The highest priced ring today - but not last week I’ve taken a break from my usual penny pinching and bargain hunting recently, with a new guide to the best places to buy expensive engagement rings.
Really, what I mean is the best places to buy very high quality engagement rings but they also tend to be the most expensive rings (and Google prefer the search term ‘expensive engagement rings’ for some reason).
I was curious to know how much the UK’s most expensive engagement ring cost. Or more specifically, the most expensive engagement ring that I could buy online there and then, rather than a diamond locked away in a safe somewhere in London which is owned by a billionaire.
Most of the expensive rings I found were a similar price to a new family car – somewhere between £10,000 and £25,000. The priciest ring on Purely Diamonds was a top quality 1 carat diamond going for £13,000 whilst Aspire Diamonds went up to £11,000, Beaverbrooks went up to £26,000, Shining Diamonds was £12,500 and Goldsmiths top priced engagement ring was £15,000.
A few online jewellers had rings for the cost of a sports car - sites like Diamond Heaven went up to £49,000 (for a 2.5 carat diamond), and bizarrely CostCo (which I'd normally associated with bulk buys and discounts) had several rings around £40,000 - £50,000 with one for sale at £90,000.
Amazon had a few rings priced around £100,000 although they were third party sellers rather than actually sold by Amazon.
Finally, I struck gold (or diamond I guess). Steven Stone had a diamond which was nearly 10 carat going for £1,383,437 - ten times the next highest retailer.
There's another twist though. I checked again a few days later and the highest on offer had dropped to £315,349 - a million pounds less than the most expensive ring just a few days earlier.
I like to think someone had bought the £1.3 million pound engagement ring. More likely, it was taken off sale for some other reason, but if you see a Steven Stone salesperson with a very wide smile this week, you'll know why...
Really, what I mean is the best places to buy very high quality engagement rings but they also tend to be the most expensive rings (and Google prefer the search term ‘expensive engagement rings’ for some reason).
I was curious to know how much the UK’s most expensive engagement ring cost. Or more specifically, the most expensive engagement ring that I could buy online there and then, rather than a diamond locked away in a safe somewhere in London which is owned by a billionaire.
Most of the expensive rings I found were a similar price to a new family car – somewhere between £10,000 and £25,000. The priciest ring on Purely Diamonds was a top quality 1 carat diamond going for £13,000 whilst Aspire Diamonds went up to £11,000, Beaverbrooks went up to £26,000, Shining Diamonds was £12,500 and Goldsmiths top priced engagement ring was £15,000.
A few online jewellers had rings for the cost of a sports car - sites like Diamond Heaven went up to £49,000 (for a 2.5 carat diamond), and bizarrely CostCo (which I'd normally associated with bulk buys and discounts) had several rings around £40,000 - £50,000 with one for sale at £90,000.
Amazon had a few rings priced around £100,000 although they were third party sellers rather than actually sold by Amazon.
Finally, I struck gold (or diamond I guess). Steven Stone had a diamond which was nearly 10 carat going for £1,383,437 - ten times the next highest retailer.
There's another twist though. I checked again a few days later and the highest on offer had dropped to £315,349 - a million pounds less than the most expensive ring just a few days earlier.
I like to think someone had bought the £1.3 million pound engagement ring. More likely, it was taken off sale for some other reason, but if you see a Steven Stone salesperson with a very wide smile this week, you'll know why...