Hello. Looking for a little advice please - i’m preparing to propose to my girlfriend in January and would like to buy a ring beforehand; my idea is preferably for the ring to be made by a Taiwanese jeweller (my gf is half-aboriginal Taiwanese). The issue is I live in the UK and have no idea of reputable jewellers outside the obvious global brands. So i’m hoping you guys can provide some names of high-quality jewellers or whether sticking with the Cartiers/Tiffanys etc would be better.
Not worried about budget, just looking for ideas happy to provide some details if necessary
i used a place at 32 Section 2, Heping East Road, Taipei, or thereabouts. good service, good designers, for wedding rings and engagement rings, with engraving and a good choice of diamonds, even remade a lost ring for nearly nix.
I realize I’m contributing to taking this thread right off track, and contributing to Forumosa’s reputation as a place where well-meaning advice-seekers go to abandon their dreams that humanity is made up of helpful individuals, and it is in that spirit that i make this offering.
Maybe her tribe has a cool tradition that you could do instead, and then the money you would have spent on an engagement ring could go into a fund for a cool trip a year after the wedding?
(this is a woman speaking, by the way, and I’d rather have a guy do that than buy me a pretty hunk of carbon.)
Wedding gold is more important so save your imagination for that day. After you propose you can discuss with her what her family tradition is regarding gold. Taiwanese can be extremely practical and if she’s indigenous she’ll be realistic about it.
Tiffany’s rings are just plain ugly. Cartier is not much better. I got the engagement ring in Georg Jensen. They have many different stores around the world, have absolutely beautiful designs and they even sell online.
We got our marriage rings in a taiwanese store called Aluxe Diamond, in Fuxing south road, just across from Sogo Fuxing branch. Mine’s okay, but my wife’s lost one of the small brilliants just a week after the marriage, while we were on our honeymoon travel. When we confronted them about that (the stone didn’t protrude from the ring, it was embedded on it), they claimed it was our fault entirely and that they wouldn’t replace it. Looks like having your marriage ring on your finger while just travelling is a “bad use” for them. I know people in Taiwan don’t often wear their marriage rings on their fingers, but this is ridiculous. Whatever you do, don’t go to those guys.
Beat me to it. One of the most ridiculous marketing schemes in history, but somehow it’s worked. Want to know what your diamond is worth? Buy it, and then immediately ask the jeweller for how much they’ll buy it from you. If it’s as much as a third as you’ve just paid, you’ve not done too badly. o_O
There are alternatives such as an amazing holiday (already mentioned), investing that money today so you can both retire a year earlier together (wow, the gift of giving her an entire year of free time… does that beat a shiny low-value stone?), or spending it all on canned tuna (in brine, if it’s Taiwan-brand - not oil!). But all of those are extremely obvious. If you’re dead set on strapping a symbol of gullibility around one of your digits, there is one cool option. Instead of popping to a shop and picking up a diamond ring (which anyone with a credit card could do in a minute, and hardly makes you special), actually do something interesting about the ring, like the two of you designing and crafting a truly unique ring together? If you’re going to be sheep, be AWESOME sheep! (Plus, you could use the equipment in future to make rings for other people and earn a bit of extra cash, and it will have paid for itself!)
Then, ten/twenty/fifty years from now when she looks at the band on her finger, she won’t remember how you nipped into a shop and slapped an overpriced piece of stone onto a credit card in her absence. She’ll remember how the two of you learned a skill together, and crafted an entirely special symbol that no other person on Earth could have given her.
I’m surprised “Blaquesmith” didn’t do this, given their handle.
Thanks for your ideas so far Much appreciated. I’d love something from TW rather than something anyone could get from anywhere, are there any reputable taiwanese jewellers?
happy to provide some details if necessary