Jewelry/Watch Glossary

White gold is a gold alloy created by mixing pure gold with white-colored metals, most commonly nickel, palladium, or zinc. The alloying process gives the metal its characteristic silver-white tone,...

Annealing is a controlled heat treatment process used by jewelers to soften metal that has become brittle or stiff through work-hardening. When a jeweler bends, hammers, or repeatedly shapes a...

GIA certification refers to a grading report issued by the Gemological Institute of America (GIA), the world's most respected independent diamond and gemstone grading laboratory. A GIA report documents a...

Melee diamonds are small accent diamonds, typically less than 0.2 carats (200 milligrams) each, set in clusters or rows to add brilliance and detail to a larger jewelry piece. The...

Burnishing is a metal-finishing technique in which a smooth, hard tool is pressed and moved across the surface of a metal piece to compress and flatten the outermost layer. Unlike...

A halo setting is a style of stone setting in which a center gemstone is encircled by a continuous row of smaller accent stones, typically small diamonds called melee, arranged...

An eternity band is a ring in which gemstones - most often round brilliant diamonds - are set continuously around the full circumference of the band, with no interruption or...

Rose gold is a gold alloy created by combining pure gold with copper, which produces the warm pinkish-red tone the metal is recognized for. The ratio of copper to gold...

A lab-grown diamond is a real diamond that is produced in a laboratory rather than mined from the earth. It shares the exact same chemical composition - pure crystallized carbon...