Find Your Perfect Diamond
Made to sit flush against the engagement ring it was designed for.
Every ring is made from start to finish in our Los Angeles atelier.
The most literal statement in diamonds and the hardest outline to cut well. A fine heart demands a crisp cleft, matched lobes, even wings, and enough carat for the symbol to read across a room. Get those right and no other shape says what this one says.
The heart is a modified brilliant built from the pear's blueprint: take the teardrop, carve a cleft into the rounded end, and shape two matching lobes above the point. It is the most anatomically demanding outline in diamonds, five features, cleft, two lobes, two wings, and a point, that must all cooperate, and royal history going back to the sixteenth century, when hearts passed between monarchs as tokens of alliance and affection.
Because so much geometry competes for the cutter's attention, quality varies more among hearts than any other shape. A fine heart shows a sharp, well defined cleft, lobes of identical size and height, wings that curve in mirror image, and a point centered on the axis. A poor one reads mushy, lopsided, or like a pear that lost its nerve, and no certificate grade separates the two. The eye does.
The heart also has a size floor the other shapes escape. Below roughly half a carat the outline blurs into the setting and the symbol disappears; the shape earns its purpose from about one carat up, where the silhouette declares itself at conversational distance. It is a stone chosen for meaning first, and the buying rules exist to protect that meaning.
| Facets | Typically 56 to 59, brilliant style |
| Cut grading | No formal lab cut grade, evaluate by eye |
| Face-up size | Close to round, best from one carat up |
| Length to width | 0.90 to 1.10, near symmetric ideal |
| Relative price | Below round per carat, fine cuts command more |
| Watch for | Cleft definition, lobe symmetry, point protection |
The heart faces up close to a round of equal weight, but size plays a different role here: the outline is the point of the purchase, and it needs surface area to read. We counsel one carat as the working floor for a center stone heart, and the table below shows why.
| Carat Weight | Typical Measurements | How It Wears |
|---|---|---|
| 0.50 ct | 5.1 x 5.1 mm | The outline blurs at this scale, best in accents |
| 1.00 ct | 6.5 x 6.5 mm | The symbol declares itself, the working floor |
| 1.50 ct | 7.4 x 7.4 mm | A confident heart, unmistakable at a glance |
| 2.00 ct | 8.2 x 8.2 mm | The silhouette reads across the room |
| 3.00 ct | 9.4 x 9.4 mm | A statement piece in the fullest sense |
Measurements are typical for well proportioned stones. Individual diamonds vary with their cutting.
No shape depends less on the certificate and more on the eye. The paper confirms the stone; the video confirms the heart. Here is where your attention belongs.
The cleft, the notch between the lobes, should cut sharp and deep enough to define the shape face up. The lobes should match in width, height, and curve, mirror images across the center line. A shallow cleft or uneven lobes turn a heart into a blob, and no certificate line warns you.
Judge the outline exactly as it will be worn. Confirm the wings arc evenly, the point lands on the axis, and the brilliance runs edge to edge without a dead center. Hearts vary more in cut quality than any shape we sell, and video is the only instrument that sorts them.
One exposed point, one V-prong, no exceptions, the same law as the pear and marquise. Color also gathers where the stone narrows, so hold one grade higher than a round in the same metal to keep the tip as white as the lobes.
Every stone we recommend is scored by ROSI™, our gemological intelligence, built by our gemologists, and verified by a human eye before it reaches you. Request a ROSI™ Score Report on any diamond you are considering, ours or anyone else’s.
Found a heart shape you are considering, here or anywhere else? Send the GIA or IGI certificate number and our gemological team returns its ROSI™ Score and a read of where it sits in the current market. Complimentary, within minutes.
Score a DiamondWhere stones of the same exact specifications are trading on the open market right now. You get a straight answer, even when the diamond is not ours.
The heart's setting must guard the point without crowding the cleft. These three directions cover most of what our clients choose, each made to order around your exact stone.
One prong on each lobe, a V-prong at the point. The classic heart mount: minimal metal, full protection, the silhouette floating clean above the band.
Pavé tracing the full outline, cleft and all. Enlarges the symbol, softens the geometry, and armors the point inside the frame, the heart's most popular composition.
A fine rim of metal following every curve. The most protective mount a heart can wear, modern and low, with the outline drawn in gold or platinum.
The heart is bought for what it means, so our rules exist to protect the meaning: a crisp cleft, matched lobes, a guarded point, and enough carat for the symbol to speak.
We will be honest about the heart's terms, because they are stricter than any other shape's. It is the hardest outline in diamonds to cut well, so the range between a fine heart and a poor one is wider than buyers expect, and only a video review of the exact stone sorts them. It needs carat to work, one carat as the sensible floor, which concentrates budget in size before grades. Its point lives under a V-prong for life. And it is a commitment: the heart is the one shape that can never be mistaken for a neutral choice, which is precisely its power. A buyer drawn to romance but hesitant about the literal symbol should hear the honest alternative, the pear, which carries the same soft-to-point elegance in a quieter voice. If the heart is the point, we will hold the stone to the standard the symbol deserves.
We are a Los Angeles fine jewelry atelier with family roots in the diamond trade going back to 1967. That history buys you four things you will not find together anywhere else.
Send us the certificate of a stone we do not sell and we will still score it. No other jeweler will grade a competitor’s diamond for you and tell you if it is the better buy.
Every ROSI™ report shows where stones of identical specifications are trading right now, drawn from live market data. You see the range before you see our price.
Every score is verified by our gemological team before it reaches you, and John Anderson, our Lead Gemologist, is one phone call away for the questions a report cannot answer.
Every setting leaves our Los Angeles atelier built around your exact diamond, at one confident price, with 40 day returns and 60 day complimentary resizing behind it.
Our gemologists buy inside a written window, and decline outside it. These are those numbers, published in full, so you can hold any heart to the same standard we do, including one you are considering somewhere else.
The heart is the shallowest window we publish and the hardest shape to cut well. The two lobes must match in size and curve, the cleft must be defined and centered, and the point must be sharp and undamaged.
Each scale shows the measurement range. Gold marks the RockHer Ideal window.
| Length to width ratio | 0.98 to 1.03 |
|---|---|
| Depth | 55% to 62% |
| Table | 55% to 65% |
| Girdle | Thin to thick |
| Polish | Very Good or better |
| Symmetry | Good or better |
| Culet | None |
Every diamond in our search carries these measurements on its report. In the filter panel, under RockHer’s Best, switch on Ideal Cut and the results narrow to the window above. Super Ideal Cut narrows them further still, to a tighter standard our gemologists hold diamond by diamond rather than publish as a range.
Nothing is hidden behind the switch. It applies the same numbers printed on this page.
Open the Heart diamond searchThe panel as it appears in the diamond search, with Ideal Cut switched on.
Proportion is the first filter, not the last. A heart can sit inside every range above and still be one we will not sell. These findings end a purchase in our office whatever the certificate says, and every diamond scored by ROSI™ is read against them by a gemologist before it is offered.
A certificate tells you what was measured. It does not tell you what was rejected.
Two heart diamonds can carry the same carat, color, clarity, and grading laboratory, and one of them will never reach a client of ours. That gap is the work: reading the plot, the finish, and the face-up appearance against a written standard rather than against a price.
John Anderson, our Lead Gemologist, reviews heart shapes with clients every day. Send him the certificate of any stone you are considering and he will tell you what the paper says and what it leaves out. The consultation is complimentary and there is no obligation.
1-800-779-1726