Every stone we hold, one at a time

Because each stone is its own stone. These are serialised, one-of-one gems — measured, weighed and photographed individually — not a size run of an identical product. Two 1.50 ct blue sapphires can differ in colour, cut and price, so they get separate pages and separate photographs. When one sells, its page comes down.

A full turntable pass of that exact stone, filmed in the lab. Hover any card with the 360° badge and it starts rotating; open the stone's own page and you can drag it round yourself, or step through it with the arrow keys. It is the closest thing to holding a stone up to the light, and it is how you spot a window, an extinction zone or an off-centre culet before you buy.

Every diamond is, and most coloured stones are. Where a report exists you will find the lab, the report number and a link that opens the lab's own verification page — GIA, IGI, GCAL, AGS or EGL USA — so you are checking the report with the laboratory, not with us. Coloured stones are certified less often across the trade generally; where we hold no report we say so on the page rather than implying one.

Chemically and optically, very little — a lab-grown sapphire is a sapphire. The difference is how it formed and what it costs: natural stones grew underground over geological time and are priced on rarity, while lab-grown stones are made to order and cost substantially less for the same size and clarity. Every page states which it is, and you can filter on it anywhere in the catalogue.

Yes — that is what the ring and pendant builders are for. Pick the stone first, then a setting that fits it, and you will see the finished piece rendered with your stone in it before you order. Not every stone fits every setting: the builder only offers you settings whose seat matches your stone's actual millimetre measurements.

They are the standard treatments used to improve colour or clarity, and they are normal for most coloured stones — the great majority of sapphire and ruby on the market is heated. Heating is permanent and stable. Oiling, common in emerald, fills surface-reaching fractures and can need renewing over decades. Untreated stones of good colour are genuinely rare and priced accordingly. Where we know the treatment, it is on the page and in the filters.

By millimetre, if you care how big it looks. Carat is weight, not size, and different species have different densities — a 1 ct sapphire is noticeably smaller across the top than a 1 ct diamond. If you are matching an existing setting or a particular finger, the length and width in millimetres is the number that matters, and we list it on every stone.

Sapphire and ruby are excellent for daily wear, and diamond more so. Emerald, tanzanite, opal and morganite are softer or more brittle and are better suited to pendants, earrings, or rings worn with a little care. Every stone page carries a plain-English durability note so you are not left interpreting a hardness number on your own.