I don't have much money so I am looking at a budget of RM4,000 - RM5,000, less if possible, to buy an engagement ring (or is that a pair of rings?). I am new at this so please pardon my ignorance. It looks like I will probably shop at Habib Jewels or Wah Chan. I have a few questions.

1) My girlfriend once mentioned solitaire, so I am probably going for a solitaire. For the budget I have, what is the BEST in terms of carat I can hope for (assuming big sale at Habib Jewels and Wah Chan)?

2) I read that Lazo has one of the lowest prices out there. Is that true?

3) How important is GIA-certified?

4) If I have to choose between Habib Jewels, Poh Kong and Wah Chan, which should I choose? And why?


Thank you for your answers.

This post has been edited by kenviro: Sep 2 2014, 05:36 PM

If you ever need to pawn your diamond to a pawn shop, they won't accept it if it doesn't have a proper cert. Other than that GIA cert only gives you the comfort that a "D VS2" really means a "D VS2"

As opposed to in house certification which they can define whatever they want i.e. their "D" could be a "G" on the GIA scale.

For an idea of diamond prices you can check bluenile http://www.bluenile.com/diamond-search?track=NavDiaSeaRD

if u need diamond,yes u can go there,they r prefessional~if u only buy gold~~good luck for u,1 gram din discount for u,labour charge u kaw kaw~~do survey outside 916 shop n big jewellery like pohkong wah chan~u will know the different~prices huge gap different

Wah Chan & Poh Kong - slightly pricy
Habib - design no good

try Tomei, not bad.

Are you saying that Habib is the cheapest of the three?

Is Lazo even cheaper than Habib?

Tomei is definitely affordable than Habib. Habib's price range is almost the same as Wah Chan and Poh Kong, but their design is no gooding.. slightly typical.

Not sure about Lazo. Last time when I bought diamond ring, I only compare between Wah Chan, Poh Kong, Habib and Tomei. For me,in terms of price and design, Tomei win la.

If you are struggling to buy the cheapest wedding ring, then this mean you are not financially ready for wedding.
There are lot more financial commitment after wedding.

bb100~

i went to poh kong, wah chan, n habib. i chose habib. i liked their design, simple n classic.

Poh Kong the design quite ah ma taste but den must you go for the three shop only ke?

bro... first of all you need to get your criteria correct, diamond price is solely dependant on the 4Cs... you really need to mix and match...

i personally wanted to give my wife the whitest colored rock therefore sacrificed the size and clarity, i bought a 0.32Carat DSI1, sitting on a white gold setting, it cast me 4.8k from Carat Club (became Suen Jewelers), cert is IGI (not that well known but comparable to the common GIA)

but if you are choosing from Habib, try their Hearts on Fire series, its darn sparkly and not that cheap, forgot what pricing already...
their cert is from AGS, stricter than GIA... T&Co level of strictness

skip Lazo... its crap...

Habib has limited ring casing... but has wider diamond selection... you need to come out with your criteria first then look for the rock at all these shops... not all will meet that criteria

good luck bro

1. Your money should go towards size>cut>color>clarity. Yes in this order. If your budget is big then the order should be cut>size>color>clarity
2. Don't go to Lazo
3. Depends on the size of your stone and who you are buying from
4. Go to Selberan for honest to goodness best service

Let me explain about the 4C in practical terms. Since your budget is low, you want the best bang for your buck. The one thing that is visually prominent is the size of the stone, the bigger the better. Nobody around you will be knowledgable enough to tell cut, color and clarity even if you give them 10x loupe. But to satisfy your peace of mind, you don't want to buy anything less than SI-2 for clarity, and anything less than I or J for color

The most important 4C is the cut. How it is cut determines how the stone will refract light. To get the most ideal cut, a lot of the original rough stone will be cut away. If the stone is cut right, you will end up with what a diamond is suppose to do in the first place - sparkle. Every stone can be cut in the most ideal way. This is the only part of the 4C that is not determine by nature but by human hands. Why stones are not ideally cut in the first place is because they want to retain as much stone as possible so they can charge you more for carat weight.

This post has been edited by idoblu: Sep 9 2014, 06:20 PM

wow... you're not only into watches, aren't you?

Paiseh....

This post has been edited by idoblu: Sep 5 2014, 03:21 PM

must be in the jewelery biz

This post has been edited by kenji1903: Sep 5 2014, 03:28 PM

1) Depends on 4C. Lower quality u can get a big rock.
Clarity and colour is not really essential if budget low. And she can't see the difference since u need microscope for that. Consider Tomei too, to me Wah Chan and Habib is abit pricey in my opinion. You can also opt to buy rock and customized your ring. This is usually cheaper since no brand associated with it. Just make sure diamond has GIA cert.

2) never get from lazo. NEVER

3) for peace of mind to make sure you are buying something of that quality since most ppl are jewel-dummy (me included)

4) i would recommened Tailored Jewel. 1 of the forumer here custom make his diamond necklace which you can search it up. Another recommendation is Tomei

I would say that Habib jewels got more selection of GIA diamonds...if u can spend more...den choose the Hearts on Fire diamonds!!

I would say for price or better value, every shop can nego with them..if u really interested, u can talk to their manager to get a better price..that wat my friend does to get a bargain out of it.

for me colour>clarity>size>cut

colour must be white
clarity SI bottom.
size. depend how big the finger. too big not nice to wear.
cut is brilliant cut.

u can buy GIA certified stone and request a sifu install the stone in front of u.

else you can bring your stone to thailand. they got pro can give u stone cert as well.

if stone smaller than 1 carat , no resell value. for sure all the shop tekan when u wanted to sell back.

buy gold ring better.


wah chan , poh kong etc they use 18k wg. its will turn yellowish after some time wear n tear.
u need to pay and left your ring there for the service.

lazo use 14k or lower. and if u walk in their sungai wang outlet. they can service your ring on the spot, mean u can get your ring back at the same day.

i like poh kong bc got mickeymouse design

if u want diamond habib are better among mentioned
watch out for their sales, quite tempting