.