Can You Buy a Beautiful Quality One Carat Diamond Engagement Ring for Under £1000?

May 02 2024

In an age where every penny counts, you'd think it was impossible to buy a beautiful quality 1ct diamond ring for under £1000... read on, we'll tell you how :-)

This might seem like a strange place to start, but we sometimes get asked... "What's the difference between a diamond ring and a diamond engagement ring?"

For clarity... nothing, apart from the intention... if it's a gift, it's a diamond ring. If you propose with it (and it will probably be worn on a wedding finger), then it's an engagement ring. Simples!

Now that's out of the way...

There are essentially two parts to a diamond engagement ring:

• The setting (the shiny metal bit)
• The diamond (the sparkly bit)

With that in mind, you can break down how much you want to spend on each part (well, you can at Quality Diamonds!)

For example, with a budget of £1000, if you put £800 towards the setting, you'll have only £200 for the diamond... and you'll be pushing it to get a beautiful quality one-carat diamond for that price.

Start with the Setting

The key is to start by choosing a simple, light, clean, elegant setting that shows off the beauty of the diamond. You'll probably already know the colour of the metal the recipient prefers. Yellow gold is currently in vogue, after a very long period of dominance of white metals, although platinum 950 is still a firm favourite for customers of Quality Diamonds. Its hardness and long-lasting shine will always remain a classic and popular choice, no matter what the fashion of the day is.

Here's an example of just such a setting (our most popular and best value) shown here in 18K Yellow Gold, with an Oval central diamond:

You can now tinker with the price by changing the setting metal and choosing from platinum (usually the most expensive), palladium and 9k or 18k gold to get the optimum price, making sure you leave as much of the budget as possible for the diamond.

For the example above, the platinum version of this setting is £595 and 9k yellow gold is £475 (on the day this blog post was written, as prices fluctuate). This will leave you between £405 and £525 for the diamond.

A one-carat diamond for £500! Is that possible?

So here's where it gets interesting. A few years ago, no! Today, absolutely yes! So what's changed in that time... Lab-grown diamonds have exploded onto the jewellery scene since the technology has improved enough to grow much larger diamonds, big enough for jewellery. We go into more detail here, so you make your own mind up about whether to choose a lab-grown diamond. Suffice it to say, you'll need to spend upwards of £3000 for a one-carat natural diamond, so for the purposes of buying a diamond ring for under £1000, we are looking at lab-grown diamonds.

How to choose your lab-grown diamond

Now you've chosen your setting, you'll be able to see how much of your budget remains for a 1ct lab-grown diamond. We'd go into detail about cut, colour, clarity etc. but we've written plenty of information that you can read up on here.

The TLDR version is this: On the page of the setting you have chosen

• Make you have selected "Lab-Grown"
• Move "Carat" the slider to 1.00 (drop to 0.95 to find more diamonds, if necessary)
• Select Colours D, E, F, G
• Select Clarity FL, IF, VVS1, VVS2 (try VS2 if the results don't give you any results)
• Tick "Images/360°" (untick it, if you aren't getting any results)

In the results, click "More Info" to see 360° images of the diamond.

I guarantee that if you do this, everything you are looking at is a stunning diamond... and if it isn't, you absolutely must contact us and we will definitely find a diamond engagement ring you'll be delighted with, for under £1000.

Can you help me create a beautiful 1ct engagement ring for under £1000?

Yes, of course! You can contact us, make an appointment to view diamonds and settings, email and WhatsApp us here.

Also, why not have a look at our ready-to-wear diamond rings, which are always great value (although not always under £1000 or one carat!)