One of the worst sinking feelings that someone can experience is when they look down and see a gaping hole where their beautiful sparkling diamond once was.
The mind begins to race, first not believing that the diamond is really gone, then it starts to accept that glaring fact and begins to race about when and where it could have possibly fallen out at.
The urge now becomes a full scale quest to find that diamond before someone else does or before it gets buried deeper into whatever it landed in, never to be found again.
If you’re like most people, your wedding ring is one of the most cherished items you own. It’s a symbol of your love and commitment, and has probably been with you through some of the happiest moments of your life.
So what do you do if you lose a diamond?
After you have exhausted all possibilities of finding your diamond, from retracing all of your steps since the last time you distinctly remember seeing it, to searching the yard, the sink and shower p trap, the car and even inside the vacuum cleaner bag, you will come to the realization that the hole in the mounting will need to be filled anew so that you can wear your ring again.
In this blog post, we’ll tell you everything you need to know about replacing a lost diamond in your ring.
Table of Contents
What To Do If You Lose Your Diamond
Before we move to taking the steps to replace your diamond, let’s first try and see if there’s any way you can find it.
We realize that losing the entire ring is probably a “better” scenario (if it could be said that way) than losing simply the diamond, because at least an entire ring would have metal that a metal detector could pick up, provided you have nailed down the general area of loss.
Also, an entire ring would not be swept or washed away as easily as a lone diamond would be, and an entire ring would have a good description that you can use for identification purposes to alert social media, the police department, pawn shops and jewelry stores.
But that’s not the way it went unfortunately. Ok then, let’s get to business.
- Get a powerful flashlight that has fresh batteries in it.
- Next, (presuming that your diamond was lost indoors), TURN OFF THE LIGHTS, you need the dark to contrast with the flashlight.
- Take your flashlight and make slow “sweeps” through the entire floor. A diamond has 58 facets and they are braggarts. Some of them will grab out to interact with the light from the flashlight just to say hello. This is a fantastic way to “put a little light on the subject.” You will find the diamond as long as your flashlight passes over it.
Here are some areas indoors that you may not realize that your diamond could have fallen into:
- Between cushions and cracks on the sofa or on recliners. Look on the back flap too.
- In the blankets or sheets of your bed, and in your child’s bed or crib if you tuck them in.
- Look on closet floors where you reach to grab clothes, towels or food in a pantry. Also look into they laundry basket and inside the washer/dryer.
- Inside pockets. Look inside pants, coats, and even your purse or grocery shopping bags. A diamond can fall out wherever you have reached your hand into.
- Look through the salad or dish that you prepared for dinner. It could have fallen loose into those. Also look in the plastic bags that you used to store the food makings in. I have actually found a diamond here before.
- Look along the edges of the baseboards on every wall in the house where you have been. Diamonds have a tendency to bounce oddly when they fall or are dropped. They bounce like a football in a totally different direction than what you’d expect.
- After you have exhausted your own search, offer a substantial reward to your friends and children to search with the flashlight also. This is going to be cheaper than buying another diamond.
- Look under all appliances, furniture, in and on the fringes and under the edges of your area rugs.
- Last, take that flashlight out to the car in the evening and look through the entire thing. Remember, diamonds bounce in a very crooked way and they roll too.
One of our customers was missing a rather expensive and chunky diamond-ladened ring from off of her desk.
She was 100% certain that she placed the ring in a specific spot and made a mental note of that fact when she did it.
She spent the next two days baking Christmas cookies while her little dog was getting more and more perturbed from lack of attention and some missed playtime.
After three days of exhausting herself and believing that she was going crazy (because she KNEW where the ring had been last) she gave up.
Several weeks later, she was vacuuming the house and stepped on the ring that was laying in the fringes of one of her area carpets.
Her dog had jumped up onto the desk chair, onto the desk where he saw her place the ring, grabbed that ring and then took it and dropped it down in a room and in an area that gets no regular foot traffic.
If it had been any smaller of a ring, he no doubt would have swallowed it just to emphasize to her how he felt about being ignored. It is bad enough to have someone else gaslight you, it is much worse when you are gaslighted by your own pets.
Is A Lost Diamond Covered By Insurance?
If you have standard homeowner insurance on your house, chances are that a portion of the diamond can be covered under the part where they talk about “loss of jewelry”.
You will have to get out the policy and read that area.
Homeowner insurance is woefully inadequate with the coverage that they are willing to offer on jewelry and small items such as guns and coins too, because these are targets for theft.
You will be lucky to get $2,000 for any loss, and then to add insult to injury, will first have to pay the deductible.
If you purchased a separate insurance policy for your jewelry from an insurance company, you will get more for your loss, but the premium is rather high over the years.
The company would have required you to send in a Written Appraisal for the item that was lost or stolen or damaged through no fault of your own and file a Police report.
After paying the deductible, if any, they should pay out the appraised or replacement value, but they will knock off some of the value for having had “use” of it over the years.
If you have no Appraisal and/or receipts, then perhaps the jewelry store where you purchased it has something on file that they will help you out with.
They will likely be willing to help you if for no other reason than because it can result in another potential sale for them.
