Next weekend my brother Matthew visited on way to NZ. It was great to see him again. We had a nice dinner together at the Lung Wah hotel enjoying live music.
Video: Lung Wah Hotel
But Matthew had a mission to accomplish in Hong Kong - buying a diamond engagement ring for his beloved. So we spent Saturday and Sunday shopping for diamonds.
Many of the jewelry shops were closed for CNY so we mainly ended up in Nathan Road TST at Chow Tai Fook, one of the major jewelers in Hong Kong, and also Tiffany in the Peninsular Hotel.
Matthew cut a dashing figure as he carefully considered different stones and settings. The shop quietly doubled security....
It is very hard to evaluate diamonds in the store as they have so many lights in the ceiling all he stones sparkle really well. You can't see what they be like in daylight.
But Matt took his time, weighed his options and and carefully listened to the opinions of experts.
After Mat had decided on a short-list we went home to consider. I used the Holloway Cut Advisor software and confirmed which diamonds had good proportions.
We looked at the 'wholesale' prices for similar stones on the Blue Nile website and a Hong King website to see what sort of mark-up he would be paying. This confirmed that CTF was pretty reasonable value-for-money. Whereas Tiffany was very expensive (as you'd expect).
On Sunday we went back, and after a few more agonizing hours Matt bought this classic ring. I think it was a very nice choice.
As an aside, Chow Tai Fook advertises heavily on the back of Hong Kong busses. To the extent that almost every bus displays their motto 'sincerity - eternity' on the back. When I first arrived I naively thought Chow Tai Fook was the bus company! I thought 'sincerity - eternity' was a very intriguing slogan for a bus company!
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