Zale's Offers The Celebration Diamond
It's not an easy time for Zale's, the ubiquitous jewelry seller. Jewelry sales are down across board, Zale's is part of the widely circulated e-mail cautioning gift card shoppers, and with a bleak holiday season ahead they have created a couple of new offerings to tempt shoppers.
Zales has also introduced new pendants and charms to show support for the troops including a sterling silver engraved dog tag with the option of 1-3 initials featured on the front face of the tag, a round charm offered in both 14K gold and sterling silver with a choice of service emblem and a sterling silver military cross pendant, again with the choice of branch.
Their big advertising effort is focused on the Celebration Diamond, a new patented diamond cut that features 102 facets. Celebration Diamonds are available in round and princess cuts and each is set in an 18 karat white gold cathedral mounting with platinum prongs and "Celebration" inscribed inside the ring. The complete line includes engagement rings, solitaire earrings, and necklaces with prices from from $1,499 to $44,995. The holiday season is often a popular time for engagements and Zale's is hoping the economy won't scare off the would-be betrothed.
[via Rapaport]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
MidnightPlatinum Nov 23rd 2008 12:13AM
Zales is getting toward the bottom of the barrel for modern jewlery stores, don't you think? Especially for Luxist...
I thought you guys would have covered something like the Solasfera at Kay and Goodman's now (*that diamond is designed by optical engineers and cut by a much better team). That is actually a diamond that's a big deal in the industry right now. Just check out all the youtube videos on it. I've seen them in person... they are not about all that extra facet nonsense (which is beat anyway by Arthurs Star 154 or whatever diamond). They don't even want you to know how many they have (93) because it looks like a regular cut and not a piece of smashed safety glass. Sparkle (total light return) matters more than scintillation (the amount of small specks of light you see) to my taste. And when in doubt... check their GemEx card!
Um, not to mention.... Zales... going out of business? They are having enough problems I wouldn't trust them. Warranties are everything from a modern jeweler these days. I'm not having a chip in my diamond 5 years later and getting screwed because someone went under or sold out.
If we're going to go beyond mid-range jewlery stores what about Jared, or bluenile.com's colored diamond collection?
Also... ps... 18k wg is the worst metal in all of jewelry today. You'll need it rhodium plated every week. They'll even tell you that in store. Go platinum (currently the market price of gold) or 14k...
Remember... 18k white gold is the *identical* color as even 10k white gold to your eye since you only see the rhodium coating with all of white gold. Having a higher yellow content waiting to be exposed with 18 (only 6 parts of 24 can be white metals like palladium and zinc) and the greatly increased softness of 18 is never fun.
Oh, and Zales cut down the usefulness of their Zale Holiday Certificates this year too (They are down to 33% of a purchase instead of 50%). They can't even support their own sales anymore.