Selecting the Perfect Diamond
At Tim & Co., we wish to guide you throughout your diamond choice process with helpful information and meaningful advice. Thanks to our diamond mastery, we will help you find a diamond that matches your uniqueness .
For years, we have been truly passionate about diamonds and we strive to share this passion with you in each of our creations. At Tim & Co., our experts carefully select each of our diamonds, evaluating them meticulously to offer you the perfect quality. Each of our diamonds respond to stringent quality standards so you can be confident when you are choosing your jewellery with us.
Diamond Shapes
Throughout our collections, we wish to delight you with extraordinary diamond shapes to better find the one that truly symbolizes your personality. Just as Humans have a singular personality, we believe that each diamond has its own characteristics making them as special as you.
Diamond shapes refers to the geometrical appearance of a diamond and can be differentiated between round diamonds or fancy diamond shapes. At Tim & Co., we work with both round diamonds, which are the most classic diamond shape and fancy diamond shape which include princess, cushion, emerald, oval, pear, marquise or heart shapes.
Our experts strive to maximize the beauty of each diamond by faceting and polishing their shape with respect to their original form. Each shape determines the number of facets a diamond has and ultimately drives its ability to gather and reflect the light. Thanks to this unique technical expertise and quest toward perfection, our experts extract the best of each piece by allowing them to exhibit their exceptional sparkle to the world.
Round Brilliant is the most classic and popular style thanks to its intense sparkle. Round brilliant diamonds are cut to maximize their brilliance all over their round shape.
Cushion-cut exhibits rounded corners bringing a sense of harmony to the creation.
Emerald-cut is beloved for its timeless elegance, combining modernity with a vintage style thanks to its rectangular curves with stepped facets which creates flashes of light.
Marquise-shape is another modified cut of the round brilliant cut with a longer shape. Its origin took back to Louis XV of France, when he requested a diamond shape that looked like the mouth of his well-known mistress, Marquise de Pompadour.
Heart Shape is the most romantic cut to symbolize your love with simplicity and elegance.
Pear-shape is one of the most technically challenging which results in a combination of a round brilliant and a marquise cut. This combination brings classic and finesse to the shape with an exceptional light reflection.
Princess cut is appreciated for its contemporary style and intense sparkle, making it the most popular among fancy diamond cuts. Its pointed angles particularly boost its scintillation.
The Four Cs of Diamonds
Each of our diamonds is meticulously analyzed to respond to the GIA’s universal criterias of diamond quality, known as the 4Cs (Cut, Color, Clarity, Carat Weight). Each of the 4Cs is an essential part of the diamond’s beauty and make it unique.
Cut
Diamond cut is the most important aspect that determines brilliance. Experts assess the quality of a diamond cut by looking at the diamond’s symmetrical facets, angles, proportions, polished details and scintillation. Each factor is essential to determine the intensity of brilliance and sparkle a diamond has. The cut is graded by the GIA from Excellent to Poor. At Tim & Co., we only accept diamonds cut graded as Excellent.
Color
Diamonds can take a variety of shades, from purely colourless to yellow. Experts analyze and grade the diamond shade in a laboratory under adequate lightning to maximize accuracy. Following the GIA, diamonds can be graded on a scale of 23 shades, from ice white D (colourless) to warmer Z (light colour). At Tim & Co., we want to offer you perfection. That’s why we only work with the purest and rarest diamonds graded as colourless.
Clarity
Clarity is a measure of diamond’s inclusions and blemishes which refers to any traces of minerals or uncrystallised carbon for example. Inclusions and blemishes are most of the time invisible to the nakey eye but can still negatively impact the light reflection and refraction. Diamonds with the less inclusions have a higher clarity, meaning a higher value. The GIA assesses clarity on a scale from “Very rare FL” (flawless internally and externally) to I, signalling a higher number of inclusions and blemishes. At Tim & Co., we follow our quest toward perfection with diamonds having the highest clarity grade.
Carat
Carat is a measure of diamond weight. With one carat being equal to 200 milligrams, the weight assessment is a highly precise process that determines in part the value of the diamond, together with the other 4Cs that have as much importance.
At Tim & Co. we entrust each of our diamond to the most reliable independent laboratory in terms of diamonds grading: the Gemological Institute of America (GIA).
Once received in their offices in New York, the diamonds are carefully analyzed by several gemmologists verifying the diamond’s authenticity and evaluating the characteristics of the stone according to the 4 Cs. At the end of this meticulous process, each stone receives its certificate of authenticity from the GIA which will be enclosed with your jewellery.
When ordering your creation at Tim & Co., you will also receive a Certificate of Authenticity guaranteeing the responsible sourcing of our natural diamonds, following the Kimberley Process.
Laboratory-grown diamonds or Natural diamonds?
At Tim & Co., we are pleased to let you choose between two kinds of exceptional diamonds: natural and laboratory-grown. Laboratory-grown diamonds and natural diamonds are both made of pure carbon going through high temperature and high pressure. Their only differences rest on their production process and their availability.
Natural diamonds are one of the rarest and oldest natural treasures, formed in the earth’s mantle billions of years ago. As their formation takes between 1 to 3 billion years, our Mother Earth already created all the natural diamonds that will ever exist. In contrast, we can create an infinity of laboratory-grown diamonds in only a few weeks! Large and high-quality natural diamonds are extremely rare but there is no limit to the size and quantity of laboratory diamonds. Indeed, lab-grown diamonds are diamonds that are made by scientists in a highly controlled laboratory. They share the same exact chemical composition as natural diamonds which make them totally impossible to differentiate at the naked eye.
At Tim & Co., our laboratory-grown diamonds are created by our experts thanks to two high-tech methods: CVD (chemical vapor deposition) and HPHT (high pressure high temperature).
CVD (chemical vapor deposition)
Experts place lab-grown diamond seeds into a CVD reactor and add carbon gas at a very low pressure. Then, they incorporate microwaves to heat the carbon gas which creates a plasma. The temperature then rises over thousand degrees which allows the gas molecules to break up and carbon atoms stick to the initial diamond seeds. Finally, the seeds grow layer by layer over time. Scientists can control the size, the color and the quality of each diamond, ensuring the better quality lab-grown diamonds are delivered to you.
HPHT (high pressure high temperature)
This method is very close to the natural conditions under which diamonds are formed in the Earth. Experts place a diamond seed into a high-tech machine composed of mechanical presses that produce extreme temperature and pressure to carbon. This process allows the carbon to stick on the diamond seed and grow layer by layer over time to form a perfect diamond.
Whether natural or lab-grown, diamonds confer a highly precious symbolic dimension, making them the perfect gift to highlight a meaningful moment in life.