Engagement ring in Antwerp.

I am just wondering for anyone who has gone down the Antwerp Route, how did you manage the consultation.

I am a bit lucky (I think) that my GF knows an engagement is probably on the cards in the next 12 months (we have discussed things generally). She wants the engagement to be a surprise in so far as it can be and doesn't want to do the token ring thing. But she has been good enough on my pleading, to give me an idea of the type of ring she would like. So I have a few sample photos she has sent me.

I am just wondering did Antwerp goers contact the jewelers before hand with general specs and/or photos of what you wanted?
Would there be any point in trying to get some indication of price range before hand (as in the cost of doing a certain style etc...). I would have no clue how much it would cost for the type of ring my GF has in mind. Would you give the jeweler an indication of your budget? Over state or under state etc..?
Thanks.

We got a ring in March in Joaillerie du Centre in Antwerp, very nice guy to deal with, there is always room to haggle though. Anyone looking for any details pm me.

Just wondering if anyone who has been in Antwerp recently saw if Philippe Harold was still around? His website seems to be gone.... Got the engagement ring with him last year and want to enquire about wedding bands now so hoping he's still in business!

Thinking of going to Antwerp to purchase engagement ring.

Hoping from someones experience in Antwerp they would have idea of price of below ring:

3 stoned ring
Carat 1 (Centre stone 0.6 carat, side stones 0.2)
Colour grade F
Clarity VS2 or greater
Cut round very good-excellent
18 ct yellow gold ring

Have seen rings as above this weekend in Dublin for around 3,500 so just weighing up whether its worth the trip..

Thanks in advance!

Can i ask, you mention a comprehensive after sales service, what did you need them for?
Stone fall out, or one go off colour?

(not trying to be smart, genuinely interested, maybe Seamus could expand on this)

Spot on.
Appreciate the prompt reply Seamus.

Good to hear (wink wink)

:-)

Finally getting round to posting this!

Our experience buying engagement ring in Antwerp. 

We got engaged 8 weeks ago and a trip to Belgium was panned at same time (Valentines Weekend) . I don't have much jewellery that is anyway expensive, what I do have are mainly cosmetic pieces fresh from high street or penny's so the thought of wearing and minding an expensive ring was an issue for me. No way would I be comfortable wearing an expensive whopper. For this reason we improssed a strict budget. 

NUMBER 1 tip re Antwerp.... Jeweller's don't open on a Saturday. If ring setting in stock and want same day delivery you will need to have deposit down by lunchtime. We knew what we wanted so only had time for two jewelers visits before sticking down deposit. If you not 100% on what you want take two week days at least. 

NUMBER 2 tip re Antwerp . It's intense buying ring, have look at home before you leave to get idea of what looking for. Best to go over with an idea.      

NUMBER 3 tip... Make sure you very comfortable with the 4 C's. We put emphasis on carat, colour and cut as they are the bits you see without a microscope! 

NUMBER 4 tip email jewellery in advance letting know as much details as possible including ring size if known. Make appointments also. 

GETTING THERE 
We flew to Brussels on the Friday 6.50 am flight, got train from airport to Antwerp, €11.20 each way & train departs every half hour. Earliest time you can be in Antwerp is 10.25am local. Antwerp station is beautiful so leave some time to explore! It's the number one thing to do on TripAdvisor! 

DIAMOND SHOPPING 
Diamond District is right beside the station and in fact many jewellers have shops in the station. We only looked at the ADJA jewelers all of which are within 5 min walk of station. There used to be 5 approved jewellers  but now only 4 listed on website, not sure of the background as to why one was removed. Another of approved jewellers, Diamondland, didn't respond to any of my mails and seen on a forum that they were closed 3 months earlier. 

We ended up visiting two jewelers, Phillipe Harold and Joe Katz as we travelled on a Friday we had to have our decision made by 12.30 if wanted ring same day. Luckily I knew what I wanted so was very straightforward. 

