Selecting the Perfect Diamond
At Tim & Co., we guide you through the process of choosing a diamond with clarity, precision, and care. Drawing on deep expertise, we help you find a stone that reflects your individuality—not just in appearance, but in meaning.
Our passion for diamonds is uncompromising. Every stone is hand-selected by our experts and held to rigorous standards of cut, clarity, color, and character. Nothing enters our collection without meeting strict criteria for excellence. When you choose a diamond with us, you choose with confidence—measured, informed, and assured.
Diamond Shapes
Each diamond shape tells a different story. Across our collections, we offer a refined range of cuts to help you find the one that best reflects your character. Just as every person is singular, each diamond carries its own geometry, aura, and presence—distinct in form, identical in brilliance.
Diamond shape refers to the geometric form of a diamond—how it is cut and how it appears to the eye. At Tim & Co., we offer both round and fancy shapes. The round diamond is the timeless classic, known for its symmetry and brilliance. Fancy shapes include princess, cushion, emerald, oval, pear, marquise, and heart cuts—each with its own visual language and emotional resonance. We curate these forms to match a wide range of personal styles, ensuring your choice is both precise and expressive.
Our experts shape each diamond to enhance its natural beauty, carefully faceting and polishing in harmony with its original form. The shape defines the number and arrangement of facets, which in turn control how the diamond captures and reflects light. Through precise craftsmanship and an uncompromising pursuit of perfection, we reveal the full brilliance of each stone—allowing its inner fire to emerge with clarity and power.
The Round Brilliant is the most classic and sought-after diamond shape, prized for its exceptional sparkle. Engineered for maximum light return, its precise proportions and symmetrical form create unmatched brilliance across every facet of its circular geometry.
The Cushion cut features soft, rounded corners and a square or rectangular silhouette, blending classic elegance with a sense of balance and harmony. Its gentle curves and deep facets create a warm, romantic glow.
The Emerald cut is celebrated for its timeless elegance, blending modern refinement with vintage character. Its long, rectangular shape and stepped facets produce broad, mirror-like flashes of light, emphasizing clarity and understated sophistication.
The Marquise cut is a modified form of the round brilliant, distinguished by its elongated shape with pointed ends. Originating in the court of Louis XV, it was commissioned to resemble the lips of his mistress, the Marquise de Pompadour. Its elegant silhouette enhances perceived size and creates a striking, regal presence.
The Heart shape is the ultimate symbol of love, combining emotional significance with refined elegance. Its distinct silhouette captures sentiment with clarity, making it a powerful choice for meaningful moments.
The Pear shape is one of the most technically demanding cuts, blending the brilliance of a round cut with the elongated elegance of a marquise. Its tapered form delivers both classic beauty and refined sophistication, offering exceptional light reflection and a graceful, fluid silhouette.
The Princess cut is prized for its modern geometry and intense brilliance, making it the most popular of the fancy shapes. Its sharp, square form and pointed corners enhance light dispersion, creating remarkable scintillation with a bold, contemporary edge.
The Four Cs of Diamonds
Every Tim & Co. diamond is carefully evaluated according to the GIA’s global standard of diamond quality: the Four Cs—Cut, Color, Clarity, and Carat Weight. Together, these four criteria define a diamond’s appearance, structure, and value. Each C contributes to the stone’s unique character and overall brilliance, making every diamond singular in its beauty.
Cut
Cut is the most critical factor in a diamond’s brilliance. It determines how light enters, moves through, and reflects from the stone. Experts evaluate cut quality by analyzing the diamond’s symmetry, proportions, facet alignment, polish, and overall light performance. The GIA grades cut from Excellent to Poor. At Tim & Co., we accept only diamonds with an Excellent cut grade—ensuring optimal sparkle and visual precision in every piece.
Color
Diamonds occur in a range of natural shades, from completely colorless to warm yellow tones. Color is graded in laboratory conditions under controlled lighting to ensure precision. The GIA color scale ranges from D (colorless) to Z (light color), spanning 23 distinct grades. At Tim & Co., we select only the rarest, most pristine diamonds—those graded in the colorless range—to ensure unmatched purity and brilliance in every creation.
Clarity
Clarity measures the presence of internal inclusions and external blemishes—natural features like mineral traces or uncrystallized carbon. While often invisible to the naked eye, these imperfections can affect how light moves through the diamond, diminishing its brilliance. The GIA clarity scale ranges from Flawless (FL), meaning no visible inclusions under 10x magnification, to Included (I), where imperfections are more apparent. At Tim & Co., we pursue uncompromising clarity, selecting only diamonds with the highest grades to preserve purity, brilliance, and value.
Carat
Carat measures a diamond’s weight, with one carat equal to 200 milligrams. Though often associated with size, carat alone does not determine a diamond’s value—its brilliance, clarity, and color are equally vital. Weight is measured with extreme precision, but true worth lies in the balance of all four Cs. At Tim & Co., we emphasize proportion, not just scale—ensuring every carat delivers maximum visual impact.
At Tim & Co., every diamond is submitted to the Gemological Institute of America (GIA), the most trusted authority in diamond grading.
Upon arrival at the GIA laboratories in New York, each stone undergoes detailed analysis by expert gemologists. They authenticate the diamond and assess its characteristics according to the strict standards of the 4 Cs. Following this rigorous evaluation, the diamond is issued a GIA Certificate of Authenticity, which accompanies your piece.
In addition, your Tim & Co. creation includes a separate Certificate of Authenticity confirming the responsible sourcing of our natural diamonds, in full compliance with the Kimberley Process.
Laboratory-Grown or Natural diamonds?
At Tim & Co., we offer both natural and laboratory-grown diamonds—each exceptional, each real, each made of pure carbon formed under intense heat and pressure. The difference lies not in what they are, but in how they come to be.
Natural diamonds are ancient. Formed deep within the Earth over 1 to 3 billion years ago, they are finite—every natural diamond that will ever exist is already here. Their rarity, especially in large and high-quality forms, makes them geological timepieces and natural wonders.
Laboratory-grown diamonds are created in a matter of weeks through advanced techniques—CVD (Chemical Vapour Deposition) and HPHT (High Pressure High Temperature). These stones are identical to natural diamonds in structure, composition, and brilliance. They cannot be distinguished by the naked eye, yet they offer greater availability and a lower environmental impact.
At Tim & Co., the choice is yours: timeless rarity or modern precision. Both are real. Both are beautiful. One is shaped by the Earth. The other, by the future.
CVD (Chemical Vapour Deposition)
In the CVD process, experts place thin diamond seeds into a CVD reactor filled with carbon-rich gas at low pressure. Microwaves are then introduced, heating the gas and creating a plasma. This intense energy breaks apart the gas molecules, freeing carbon atoms that settle onto the diamond seeds. As the atoms accumulate, the diamond grows layer by layer. This controlled environment allows scientists to fine-tune the size, color, and purity of each stone—ensuring consistently high-quality lab-grown diamonds.
HPHT (High Pressure High Temperature)
HPHT replicates the natural conditions under which diamonds form deep within the Earth. A diamond seed is placed into a specialized press that applies extreme pressure—over 5 GPa—and temperatures exceeding 1,400°C. Under these conditions, carbon melts and crystallizes onto the seed, growing the diamond layer by layer. This process produces structurally identical diamonds to those formed in nature, with precise control over clarity and composition.
Whether natural or lab-grown, diamonds embody lasting meaning—timeless symbols chosen to honour life’s most significant moments with clarity and purpose.