Best place in Dublin to get engagement rings

LisaLee

I'm newly engaged (Squeee!)

My fiance designed the ring with Seamus from Voltaire diamonds and I'm overwhelmed with the quality and how beautiful the ring looks!

My fiance said he was an absolute gent to deal with and very professional. Would highly recommend! Can't stop looking at my engagement ring, fabulous!

Rodar08

We've ordered our ring from Seam at Volt and I've just thought of something ... are his diamonds certified? GIA etc. I can't seem to find anywhere saying that they are. Which leads me to believe they're not. Can anyone give me some advice on whether to go ahead with our purchase or not? Is it a bad thing that they're not certified ... if they are good enough tho then why aren't the certified?

Also, not wishing any bad luck on the man but someone pointed out to me that givin he works in a small way what happens if he's not there in a few years time if anything goes wrong with the ring? No comeback?


Hmm ..Concerned

Toto Wolfcastle

My ring is from Voltaire and it's GIA certified.

Rodar08

Thanks Bobblehead Panda

The Jaw

Rodar08 Yes the ring I bought is GIA certified too. ( I did some research priorto buying and it seems that there are loads of certification agengies but GIA is the most respected). Seamus also gave me a valuation of the ring from an valuation service that we used for insurance on the ring.
I know what you are sayinf re:the fact that he is a small operation, but I think that is what keeps the prices down and if there is a problem with the ring, i should be covered by insurance etc in the event that he does close if a few years. He seems to be doing ok though so...
Best of luck with the ring. I hear the boys are supposed to get a present themselves.Wonder what I will get?!?

All in all

Rodar08 wrote: »

We've ordered our ring from Seam at Volt and I've just thought of something ... are his diamonds certified? GIA etc. I can't seem to find anywhere saying that they are. Which leads me to believe they're not. Can anyone give me some advice on whether to go ahead with our purchase or not? Is it a bad thing that they're not certified ... if they are good enough tho then why aren't the certified?

Also, not wishing any bad luck on the man but someone pointed out to me that givin he works in a small way what happens if he's not there in a few years time if anything goes wrong with the ring? No comeback?


Hmm ..Concerned

We met with Seamus but ultimately decided to buy elsewhere - went to a bricks and mortar shop who were able to offer the same ring design service and able to slightly better his quote after some haggling. They also provide free cleaning, etc.

Seamus does both certified and uncertified diamonds the split is 40/60 he told us but it depends on what is requested. We were also looking at only GIA certs after our research which work out significantly more on the quotes that Seamus (and everyone else) gave us to uncertified diamonds.

dol_kav

[SNIP]

dol_kav please read the Charter before posting. Users with less than 20 posts or 2 months membership are not permitted to post recommendations for retailers/service providers etc.

Dolbert

Joeyjoejoe43 wrote: »

Jeff Gear on Parnell street or Brereton's on O'Connell st. If you buy the ring on Grafton st, expect to pay extra as the rent for shop fronts here is extremely excessive and this cost will be factored into the cost of the ring. Another option would be Ronan Campbell out in Citywest Business park. Trust me on these 3 been the best value around, as I did my research.. Best of luck with the hunt

+1, I would recommend the three Gear jewellers on the Northside. We just picked up my ring yesterday in Thomas Gear in the Ilac and it was a very positive experience... we didn't have a huge budget so they brought us out a selection in our price range and left us alone to try them on, no pressure. If sizing is a problem they can adjust it within an hour.

