RockHer vs Brilliant Earth vs Tiffany & Co.

If you care about responsible sourcing, diamond engagement ring shopping just got a lot easier. Three groundbreaking jewelers launched projects this year to communicate where the diamonds in their engagement rings, solitaires, wedding bands, and other diamond jewelry come from and where they were crafted. RockHer is among the first jewelers to commit to a transparent supply chain, ushering in a new era of diamond provenance.  Tiffany & Co. and Brilliant Earth have also publically committed to a similar pledge of transparency.

In the past, traceable origin was only available for a small selection of diamond rings mined and cut in Canada. Today, RockHer, like Tiffany & Co. and Brilliant Earth, provides diamond origin (and in two cases where the diamond was cut and polished too) right on online product pages. This goes beyond just saying that a diamond is conflict-free to sharing where this specific diamond was mined, cut and polished.

While RockHer is not the only retailer committed to transparency, there are still differences among online retailers which have made similar commitments. Here’s an overview of Brilliant Earth vs Tiffany & Co. - and why we think RockHer delivers better value with the same degree of transparency.

Here are the four most important reasons why diamond engagement ring shopping on RockHer can help you find the best possible value on a responsibly sourced diamond ring, even if you don't end up buying from us.

1. RockHer Finds You the Best Diamond

Online shopping makes it easy to compare diamond prices. The markups are much lower and it’s easier to comparison shop for an engagement ring. But it doesn’t always make it easy to compare diamond quality.

When you are shopping, combing through page after page of listings, how do you find the most beautiful diamond for your engagement ring?

At RockHer, we built the world’s first diamond-picking artificial intelligence called ROSI. Using the power of IBM’s Watson, ROSI can sift through the hundreds of thousands of loose diamonds on the market at any one time and find the most beautiful eye-clean well-cut diamonds in your budget. ROSI compares more than 30 different criteria and diamond prices to find the best balance between quality and value in your price range. It’s the best way to make sure that you buy a cut diamond for your engagement ring that sparkles with brilliance and fire.

And then we did it again with the new ROSI Personal Diamond Ring Shopping Tool, calculating the combined cost of diamond and engagement ring setting so you can compare the total cost of different complete engagement ring options. To do that, ROSI compares 300 million options to find you the best diamond and engagement ring setting for your budget. It’s the most sophisticated diamond engagement ring shopping technology in the world.

2. RockHer Find You the Best Value

As you might expect, the markup on diamonds is much lower at online retailers than at Tiffany & Co. Buying a loose diamond and then choosing an engagement ring setting is the best way to buy the right diamond at the right price. But it might surprise you to find significant differences in markup between online jewelers. We are confident that you will be delighted by the surprising values on transparently sourced diamonds and diamond rings at RockHer.

In fact, we are so confident that ROSI’s powerful diamond algorithm does a great job finding an exceptional value that we created a tool to let you easily compare the diamonds we offer with the diamonds you find at any other jeweler.

No matter where you found your diamond, RockHer or Brilliant Earth or Tiffany & Co (or Blue Nile, James Allen or your local jeweler), you can use RockHer’s unique Compare Your Diamond tool to confirm that your diamond is the best possible choice.

Here’s how it works: just put the GIA diamond grading report number into Compare Your Diamond tool and see if ROSI, our diamond-picking AI, can find a better diamond for the same price, a larger carat weight diamond for the same price, or a similar diamond for a lower price. (If the report number isn’t shown online, request it from the retailer.) If your diamond is the best option, you’ll know right away. If it isn’t, you’ll see a few options that might be better.

Basically it’s the automated version of a second opinion. You’ll get the confidence you need to make sure this is the diamond you’ll be proud of forever.

3. RockHer's Engagement Rings Are Made in America

At RockHer, the engagement ring you select will be made to order expressly for you from scratch in America to fit your diamond and your finger size precisely. We use the latest CAD/CAM technology combined with skilled hand-finishing in our Los Angeles workshop to craft diamond engagement rings to the highest possible quality standard for fine jewelry. We also make all our wedding rings and wedding bands in-house.

Tiffany & Co. also makes much of its jewelry in the United States in its own facilities. We aren’t sure where Brilliant Earth makes its diamond rings. It promises only that they are “designed in California.”

Because we make your diamond ring from scratch ourselves, you can select your choice of precious metals, including 14k white and yellow gold. In fact, 14k white gold is our customer’s favorite precious metal choice. Brilliant Earth only offers 18k white and yellow gold, not 14k gold. Tiffany offers only platinum and 18k yellow gold, not white gold. These options are much more expensive than 14k white gold. We think you should be able to choose 14k if you prefer to put more money into the diamond instead of the engagement ring setting.

You can also choose from a wide selection of colored gemstones to make your engagement ring unique.

We also think making your engagement ring to order is worth the effort because it’s the single most important way to improve the quality of your diamond ring. If an off-the-shelf mass-produced diamond engagement ring or wedding ring is heated, bent, and cut so it can be altered to your ring size it’s much more likely that side stones will fall out. (That free sizing offered by Brilliant Earth has a hidden cost.) And if the center stone engagement ring setting isn’t made specifically for your diamond, the prongs can loosen over time and the diamond could fall out and be lost.

4. RockHer's Responsible Sourcing Doesn't Stop With the Center Stone

Responsible sourcing of the center diamond of your engagement ring is important. Brilliant Earth is an industry leader in responsible sourcing of its center diamonds although it has had issues with sourcing of Canadian diamonds in the past.

But at RockHer, sourcing of the center diamond is just the beginning. We pay attention to the sourcing of all the diamonds in your engagement ring, not just the center stone. The small diamonds in your wedding band and the diamonds in your engagement ring setting are also responsibly sourced.

We are partners in Lipari Mineraçao, which operates the largest diamond mine in South America, the Braúna mine in Brazil. Whenever possible, the small diamonds in our diamond engagement ring settings are sourced from Lipari, providing jobs and economic security for the people of Nordestina in Brazil.

Like Brilliant Earth, RockHer uses recycled precious metals to craft our diamond engagement ring settings and wedding rings. Making all our diamond rings from scratch in our workshop in Los Angeles means we can control every aspect of the process to make sure it is done responsibly.

Thanks to RockHer’s blend of high technology, hand craftsmanship, and transparent sourcing, you don't have to pay more for a responsibly sourced diamond engagement ring or wedding ring. You don't have to choose between value and your values: you can have both.