Why Small Diamonds Fall Out of Rings
Small diamonds are more likely to fall out of rings simply because they have such tiny pieces of metal pressed down to hold them in place.
Some of these are set by machine, others by hand and both are fallible.
It is not uncommon for a small diamond to be lightly hit in just the right spot, and the result is a diamond on the ground. If you look at your ring, you may also see that some mountings only have 3 prongs that hold on to a small diamond rather than 4.
Usually, a jewelry store is quite aware of this and will make sure to replace any smaller diamonds if they do fall out for up to the first year after purchase, especially if you bring in your ring to have it inspected every six months.
Jewelry stores usually carry hundreds, if not thousands, of small “melee” (diamonds) for this very purpose, and they plan on helping out their customers with the occasional semi-expected loss of small diamonds.
Keep in mind that if a stone has fallen out within a few months of buying and wearing it, a jewelry store will inspect it to see if it was knocked out from wear and tear, or if it was due to a defect in manufacturing or as a result of the bench jeweler not pressing down the prongs tight enough.
They may replace the diamond for free regardless.
The Process of Replacing The Diamond
If you are replacing the diamond yourself, then you will need to locate a good jeweler that does excellent work. This is not always easy because some bench jewelers do not have the same amount of experience as others.
Once you realize that you are never going to recover your lost diamond, and once you are ready to replace it, then you will need to do several things.
Shop For Your Replacement Diamond
Bring your ring mounting to several jewelry stores to shop for diamonds.
Do not take your ring mounting to a Pawn shop looking to get a deal to buy a cheap diamond for it.
Quite frankly, they are not going to know enough about how to fit the proper size diamond into your ring, and you will not be given an Appraisal for your “new” stone either.
We have found that Pawn shops are not trained to know a good diamond from one that has problems, and once you leave, you are stuck with it.
The jewelry stores will need to measure the mounting to determine the size that your prongs or bezel will accept.
If you have paperwork that indicates the diamond size that fell out, bring that in with you also. It may be that your mounting is not something that you like anymore, and it may even be the reason why your stone fell out to begin with.
A jewelry store should know that.
Find A Qualified Jeweler
Once you have found the diamond, or other gemstone, that you want to replace your lost diamond with, you need to find a good qualified jeweler to set it for you.
You wont always be having your diamond replaced by the same person or company that you bought it from, because they might not have the services available, or they may not even do quality work.
A good jeweler will know how to properly set your diamond using the correct tools for the job. The last thing that you want is for your new diamond to fall out because it was not set correctly in the first place.
Be sure that the jeweler is qualified, and not just someone who “does jewelry on the side”. A good jeweler will have a workbench in their store where they do repairs and custom work.
We have written an article on how this should be done, but the important things to remember are to use social media, friends and family recommendations, the BBB, Yelp, and even Angies List to find reputable Jewelry stores and bench jewelers.
Find out how qualified a bench jeweler is and how long they have been working in the trade.
If you have had a hard time getting any kind of cooperation from the store that you purchased your diamond ring from, it is probably time for a change.
How Long Does It Take To Replace A Diamond In A Ring?
If your jewelry store happens to have a loose stone that can fit nicely into your mounting, and if they have a bench jeweler that works in or very near to the store, then you could possibly have this done in as little as two days flat.
However, if there is no loose diamond that will fit or that you like where you have your heart on buying from, then do not hesitate to shop around to other reputable stores!
Worse case scenario is that a diamond will have to be ordered and this can take two to three weeks from the first phone call to find and order it, to getting it set back into the mounting.
Meanwhile, the jewelry store might have a CZ on hand that can be placed inside your mounting while you are waiting if you need to wear the ring for a special occasion.
Costs Associated With Replacing A Lost Diamond
It should be pointed out that there should not be a cost to replace your diamond if it was under store warranty.
However, we hope that the cost will not rise above the insurance settlement so that you have everything from the diamond to the work resetting it covered.
If you have no insurance, then a reputable jewelry store will write out all costs to replace a diamond so there are no surprises.
They may also be willing to work with you and offer a payment plan.
There are three things left to consider that are associated with replacing a lost diamond besides what has already been covered:
- Diamond Quality: Are you wanting to upgrade or even downgrade in quality? This will affect the cost. Check out our article on diamond cuts & color.
- Setting: Did you have a defective or worn out setting and are in need of replacing or rebuilding it? This will affect the cost.
- Turnaround Time: Do you have the time to wait until the jewelry can locate the perfect diamond or replacement stone for you? Sometimes this can be a challenge if your budget is tighter.
Preventing Future Loss
Remember to have your ring inspected and cleaned so that a jeweler can see if there are problems brewing with it, such as worn or broken prongs or loose stones.
Be careful to remove your ring if you know that you will be doing work or something that can damage the prongs resulting in loss.
Buy your jewelry from a reputable jeweler who will direct you where to get insurance in the event that you followed all the advice and still lost your diamond.
Final Thoughts
Losing a diamond from your ring can be devastating, but it does not have to be the end of the world. With a little research and care, you will be able to replace your lost diamond and wear your ring with confidence again in no time!