How to choose a custom jeweller: the 10-question checklist
Melbourne has brilliant custom jewellers — and a market where quotes are built to be incomparable. These ten questions make any studio's quote, including ours, line up side by side. Print it, take it to every consultation, and watch which questions get a straight answer.
01 Is the centre stone independently certified — and is the report number in the quote?
Good answer: GIA (natural) or IGI (lab-grown), report number written into the quote, original certificate supplied with the ring.
Red flag: "Certified by our in-house gemmologist", or a certificate brand you've never heard of. Without an independent report, the quote can't be compared with anything.
02 What are the exact 4Cs — including the cut grade?
Good answer: carat, colour, clarity AND cut, e.g. "1.00 ct, G, VS1, Excellent cut". Cut does the sparkling, and it's the grade quotes most often omit.
Red flag: "a one-carat diamond". That phrase spans a price range of thousands of dollars.
03 Is the price itemised — stone separate from setting?
Good answer: yes, in writing. Ours goes further — stone, metal, labour, freight and our margin — but stone-vs-setting is the minimum that makes two quotes comparable.
Red flag: one bundled number, "to keep it simple". Bundling is what keeps the moving parts invisible.
04 Where is the ring actually made?
Good answer: a specific, confident one — whichever city it is. Plenty of excellent rings are made in Melbourne; plenty are made, as ours are, by master goldsmiths in Bangkok. What matters is that they'll tell you.
Red flag: workshop imagery and "handcrafted" language with no stated location, or an answer that changes between the website and the consultation. Under ACCC rules, "Australian made" has a precise legal meaning — a jeweller vague about this is telling you how they handle precise things.
05 What metal, and how many grams?
Good answer: stated alloy and approximate finished weight, e.g. "18ct yellow gold, about 5.5 g". Weight is the honesty metric for a band — it's where corners get cut invisibly.
Red flag: no weight anywhere. Two rings identical in renders can differ 40% in metal.
06 Will you put the setting specification in writing?
Good answer: minimum claw thickness, shank cross-section and pavé bead engagement, on paper. Ours is published — but any maker who engineers properly can state theirs.
Red flag: "all our rings are made to the highest standard." A standard that can't be written down can't be inspected against.
07 What's the lead time, in writing — and when does the clock start?
Good answer: a number of weeks from an agreed starting point (design approval), plus what happens if it's missed. The honest market range is 4–8 weeks.
Red flag: "usually pretty quick", or a clock that starts at CAD approval without saying how long design takes.
08 What does the warranty cover — specifically claw wear and lost stones?
Good answer: cover for the failures that actually happen, stated plainly. Ask the exact sentence: "If a stone comes loose in normal wear in year two, who pays?"
Red flag: a "lifetime warranty" whose terms exclude wear and tear and small stones — that's a warranty for the failures that don't happen.
09 What's the deposit structure — and what do I see before each payment?
Good answer: staged payments tied to things you've approved: design fee, then a payment at stone-and-render approval, balance after QC photos of the finished ring.
Red flag: 50% non-refundable before you've seen anything. That's your risk, their working capital.
10 What does a resize cost in year three?
Good answer: free or a stated fixed price, done locally, whenever you need it. Fingers change over years.
Red flag: "one free resize within 60 days" — a window designed to expire before you need it. Also ask where resizes happen; an overseas round trip means weeks without the ring.
Scoring it
You don't need ten perfect answers — you need ten answers. Any studio doing honest work can respond to every question in writing within a day. Two or more dodges, and you've learned what the showroom lighting was for.
And yes: bring our quote to other jewellers, and theirs to us. We'll go through a competitor's quote line by line and tell you where it beats ours — it's the whole reason this studio exists.