The Cost Of A Real Sapphire Ring

If you’re concerned about how much you’ll have to spend to pop that big question, rest easy. Starting at just $1500.00 for 1.25-carat gem in a 14kt gold band, a real sapphire engagement ring is not only the best option for a colored jewelry stone, but it also can be significantly more affordable than the more common diamond ring.

Traditionally the 3 months’ pay-check has been the guide on how much to spend of you engagement ring which typically buys a nice 1.25 round cut diamond ring but when looking at the natural sapphire for the engagement ring you can start considering gems of 3-4 carats or higher depending on your choice of color you would like for the main stone. When it comes to engagement rings, literally the sky is the limit. But the real beauty of going for the sapphire as the main gemstone is that thanks to its brilliance and glamor, it makes everyone think you spent many times more than what you actually did!

So, without further ado, let us dive into the amazing world of sapphires.

 

Read: Your Guide To A Sapphire Engagement Ring

What Determines the Price of a Real Sapphire Ring?

The most important, and in that regard the most expensive aspect of a sapphire ring is obviously the centerpiece gem that adorns the jewelry. When you buy a diamond, the price is dependent on the sum of the 4 C’s – Color, Cut, Clarity, and Carat weight. Similar factors come in to play with the pricing of a real sapphire, and if you are buying a sapphire engagement ring, these are factors you should definitely pay attention to in order to ensure you are getting your money’s worth.

Assuming that size is constant, the price of a sapphire depends on several factors. The most important of these are as follows:

1. The place of origin of the gemstone
2. It’s color, with further grading on the basis of saturation and tone
3. Any heat treatment on the sapphire to enhance its look
4. The clarity of the stone, as well as any types of inclusion

Let us take a look at how each of these affects the value of the stone:

1. Place of origin

A real sapphire can originate in many places in the world, and that can drastically affect its value. Let’s consider the sapphires from the Kashmir which, in addition to being arguably the rarest form of sapphire in the world, fetch extremely high price per carat because of their cornflower blue silky saturation. The highest-priced sapphire in history is a 17.16 ct Kashmir sapphire that was sold at an auction for $4,056 million or a whopping $236,404 per carat! Similarly, sapphires from Myanmar have a unique royal blue coloring and, at a price tag of around $5,000-$20,0000 per carat depending on the size of the sapphire, cost about 50% more
than sapphires from Sri Lanka or Madagascar. Ceylon sapphire, one of the highest quality gems comes from Sri Lanka. These start from $1,000 per carat and can climb quickly depending on the cart weight & of course the color.

On the other hand, sapphires from Thailand, Tanzania, Australia, Montana (USA), and Cambodia produces smaller stones that are used solely for commercial jewelry. Sapphires from these areas can range between $20 to $100 per carat but traditionally not sued for jewelry unless the quality is high and if it is prices can start for gem-quality around $500 to $2,000 per ct.

2. Sapphire Coloring

Sapphires come in many colors. Some are rare, some are popular, some are cheap. Either way, what most people look for in sapphires have vivid saturation with less color zoning.

Gemologists only look at 3 areas in color:

1. Hue – the main color of the stone. Hue can range between pale to rich coloring. Some sapphires can also have two hues. This is known as Pleochroism and enables the stone to produce different colors when observed from different angles also known as color-change sapphires.
2. Tone – The tone is simply how dark or light the stone is. The desired tone can vary from hue to hue. For example, the desired tone for blue sapphires ranges between medium to medium-dark tone. Too dark angular spots or “inky” areas in the sapphire are undesirable with these sapphires normally described as not transparent.
3. Saturation – This is the most important contributor to a sapphire’s value. The more intense or vivid the saturation of the sapphire is, the more expensive it gets.

That said, sapphires today are mostly heat treated to get good coloring. Which brings us to our next point:

3. Sapphire Heat Treatment

Putting a sapphire under heat in order to enhance its color is an age-old practice. The clarity of sapphire also improves under heat. There are different levels of heat treatments, however, and generally, the more treatment a piece of sapphire undergoes, the lower a price it will fetch on the market. This is why we only deal with unheated and natural heated sapphires.

The other form of enhancement is the diffusion of beryllium where they take commercial grade sapphires to heat each sapphire to just below the melting point which removes all of the colors and then they infuse color for diffusion or beryllium, these treatments are temporary with sapphires which had had these treatments should be looked as true natural gems with very low value. Having a laboratory report from either the GIA or AGL will tell you what treatments if any the sapphire has an essential part of buying any sapphire.

 

4. Sapphire Clarity

All gemstones extracted from the earth are known to have natural inclusions within them, and a real sapphire is no different. Generally, inclusions or mineral crystals forming within the sapphire stone are a few of the many inclusions that may affect the gem’s clarity.

While many of these inclusions ruin the value of the gem, there are some that actually make the sapphire unique. One example of such desired inclusion is asterism. This needle-like rutile inclusion within sapphires produces a “star” like effect on cabochon sapphires that is mesmerizing. Another example is that of the Kashmir sapphire which produces a sleepy, velvety blue hue. Rutile inclusions within the stone are responsible for this.

With all these positive inclusions, what about those negative ones? Any inclusion that threatens the durability of the gem, such as cracks or fractures, can decrease its value by quite a bit.

The Price of a Real Sapphire Gemstone

As we saw above, Sapphire prices can range greatly depending on many factors. They can come as cheap as $25 per carat, to over $20,000 per carat. Yes, we know that’s a really wide range, but this eventually means a lot more choices in every budget for you as the consumer!

Let us review the current market prices for Sapphires. High-quality stones are likely to see a cost of around $800-2,500 per carat, which is very affordable when you compare the cost to a diamond. For more common sapphires, which are decent quality yet not especially remarkable, you will be looking at a little less at around $400-800 per carat. Price also depends on the size of the gemstone, as larger stones (3 carats or more) are rarer, and thus will command a higher price tag.

In Conclusion

The question, “how much does a real sapphire engagement ring cost?” has many different answers. By now it should be clear that a sapphire engagement ring is within everyone’s grasps no matter the budget. Our sales and design team are happy to work with you to not only stay within your budget, but also create a unique, rare, and stunning sapphire ring. Now, should you decide that you want to spend millions, we can help you with that too!

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