In the end I went for a beautiful white gold solitaire that was actually €250 under budget - and to top it off I got to walk out with it on the day

ElectraX

It's great to hear all the positive reviews of Voltaire Diamonds,we have an appointment to go in and see Seamus in a few weeks:)It sounds like he really knows his stuff,and gives people a great walkthrough of options,but I think I'd like to have my homework done too, brush up on the four C's:D
I saw an interview with him where he was saying the fact that he doesn't have a shop front drives the prices down by 20-30%!He sounds like the second best option to actually going to Antwerp itself.
Checked out a few rings in Boodles on Grafton Street yesterday.Beautiful rings but pricey!! Got a few quotes from them so will be interesting to compare them to Voltaire.Should be a fun day:D:D

XmasProposal

sickle wrote: »

Went by this place in the Powerscourt Townhouse centre and it had a huuuge amount of rings in the windows, I was amazed by the variety and the design of all the old ringboxes and the rings themselves of course.

http://delphiantiques.com/index.php

Any indication of the starting prices in this place? Would 6 or 7 hundred get anything?

declanrob

+ 1 for voltaire diamonds

Only Monday I collected the ring for my future wife (god that sounds scary)

You make all the decisions and there's no pushiness - also if you dont like it a complete cash refund - your call.

Such an amazing experience and I needed it in 10 days. They made exactly what I wanted to the letter.

I think she's going to love it (i hope)

I could not have had a better experience as a guy with no clue.

beltzar

Stay Away from "DELPHI ANTIQUES" in Powerscourt Shopping Centre, Dublin.

My beloved bought my engagement ring there and I have had nothing but problems since. The owner Declan was very difficult to deal with when I discovered a crack in the stone 2 days later!

Since then I've brought to another jewellers who has told me that there are 5 claws broken (even though I paid declan for all the claws to be strengthened etc). The ring is an antique.

Stay away for your own peace of mind.

And we too met Seamus from Voltaire and had no complaints. I just wanted something different and Boy oh boy did we get suckered!

I now wear a M&S €10 ring. GGGRrrrrrrrrrr:mad: :mad:

ElectraX

+1 for Voltaire Diamonds too. We had a fantastic experience with them. We were dealing with Stacey and she was really pleasant to deal with-completely unpushy, gave me loads of time to look through the different trays of rings and I never had a sense that we were under pressure to buy.
I had done quite a bit of research before going in, but they really know their stuff and are very informative on the 4 C's, and advising what the best option would be to suit your budget.So if you go in knowing nothing, they are not in anyway going to be trying to rip you off.
I ended up choosing something totally different than I thought I would, and when it was independantly valued it came in at over 2K more than we paid for it:D I adore the ring we got, and cant stop looking at it:) Stay clear of the Grafton Street hops, their prices are a rip off!

Audi driver

Loving this thread!! have been looking at oltair diamonds online for the past while, myself and my other half are going to get engaged in the next few months and are interested in meeting with Seamus for a chat if nothing else, just wondering roughly how much we would have to pay, would we get a good ring for around 5000 or are we looking at more then that? could anyone give me a rough guide as to how much they paid!

Dipper1981

ElectraX, could I ask about your experience with Voltaire? After the initial consultation, did you hear from Voltaire again? How long did it take from the first meeting until you could collect your ring? I've recently become engaged and am thinking of going to Voltaire. The reviews are wonderful but I'd like to know more about the process.

Ray von

Dipper1981 wrote: »

ElectraX, could I ask about your experience with Voltaire? After the initial consultation, did you hear from Voltaire again? How long did it take from the first meeting until you could collect your ring? I've recently become engaged and am thinking of going to Voltaire. The reviews are wonderful but I'd like to know more about the process.

I bought a ring recently with Voltaire, this was the process:

• Set appointment for initial consultation and arrange meeting in offices beside St Stephens Green.
• Meet Seamus and try on alot of different rings.
• You decide on style of ring and inform them of your budget. They then tell you what type of diamond your budget will allow. (4 C's etc)
• They send order out to contacts in Antwerp and get ring made which takes roughly 4 weeks.
• No deposit taken and you only pay if you are 100% happy with the final product.
• The ring is independantly valued by an irish valuer and you receive this valuation for insurance purposes.

Overall i found them great to deal with. They offer better value and more choice than all of the Jewellers we visited.

Hope this helps.