 Philippe Harold shop very easy to find. By time we arrived another irish couple from same flight were in front of us discussing rings with Philippe so we dealt with his colleague William. They had details in email to hand so knew exactly what I was looking for. William then asked for confirmation of budget and how we would like be paying (cash). I chose the setting (hailo) and the balance gave us choice of centre diamond. Once we had all details of the ring setting and diamond we went to our next appointment with Joe Katz 

Joe Katz operates out of an office rather than shop so bit different from what we were expecting. It's a 4 minute walk from philippes. He is on second floor and tight security at entrance, make sure have  identification with you as you won't get in otherwise. Joe is well used to irish visitors, had the Irish sayings and all down to a tee. Joe had some lovely hailos but unfortunately out of my narrowed down choice of settings they were eeither too small or one too large formy nnarrow finger! I have to say though that the quality of centre diamonds on offer in same budget were much less in quality compared to Phillipe Harold. This remphasied the high quality on offer in philippe. I don't know how much the settings were that Joe katz had on offer but they were very similar so I would have been surprised if there was a big price difference. We thanked Joe for his time cancelled out third appointment and returned to philippe Harold to put down deposit. 

We met Philippe on our return and he went through everything with us. I have to say I read a variation of reports on how people didn't like his approach but we had no problems, perhaps because we knew what we wanted. As the setting needed to be altered to my size we left and returned 4.5 hours later 

What to do while waiting for your ring.. 
Antwerp is a lovely city with loads to do. The old town is about a 14 minutes walk away so we went for a bite to eat, loads of high street shops on the way down but we had done enough shopping for the day! There is also a zoo beside the station, I was surprised seeing how near it was to city centre. Belgium is famous for its beer and rightly so. Go chill out in Bier Central on the main street on right facing the station. it's beside Kelly irish pub. They have a huge beer menu with interesting beer facts! It rained the day we were there and really disappointed we couldn't check out the zoo so this pub was a great find. Once store called  we were only a short strole away from my ring :-). Our papers and cert followed us in the post. He also included an copy of valuation should we need it for insurance etc. 

Insurance... Ever since I've been small my mam had warned us to insure our engagement rings as she lost hers in second year of marriage. Once we got home from our fab weekend I started to look into this. We rent an apartment so purchased contents insurance and listed ring as specific item. Ring has excess of €50 and covered for it worldwide. Plus didn't need to get valuation as Zurich only needs it if ring is in excess of €6k so that another few euro saved! Insurance was €111. 

Is it worth going to Antwerp... Yes! The more you have the more you save in my opinion. We were planning a weekend break anyway so suppose killed two birds with one stone. And Belgium is a lovely location to visit weither it be antwerp, Brussels or Bruge. We were looking at a very similar ring in a jeweller in Grafton St, but for slightly less we got a colorless diamond (E) instead of near colorless (G). Rest of specs were comparable. 

Hope this has helped, let me know if you have any questions. 

antfred7 wrote: »

I have some questions that can maybe be answered by people who have already been through the process.

• Is there any advantage to travelling to Antwerp for the ring if the budget range is 3 - 4K euro max?
• In terms of logistics - if we fly to Brussels airport whats the best way to get to Antwerp from there?

Thanks,

Hi, yeah definitely worth the trip. We had similar budget and got much better rock than on offer over here for very similar ring and same price.

Train to antwerp every 30min from Brussels airport. €11.20 each way. Diamond district outside antwerp train station. See my above post on 28th for our review of experience. We stuck to ADJA jewellers only, jewellers don't open on a Saturday!

Lainey_b01 wrote: »

Hi, yeah definitely worth the trip. We had similar budget and got much better rock than on offer over here for very similar ring and same price.

Train to antwerp every 30min from Brussels airport. €11.20 each way. Diamond district outside antwerp train station. See my above post on 28th for our review of experience. We stuck to ADJA jewellers only, jewellers don't open on a Saturday!

