GIA is an American Gemological Institute, which is comparable to IGI in global scale and was first established in the United States in the 193s. But the real large-scale development was in the 195 s, which happened to be the period of great development of American industry and consumption. Therefore, there is an urgent need for a unified standard that can be copied on a large scale to meet people's large demand for diamonds. Therefore, GIA summed up the previous experience in a forward-looking way, and put forward the concept of "clarity" and "color" used by merchants in the industry before, and formally put forward the 4C statement in the 195s, which played an important role in the rapid development of the jewelry industry in the future, and in the following time, it also introduced many instruments for analyzing gems, which facilitated the insiders to identify gems more efficiently. It can be said that American Gemological Institute is an early promoter of standardization and popularization of jewelry industry to the public. Its positioning has always been loyal to serving the middle class with the most consumer confidence and the largest number of people. Therefore, GIA has many fans in the United States, and relatively speaking, high-end jewelry in Europe is used less. What we don't know is that although GIA is a non-profit organization, most of its funds are sponsored by major jewelry companies in the United States. The appearance of its certificate is also in line with the development interests of American jewelers, and it also provides identification certificates for many consumer brands facing the public. For example, the famous American online shop "Blue Nile", which focuses on mainstream middle-class men, basically uses GIA and AGS certificates. Tiffany used to use a large number of certificates from Gemological Institute of the United States when it took the middle-class route. Now, with its own positioning and brand marketing taking the high-end route and GIA's mass positioning, it has shifted, and it has also begun to use its own certificates.
GIA certificate emphasizes unity. There is a sense of standardization like an assembly line. From the page of the certificate, the star's jewelry and the goods in the street shop all use the same plate making and design. GIA India, GIA America and GIA Hong Kong can't distinguish their different issuing places. Just like McDonald's and GAP in the United States, they are certificates for every policeman, teacher, fisherman and worker in the world. Therefore, it can be said that American Gemological Institute meets the consumption needs of most people in modern industrialization. At the same time, in China, with the reform and opening up, GIA certificate also entered the China market with a large influx of American diamonds in the 199s, becoming one of the international certificates with high domestic recognition.
In sharp contrast with GIA, IGI International Gemological Institute
The full name of IGI is International Gemological Institute. Founded in Antwerp, Belgium, at the beginning, it only made private diamond appraisal for a few diamond families in Belgium. Later, some high-quality big diamonds were sold to various royal families in Europe, and the name of IGI gradually spread among royal families. Everyone knew the latter. The royal families in Europe, the Middle East and Asia sent some fine jewelry that was difficult for ordinary appraisers to identify to Belgium for analysis. Because many of these jewels have been inlaid into very complicated crowns, necklaces, rings, etc., they must have rich experience in Fine Jewelry appraisal. IGI has gradually developed from only doing diamond appraisal to a global gemological institution specializing in providing appraisal for diamonds and high-end jewelry. Due to the particularity of serving people, IGI provides gemological information, while each certificate follows the manual production procedure of luxury goods, in order to ensure that all aspects of quality match the jewelry. Based on the authoritative research in the field of diamond cutting, IGI has developed the world's first complete and comprehensive diamond Cut Grade Chart, which has become the embryonic form of the evaluation standard of modern diamond cutting system. In 27, the chief appraiser of IGI was appointed by the Belgian royal family as the diamond consultant of the Belgian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
The arrival of modern commercial times has also expanded the service of IGI, and the IGI certificate has been introduced to more and more consumers by jewelers from the original high-end jewelry circle. However, the IGI certificate still retains the bespoke customization in Europe, hand-made, and provides laser lettering photos and exquisite jewelry photos. Nowadays, IGI customized certificates can be seen in many high-end jewelry collections of Dior,Montblanc and other famous brands. Some stars like Paris Hilton also asked IGI to make certificates for her pink diamond watches. All this is related to the historical origin that IGI has been handed down. IGI, like a European tailor, provides advanced customers with customized certificates that can reflect the characteristics of products.
So we can see that the difference between the two institutions mainly lies in the positioning of consumers. For products that focus on mass consumers, merchants usually prefer to open GIA certificates in the United States. For some patent cutting or high-end products and brands, merchants will choose IGI certificate matching accordingly. As for the appraisal standards, after decades of development, integration and unification, the world's major appraisal institutions (represented by IGI and GIA, and some regional appraisal institutions, such as HRD) have no difference in grasping the standards.
in essence, no matter which certificate it is, its function and authority are the same, that is, customers play an authoritative and fair proof when buying diamonds and jewels to protect consumers. As for choosing the best certificate, it's just like buying a car, Audi and Ford, which are all means of transportation. As for whether you like the feeling of driving Audi or Ford, you should choose according to your own situation.
1. Laser inscription registry: Laser number, GIA 12345678 laser number engraved on the diamond waist, black, GIA three characters.
1. shape and cutting style: diamond cut, ROUND is round diamond
1. measurements: diamond size, diameter (minimum-maximum) * height diameter is allowed to be a range in millimeters.
4c
1. Carat weight: diamond weight
1. Color gradient: diamond color
1. Clarity gradient: diamond clarity
1. Cut gradient: diamond cutting
Additional information
1. Clarity characteristics: inclusion.
6. finish: the degree of decoration, that is, the degree of beauty of the diamond after cutting, is a type of makeup and hairstyle, which is not as important as the main figure like cutting, but if the degree of decoration is better, it will also increase the beauty of the diamond.
the degree of modification is divided into two aspects:
A, Polish: polishing will increase the brightness of diamonds. However, some diamonds have natural features, such as original crystal faces, which cannot be polished off. So if this is a natural situation, don't be too demanding on polishing.
B, Symmetry: symmetry means whether a diamond is cut symmetrically from left to right, because all diamonds have maximum and minimum diameters, so no diamond is completely symmetrical.
3. fluorescence: it is a natural phenomenon that diamonds have fluorescence. Blue fluorescence can enhance the brightness and whiteness of diamonds, and yellow fluorescence can be reduced. Therefore, diamonds with fluorescence also depend on what kind of light. It is no harm to have fluorescence, which may make diamonds more beautiful.
cut diagram
Ordinary consumers only need to look at the Cut Grade evaluated by GIA. In fact, these complicated data GIA have summarized them into comprehensive cut evaluation. Finally, the column on the right is used by the company, half is the stub of the supplier company, and the other half is the stub of the sales company, which has nothing to do with the final customer.
GIA certificate