First, thank you in advance for any opinions and guidance. I've been married coming up on 12 years this July. My wife and myself usually look to see what the year's traditional and modern gifts are, and often will try to find a clever spin on them. This year I'm just not very clever, but I would like to give her a nice piece of jewelry. I've been doing the crash course on pearls, and generally, I find places like this that have a particular interest in a hobby to be the best place to read.
I have some particular qualities that make this difficult. I don't like to buy anything substandard quality, and I don't like to buy anything that loses value significantly. Because of these reasons, I'm looking at three different companies that provide pearls. Tiffany & Co, not because I think they have the best quality, but they have good quality, and their value will be retained due to the name brand alone. Mikimoto, because of similar reasons, though I'd expect Tiffany to hold more value in most cases. The last, but not least, is Pearl Paradise. I only considered this last one because of lots of high praise from this forum, and because they offer GIA Certified Hanadama strands. Everyone seems to have their own grading, so if I'm going to purchase a brand that isn't quite as world renowned, I want a GIA certificate to go with it. I believe that may offset some depreciation. I am not buying these as an investment, but if for some reason I were to die I'd like my wife to have available some assets that can be liquidated other than my own possessions in case of emergency, and also quality items that can be handed down to our children.
My wife is 39, very petite, extremely fair skin tone, almost porcelain. She's gotten a little more color since moving to El Paso with me, but as we're moving to the pacific north west, I expect her complexion to return to it's doll like state eventually. If I got her a strand of pearls, it would likely be 16" to 17". She prefers a choker type strand if it's just a rope of pearls, as it's more casual day to day, but could be dressed up for a little black dress kind of date night. Alternatively, I could likely swing a pendent from Mikimotos. Their full strands are quite expensive, and I'm not sure it would be worth it on my < $5k budget. I should also note, she can't wear silver. So, it has to be gold or platinum. I prefer 18k yellow gold, because 14k is too bright in my opinion, and white gold loses it's luster after rhodium wears off, so not particularly fond of that either, though she likes how it looks, so I've taken several into consideration. What bothers me the most about Mikimoto is most of their jewelry does not state what they're grading their pearl/s at. For $2k+ I'd expect them to at least tell me what I'm buying, especially since most of these are just a single pearl.
So far, top picks are:
Tiffany Essential Pearls Necklace - 16" - $2400
Mikimoto Everyday Essentials Black South Sea Cultured Pearl Pendant with Diamonds in 18k White Gold (They also have a yellow gold for this one) - 8mm Pearl; Doesn't state grade - $2,800
Mikimoto Akoya Cultured Pearl and Diamond Pendant, 18k Yellow Gold - 8.25mm Pearl; Doesn't state grade - $3,150
Mikimoto Black South Sea Cultured Pearl Pendant - 8mm Pearl; A+ Grade - $2,050
Mikimoto Akoya Cultured Pearl and Diamond Drop Pendant in 18k White Gold - 7.5mm Pearl; Doesn't state grade - $2.250
Pearl Paradise 6.50-6.96 mm GIA Certified Hanadama Akoya Pearl Necklace - $5,040
I would request an 18k yellow gold clasp, and the strand to be reduced from it's current near 18" to somewhere between 16" and 17". This last one is also significantly pushing budget, relative the other options.
I know some of these options are not Akoya, but the majority of my interest is actually in natural color akoya pearls, rather than south sea pearls. I'd prefer something closer to 7.5-8.0, as I think that's the sweet spot for size, but for GIA certified Hanadama, those exceed budget in most cases. As a smaller necklace, closer to choker length, plus my wife's petite features, I think the 6.5 to 7 may also look quite nice. If you made it this far, thanks for reading my wordy post, and any advice, comments, criticism, or opinion is welcome. I appreciate your help with this.
I have some particular qualities that make this difficult. I don't like to buy anything substandard quality, and I don't like to buy anything that loses value significantly. Because of these reasons, I'm looking at three different companies that provide pearls. Tiffany & Co, not because I think they have the best quality, but they have good quality, and their value will be retained due to the name brand alone. Mikimoto, because of similar reasons, though I'd expect Tiffany to hold more value in most cases. The last, but not least, is Pearl Paradise. I only considered this last one because of lots of high praise from this forum, and because they offer GIA Certified Hanadama strands. Everyone seems to have their own grading, so if I'm going to purchase a brand that isn't quite as world renowned, I want a GIA certificate to go with it. I believe that may offset some depreciation. I am not buying these as an investment, but if for some reason I were to die I'd like my wife to have available some assets that can be liquidated other than my own possessions in case of emergency, and also quality items that can be handed down to our children.
My wife is 39, very petite, extremely fair skin tone, almost porcelain. She's gotten a little more color since moving to El Paso with me, but as we're moving to the pacific north west, I expect her complexion to return to it's doll like state eventually. If I got her a strand of pearls, it would likely be 16" to 17". She prefers a choker type strand if it's just a rope of pearls, as it's more casual day to day, but could be dressed up for a little black dress kind of date night. Alternatively, I could likely swing a pendent from Mikimotos. Their full strands are quite expensive, and I'm not sure it would be worth it on my < $5k budget. I should also note, she can't wear silver. So, it has to be gold or platinum. I prefer 18k yellow gold, because 14k is too bright in my opinion, and white gold loses it's luster after rhodium wears off, so not particularly fond of that either, though she likes how it looks, so I've taken several into consideration. What bothers me the most about Mikimoto is most of their jewelry does not state what they're grading their pearl/s at. For $2k+ I'd expect them to at least tell me what I'm buying, especially since most of these are just a single pearl.
So far, top picks are:
Tiffany Essential Pearls Necklace - 16" - $2400
Mikimoto Everyday Essentials Black South Sea Cultured Pearl Pendant with Diamonds in 18k White Gold (They also have a yellow gold for this one) - 8mm Pearl; Doesn't state grade - $2,800
Mikimoto Akoya Cultured Pearl and Diamond Pendant, 18k Yellow Gold - 8.25mm Pearl; Doesn't state grade - $3,150
Mikimoto Black South Sea Cultured Pearl Pendant - 8mm Pearl; A+ Grade - $2,050
Mikimoto Akoya Cultured Pearl and Diamond Drop Pendant in 18k White Gold - 7.5mm Pearl; Doesn't state grade - $2.250
Pearl Paradise 6.50-6.96 mm GIA Certified Hanadama Akoya Pearl Necklace - $5,040
I would request an 18k yellow gold clasp, and the strand to be reduced from it's current near 18" to somewhere between 16" and 17". This last one is also significantly pushing budget, relative the other options.
I know some of these options are not Akoya, but the majority of my interest is actually in natural color akoya pearls, rather than south sea pearls. I'd prefer something closer to 7.5-8.0, as I think that's the sweet spot for size, but for GIA certified Hanadama, those exceed budget in most cases. As a smaller necklace, closer to choker length, plus my wife's petite features, I think the 6.5 to 7 may also look quite nice. If you made it this far, thanks for reading my wordy post, and any advice, comments, criticism, or opinion is welcome. I appreciate your help with this.
