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Gemstone Size and Carat Weight

It is important to remember not to confuse size with carat weight. From everyday life, you realize that different materials have different densities. A cast iron skillet is much denser or heavier than an aluminum skillet of the same size. The same holds true for gemstone species. As a general reference, sapphire and ruby are 1.2 times as heavy as diamond so a 1-carat ruby will appear smaller than a 1-carat diamond. While tourmaline is 1.2 times lighter than diamond, it will appear larger for its weight.

In addition, colored gems are cut differently from diamonds with different critical angles so size versus weight varies considerably. The bellies or pavilions of colored gems are generally cut with a greater bulge making them heavier.

For these reasons, we provide length and width dimensions as well as carat weight for all our primary gemstones.