Why We Travel to Antwerp for Diamonds
Bringing World-Class Diamonds Home to Medford.
The Fifth “C” No One Talks About
Everyone knows the Four C’s of diamonds: cut, color, clarity, and carat. But there’s a fifth one that doesn’t get enough attention: choice.
It’s not only about the diamond you choose in the store. It starts earlier, with the choices we make about who we partner with and which stones even make it to our cases. We take that part seriously, because if the first step isn’t right, nothing that follows will be.
Most jewelers order from suppliers who only show what’s already been sorted and graded. By the time you see it, hundreds of other diamonds never even made it into the lineup. Your options are limited to what someone else thought was “good enough.”
That’s why once a year, we pack our bags and fly halfway across the world to Antwerp, Belgium. There, we’re not handed a list. We sit down at the source, sort through hundreds of diamonds ourselves, and decide which ones are worth bringing home.
Because if a diamond is going to tell your story, it shouldn’t be chosen by a spreadsheet. It should be chosen with care, by someone who knows you’ll be the one wearing it
.
The City Where Diamonds Begin
Antwerp isn’t a huge city. You could walk across it in half an hour. But in the heart of it, the Diamantkwartier (Diamond Quarter), more than 80% of the world’s diamonds pass through before they ever reach a jewelry case.
That means four out of five diamonds you’ve ever seen started here. On these cobblestones. In these cutting rooms. In the hands of people who have been cutting and trading diamonds for generations.
It’s why Antwerp is still the center of the diamond trade today. And it’s why we go there. Because if this is where nearly every diamond begins its journey, we want to be part of that beginning. We want to see them before they’re just numbers on a list, and choose the ones we know will matter most when they end up with you.
Why Root Jewelers Goes the Distance
Most jewelers don’t make the trip to Antwerp, and honestly, we don’t blame them. It’s expensive. It’s time-consuming. It’s easier to order from a catalog and let someone else decide what shows up in the case.
But easy has never been what Root Jewelers is about.
For us, the trip is about slowing down in a world that moves too fast. It’s about sitting at the source, looking through hundreds of high-quality diamonds, and choosing the ones that aren’t just beautiful, but the right fit for the people who will wear them.
That’s why we go. Not just to bring back diamonds, but to bring back confidence. The kind you feel when you look down at your ring and know it wasn’t chosen at random. It was chosen with care, for you.
What It Means for You
At the end of the day, a diamond isn’t something you buy often. It may be the only one you ever choose. That’s why the process matters as much as the diamond itself. Antwerp isn’t about taking a trip for the sake of it. It’s about slowing down, seeing hundreds of options side by side, and making sure what we bring home isn’t just beautiful, but right for the person who will wear it for a lifetime.
For you, that means when you walk out of Root Jewelers, you don’t have to second-guess whether your diamond could have been better, brighter, or more carefully chosen. You’ll know it was worth the effort to find the one that belongs on your hand, not just any diamond, but your Diamond.