Dipper1981

That's great Ray von, thanks for the information. Were you in contact at all while the ring was being made? The 4 week waiting time is probably the only thing that would trouble me! Other than that, I'll definitely consider contacting them.

Ray von

Dipper1981 wrote: »

That's great Ray von, thanks for the information. Were you in contact at all while the ring was being made? The 4 week waiting time is probably the only thing that would trouble me! Other than that, I'll definitely consider contacting them.

They contact you when the ring is available for collection. I did not contact them before then but im sure that would be no problem.

One other thing to note is that they don't accept payments via credit card.

Dipper1981

Appreciate that, thanks Ray von

Audi driver

would we be as well off going to antwerp ourselves to look at rings or does going through Voltaire save the hassle of going? has anyone ever looked in Antwerp and then got their ring off Voltaire instead? I wouldnt want to go to Antwerp and come home one hand longer than the other! any advice is greatly appreciated x

E26

Hi All, I am in the process of picking out my engagement ring and am really undecided whether to go for platinum or white gold!! Have looked around a number of jewellers on grafton street and have found them very helpful but i am really undecided on whether to go for white gold or platinum:rolleyes: Have got mixed feed back from jewellers as some only recommend white gold and then other jewellers only recommend platinum- what metal have you chosen ( or are you going to choose) for your engagement ring and are you happy with it? Thanks for the advise

The Jaw

Audi driver wrote: »

would we be as well off going to antwerp ourselves to look at rings or does going through Voltaire save the hassle of going? has anyone ever looked in Antwerp and then got their ring off Voltaire instead? I wouldnt want to go to Antwerp and come home one hand longer than the other! any advice is greatly appreciated x

Hi Audi driver. I bought in Voltaire. A good friend of mine does travel for business to Belgium and Holland regualrly. He is thinking of getting engaged soon, so I was talking to him about the ring. He got the details of my ring ( size, cut, clarity etc etc) and priced similiar in Antwerp. It is cheaper no doubt, I think it worked out at about 10% to 15% less than I paid Voltiare. Naturally there are extra costs associated with travelling, staying in Hotels etc. It might also require a couple of flights.If your budget is € 5,000, you can do the sums on savings yourself. I did get in valued myself and it was valued at 50% more than I paid for it. This would obviously be about 60% if you buy in Antwerp.

For what it is worth my mate is building the experience of travelling into the engagement, taking a couple of long weekends etc. I went the other way and bought from Voltaire and was very happy with everything. BTW Seamus did tell me it would take 4/6 weeks, but actually took 2. Mrs. The Jaw was calender watching for the 4 weeks to pass by. The day I rang her to pick up early, she was well chuffed.

To answer an earlier post by you € 5,000 is a very good budget and I think I you will get something class for that.Being a nerd I have done some homework on the 4 C's and can pm them to you if you want.

All the best

Audi driver

The Jaw wrote: »

Audi driver wrote: »

would we be as well off going to antwerp ourselves to look at rings or does going through Voltaire save the hassle of going? has anyone ever looked in Antwerp and then got their ring off Voltaire instead? I wouldnt want to go to Antwerp and come home one hand longer than the other! any advice is greatly appreciated x

Hi Audi driver. I bought in Voltaire. A good friend of mine does travel for business to Belgium and Holland regualrly. He is thinking of getting engaged soon, so I was talking to him about the ring. He got the details of my ring ( size, cut, clarity etc etc) and priced similiar in Antwerp. It is cheaper no doubt, I think it worked out at about 10% to 15% less than I paid Voltiare. Naturally there are extra costs associated with travelling, staying in Hotels etc. It might also require a couple of flights.If your budget is € 5,000, you can do the sums on savings yourself. I did get in valued myself and it was valued at 50% more than I paid for it. This would obviously be about 60% if you buy in Antwerp.

