Moissanite rings

A stone that fell from the sky

In 1893 the French chemist Henri Moissan was studying fragments of the Canyon Diablo meteorite, which had struck Arizona fifty thousand years earlier. He found tiny sparkling crystals and first took them for diamonds. They were silicon carbide, a mineral so rare on Earth that it now bears his name. Moissan won the Nobel Prize in 1906, for other work. Every moissanite sold today is grown in a laboratory, because natural crystals are far too small and scarce to cut.

Harder than almost anything

Moissanite scores 9.25 on the Mohs scale, just below diamond at 10 and well above cubic zirconia. In daily life that means it does not scratch, cloud or dull with time, which is why it holds up on an engagement ring worn every day for decades. Its refractive index is higher than diamond’s, and its dispersion is more than twice as strong, so it throws those flashes of rainbow color people notice across a room.

How we set it

Our moissanite rings go from half a carat to five, in round, oval, pear, cushion, marquise and emerald cuts. You will find them as solitaires, in halos, in three stone settings and along eternity bands, always on 925 silver. Several are graded D color and VVS1 clarity, the top of both scales. Green moissanite also exists, and one of our halo rings shows it off.

Moissanite or diamond

At the same size, a moissanite costs a small fraction of a diamond, and most people cannot tell them apart without a tester. The difference shows in the light. Moissanite sparkles with more color, diamond with more white. Neither is better. It is a matter of taste, and of budget, since the money saved can go to the wedding or the honeymoon. Clean your ring in warm soapy water and it will shine as on the first day.