I have one more question, I have searched and found many references but wanted to get the info from someone who has been.

How do you make sure your not being ripped off?
Any resources that you checked in advance that you would recommend?

Thanks again and sorry for all the questions!

-Look at rings in Ireland to get feel for price range, what kind of ring your buying etc. Personally I was thankful that I went over with an good idea of what style I wanted.

- Get comfortable on the 4c’s – and get your order of preference of the C’s in line. Obviously there’s the carat physical size but after this we focused on colour then cut – clarity followed but as most inclusions are not visible to the naked eye we were happy with a very/slightly included diamond

- You buy the ring in two parts in Antwerp, the setting and then the rock, this is why the 4c’s are so important. When we seen what diamonds one jeweller was offering us compared to another it was very easy to distinguish where the value was.

- Stick to ADJA jewellers , Antwerp Diamond Jeweller Association. Currently four members as fifth removed off in recent months. These are the jewellers that Irish customers visit, you will see the jeweller names pop up again and again on posts here & on external wedding forums. They have a large Irish customer base. They are hundreds of jewellers in Antwerp, but have customer service & protection when sticking to ADJA.

- Make sure you get a certificate for your center stone, to be honest this goes without saying for ADJA members but no bother asking the question. Most are either HRD certified (Antwerp certification) or GIA (American certification).

- Have a look at blue nile website and Voltaire to get a feel for price & whats involved in "building" a ring

Happy shopping! It's a massive purchase.

Redo22 wrote: »

Looking for an engagement ring at the moment and considering going to Antwerp for it. I see the shops don't open on a Saturday so do they open Sundays? We have a budget of 3-4k and have seen what we want in budget in Voltaire and bespoke diamonds over here. If we factor in flights and accom costs of €550 for next weekend would it be much of a saving or would we be better off sticking with it here?

Also, if we were to get the morning flight on the Friday, could you get it all done in the one day and fly home Saturday? I would be looking for a halo style so would probably need to get it made?


Thanks

As far as I am aware the 4 'registered' jewellers only open mon to fri and you need to book an appointment.
We flew over early on a Friday and back early on the sat. Stayed at a hotel beside Brussels airport. Cost was minimal compared to what we saved.
However I had 2 weeks of emails back and forth to the jeweller to ensure they knew what I wanted. So when I got there I only had to choose the diamond and the setting. Ring was couriered to me 3 weeks later. I knew the price I would be paying before I even entered the door of the jewellers.

Hi all,

I had a good read of this thread and it has peaked my interest in going over for the savings.. Unfortunately I work as a contractor so do have to weigh up as each day off work, no money coming in, so when combined with flights etc it can end up being the same..

I have a similar budge to a lot on here 3-3.5K

I am looking for something like this.

D
VS1
0.75 Carat
Triple excellent cut(other things like depth/girdle are just as important) but TE is enough to see if that is possible.
round brilliant
obviously fully certified.

any help greatly appreciated.

Rgds,
J

no my budget would be just for the ring.. She would go with me, I would like to do with one/two days there max to minimize travel and accommodation costs.

I have looked around a lot of shops here in Dublin, and prices can vary a good bit. Depends on sales etc as well, as some on sale are then decent value I guess.

Ok well if the budget is for ring only it might be better value there if you can minimise expenses on top. It can be difficult to find a deal in dublin.

Ye would probably need do most of the discussion etc over email prior to heading out so that the dealers aren't wasting your time with rings out of budget or that she has no interest in.

Go around loads of jewellers here and let her pick a ring she loves & then price over there. I'm sure your other half has a good idea what she wants but this may change. My wife was sure of the type she wanted but then just didn't like them when she tried them. The 1 she got was completely different but she still says she loves it & hasn't seen a nicer one anywhere. So the moral is to be 100% certain of the ring ye want before going in order to minimise time there