For what it is worth my mate is building the experience of travelling into the engagement, taking a couple of long weekends etc. I went the other way and bought from Voltaire and was very happy with everything. BTW Seamus did tell me it would take 4/6 weeks, but actually took 2. Mrs. The Jaw was calender watching for the 4 weeks to pass by. The day I rang her to pick up early, she was well chuffed.

To answer an earlier post by you € 5,000 is a very good budget and I think I you will get something class for that.Being a nerd I have done some homework on the 4 C's and can pm them to you if you want.

All the best

Thanks a million for taking the time to reply! I really appreciate it! Wow 50% more is very good! It's great to hear of others experiences with Voltaire! Think I'll arrange a date to meet with seamus& can take it from there! Def will take any advice on d 4 cs! I feel abit clueless about buying an engagement ring !!:-)

The Jaw

No Hassle Audi Driver. To be honest most of my mates have "made a profit" between the price of their engagement rings and the valuation costs. I sincerely doubt I am am so smart as to be the only one to pull that off! Still in a confusing time, it feels like a small victory to be getting some sort of deal!!

Avril123

Have been reading reviews about Voltaire and people seem to have a budget of €5000 but I know my partner would only have a budget of €1500 which is fine by me but would we get something really nice in there for that price or would we be better off just looking around the jewellers around Dublin for our price range ??

EveT

You should keep an eye out for sales on, like I know fields in jervis shopping centre have loads of half price engagement rings at mo, I got a lovely little ring with 70% off before

Gunnygirl

Just got engaged & we have been looking for rings in our local jewellers(limerick). Thinking of heading up to dublin friday to have a look, there are a lot of recommendations on this thread, which i will def be checking out, quick question about seamus, Is it a free app? & is it an actual shop, yes?. Also anyone who is engaged, do you always have to order the ring?. Kinda just want it now, overly exited i guess. :-)

pooch90

It's more of an office than a shop. Appointment is free and they don't push you to purchase. As far as I know you always have to wait as the rings they have there are cubic zirconia mock-ups but you wouldn't notice. They have real diamonds there to show you what your stone would look like.
When we ordered ours we just found a setting I liked and changed the cut of the main diamond so you can really customise your perfect ring. I was told to allow two weeks for ring to be ready but it was ready in just over a week and turned out more gorgeous than I thought.

Voltaire Diamonds: Seamus

Hi Gunnygirl,

Many thanks for considering Voltaire Diamonds.

We have offices on St Stephens Green in Dublin and appointments are free. We now have several ring styles available to take home on the day.

If you have a very specific ring style in mind and it needs to be handmade, the delivery time can take a few weeks. My advice is shop around and try on several styles and get a feel for what you like and then book an appointment with us.

Please also visit our YouTube channel where we now have over 400 styles to view: www.youtube.com/voltairediamonds

Please email me at info@voltairediamonds.ie if you have any more questions.

I look forward to hearing from you.

Many thanks again
Séamus

www.voltairediamonds.ie

Gunnygirl

pooch90 wrote: »

It's more of an office than a shop. Appointment is free and they don't push you to purchase. As far as I know you always have to wait as the rings they have there are cubic zirconia mock-ups but you wouldn't notice. They have real diamonds there to show you what your stone would look like.
When we ordered ours we just found a setting I liked and changed the cut of the main diamond so you can really customise your perfect ring. I was told to allow two weeks for ring to be ready but it was ready in just over a week and turned out more gorgeous than I thought.

cool thanks , but how do you mean " mockups"? as in they're there for fitting purposes then you get the proper ring ordered?

Gunnygirl

Voltaire Diamonds: Seamus wrote: »

Hi Gunnygirl,

Many thanks for considering Voltaire Diamonds.

We have offices on St Stephens Green in Dublin and appointments are free. We now have several ring styles available to take home on the day.

If you have a very specific ring style in mind and it needs to be handmade, the delivery time can take a few weeks. My advice is shop around and try on several styles and get a feel for what you like and then book an appointment with us.

Please also visit our YouTube channel where we now have over 400 styles to view: www.youtube.com/voltairediamonds

Please email me at info@voltairediamonds.ie if you have any more questions.

