Know Your Diamond Grading: Why Kwiat Trusts GIA and GCAL

Shopping for diamonds can feel overwhelming. There are so many jewelers and so many stones of vastly varied size, quality, and price. To make the most confident purchase for your budget, it’s incredibly important to be informed about the systems used to evaluate a diamond’s quality and authenticity. The best way to go about this is to learn about a diamond’s GIA grading.

Seasoned diamond buyers are most definitely familiar with GIA grading. After all, the GIA (Gemological Institute of America), an independent non-profit organization devoted to maintaining industry transparency since 1931, has established the most standardized and trusted assessment methods in the industry.

A GIA report is essentially a detailed review of a diamond’s characteristics. The report assigns grades to the “4Cs”: Carat weight, Color, Clarity, and Cut, as well as to the factors Polish, Symmetry, and Fluorescence. GIA reports are globally recognized for being reputable and non-biased. Having a diamond with GIA certification greatly increases its resale value.

All Kwiat Tiara Diamonds™ (our exclusive versions of the popular shapes: round, oval, emerald, etc.) are graded Excellent (the highest possible score) for Polish and Symmetry. Our round brilliant diamonds are graded Excellent for Cut as well, qualifying them for the “Triple Excellent” designation. A diamond with a Very Good GIA cut grade and a Kwiat diamond with an Excellent GIA cut grade are only one grade apart, but when side by side, the light performance of an Excellent stone is comparatively striking. The GIA does not assign cut grades for fancy shape diamonds.

While GIA has the reputation of being the most reputable diamond grading system, it’s not the only one. Another independent diamond grader, and one of the world’s largest, is IGI (International Gemological Institute). Just like GIA, IGI evaluates the 4Cs of a diamond, as well as Fluorescence, Polish, and Symmetry. While IGI is largely accepted as a trustworthy source around the globe, and although it can be faster and more cost-effective, it is said to offer less precise grading overall than GIA, the service preferred by Kwiat.

Although GIA has been promising for years to create a method for grading fancy shape diamonds, to this day, they still do not have such capability.

Since GIA does not grade fancy cuts, Kwiat obtains GCAL (Gem Certification and Assurance Lab) certification for these stones.

GCAL is a diamond certification lab along the lines of GIA, but they have different techniques for grading fancy shape diamonds. One of the only ISO (International Organization for Standardization) accredited gemological labs in the world, GCAL has been issuing cut grades for fancy shape diamonds since 2008. They are known for maintaining the strictest standards and offering guaranteed accuracy when it comes to analyzing diamond cuts. They rigorously analyze the extent to which a diamond sparkles and how light interacts with it.

The GCAL Fancy Cut Grade is somewhat different than GIA grading and based on three factors: Light Performance (optical brilliance and optical symmetry), Finish (polish and external symmetry), and Proportions (table percentage, depth percentage, crown angle, pavilion angle, girdle thickness, and culet size).

Though fewer than one percent of the world’s diamonds are cut to a standard that would receive GCAL’s Ideal cut grade (its highest score), every single Kwiat Tiara Diamond achieves an Ideal cut grade from GCAL in addition to its Excellent GIA grades.

In a world of acronyms, the two to know to ensure you are getting the most brilliant, beautiful diamond are GIA and GCAL. Consider GIA your first line of quality assurance, and GCAL the second (yet essential if you are purchasing a fancy shape diamond). And remember, all Kwiat diamonds receive the absolute highest marks from both GIA and GCAL.

Have questions? Kwiat is happy to offer additional personal guidance at any time.