In the end, it all comes down to where you are buying the stone. To sum it up: as far as I am concerned, HRD is not a less reliable lab than GIA, as long as you are aware of some basic differences. These importers make sure that all their stones get GIA-reports, and as long as they keep up the image of a GIA-report being the only reliable one, they make life very difficult for small Antwerp companies, who try to sell HRD-reports in the U.S. Most of these representatives stem from the biggest offices in Antwerp, who often have established business relationships with U.S.-importers. Could there be some kind of gentleman's agreement between the two labs?Īlso, HRD is an organisation, that is run by representatives of the Antwerp diamond trade. Somehow, this lab has never started, and HRD is now heavily promoting its report in Canada, Dubai, the Far East, but not in the U.S. I fear that politics is the reason behind this.Ī few years ago, GIA was apparently preparing to set up a lab in Antwerp. Working in Antwerp, and having thousands of HRD-reports available here, I do not understand why HRD does not do a better job of promoting its report in the U.S. Personally, as a professional, I find it easier to make a first selection of goods, if I can work with a HRD-cert, than if I need to work with a GIA-cert. When giving girdle size, HRD uses another notation than GIA, and because of that the girdle will appear about 1.7% thicker on a HRD-report than on a GIA-report. GIA gives you table size, total depth, while HRD gives you table size, crown height and pavillion depth, while you can calculate total depth yourself from the measurements. GIA gives separate gradings here, with the highest possible being 'Excellent', while HRD combines the two into a Finish-grade,with the highest possible being 'Very Good'.ĭetailed information. For us, cut-geeks, the range of 'very good' is way too broad, but some information might be better than no information. GIA does not give a grade on proportions, whereas HRD gives a highest grade of 'Very Good'. In other clarities, the difference is minimal. Therefore, most HRD-LC-stones get a GIA-VVS1-grade. GIA works with 'internally flawless' and 'flawless'-grades, and this is totally different. HRD works with 'loupe-clean', and will grade an impurity that is less than (I think) 4 micron as loupe-clean, since it cannot be noticed with a 10x-loupe. The big difference is in their highest grade, which has a different name. For borderline-impurities, GIA will give one clarity lower than HRD. The other differences between the two labs are minimal.Ĭlarity-grading: GIA is generally slightly stricter in clarity-grading than HRD. In Antwerp, I try to buy specific HRD higher range E-colours, and very often, I get a GIA D-grade for them. On the other hand, HRD is a rather unknown report in the U.S., and as such, its value is underestimated.įirst, I want to look at both reports in detail.Ĭolour-grading: My experience with both labs teaches me, that in the very high colours (D-E-F), HRD is generally more strict than GIA. "With GIA being the most reputable lab (together with AGS) in the U.S., it is natural for you to put a lot of faith in their grading report. I thought it was so good that yo'all needed to read it Ask our PriceScope members and industry experts for a second opinion or get lost in the thousands of user-shared diamond and jewelry images for inspiration.
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