I look forward to hearing from you.

Many thanks again
Séamus

Hey seamus thanks for the reply, from what I hear your the "go too guy". Very happy with all the reviews I've read. Just wondering how long in advance would I have to wait for an appointment? also what exactly does the appointment with you have to offer? :-)
Sinead

Gunnygirl

Just another question, has anyone bought from or been to a thomas gear jewellers?. Has all the best of the c's on his diamonds, but need advice?

Millem

Gunnygirl wrote: »

Just another question, has anyone bought from or been to a thomas gear jewellers?. Has all the best of the c's on his diamonds, but need advice?

Yes I have, they are doing 60% off at the mo. you will get a valuation for insurance for full amount. Amazing value. My ring is g colour and si1 in clarity and is very very sparkley. There is no yellow tones which I have seen in the likes of fields. They will also clean it for free for life. The staff are very nice and not pushy in any way. I tried on and then came back next week. They wouldnt knock anymore off but sure i honestly couldnt complain on the price. I would also highly recommend Martin gear on Mary street he is excellent. Martin had a big 50% off sale and still has some items left which he was willing to knock more off if you paid in cash. His rings are also certified. Dont be put off by the inside of his shop it is tiny and looks abit like a workshop! From all my research (which was about 6 months) I found the above two to be the best value. Another two which are meant to be great are "Irish rubies" and Patrick Glynn but I never got around to them as I knew as soon as I tried my ring on!

tHE vAGGABOND

For consideration, got engaged recently, and we went to a lady my other half knows who does jewlery and got something custom made, and therefore got exactly what we wanted and while not a large factor, got it done at a fraction of the price you get charged from a high street retailer. [AND...supported a local artist, which is a nice warm fuzzy feeling to boot!]

Irishmale

I was doing my usual lurking on this thread looking for the advice. In the end I got herself's ring off Natasha Sherling. Found her at www.natashasherling.ie. Also seen her on Expose. (I had the manflu!)
We met her in the Westbury hotel and at her office. Her office is cool.
She was very helpful and we got a much bigger ring then we would have gotten with my budget on the highstreet. It took a week from making the choice to recieving the ring.
Herself is delighted and would recommend.

Ladycurvy

OMG this thread is brilliant to read.... loving all the tips and advice! Just wondering.... where are Voltaire diamonds rings actually made? In Ireland in their own workshop or in Antwerp??
Are all the diamonds GIA certified and also does he give a lifetime guarantee like Applebys? And does anyone know do they offer lifetime complimentary cleaning?
Thanks all you loved up guys and gals! :-) LOL

Voltaire Diamonds: Seamus

Hi Ladycurvy,

Many thanks for your post.

We have two workshops, one in Dublin and one in London, we opened a London office last year.

We offer complimentary cleaning for life on all rings purchased from Voltaire Diamonds.

We supply certified diamonds from various certification bodies including GIA, if you prefer GIA, no problem at all.

Please visit our website, Youtube channel and Facebook page to see some of the styles we have supplied recently. If you have a particular style in mind we can have it handmade in our workshop.

www.voltairediamonds.ie
www.youtube.com/voltairediamonds
www.facebook.com/voltairediamonds

If you have any further queries please email me on info@voltairediamonds.ie

Many thanks
Séamus

Ladycurvy

Hi Seamus, PM sent. Many thanks for your prompt reply!

pooch90

Ladycurvy, you won't be disappointed if you go to Voltaire, I still stare at my ring a year on. They did a fab job and I love that it's a one off piece (was at the time anyway! Is it still Seamus??)
We will be going back for wedding rings in about 10 months.

This is my sparkler: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m_iAY0XE0Bs

Voltaire Diamonds: Seamus

Hi Pooch90,

Hope you are well.

Your design has been only made for you. Call in soon for a clean and polish.

Enjoy rest of your weekend.
Seamus