The Private Jeweler

Kevin Kutz · Founder and Private Jeweler

I got into diamonds in 2011. I founded KK Diamonds in 2021, and from the first day it was built around one specialization: color.

Why color

Colorless diamonds are a graded commodity. Two stones with the same report, the same cut grade and the same measurements are, for practical purposes, interchangeable, and priced accordingly.

Fancy color diamonds are not. The grading system sorts them into categories, but within any category the range of actual visual performance is enormous. A Fancy Intense Pink can read as a genuine pink or as a washed-out brown-pink depending on modifying colors the report mentions in passing. A Fancy Vivid Yellow can be electric or it can be flat. The report will not tell you which.

That gap, between what the paper says and what the stone does, is where my work lives. It is also where clients get hurt, because it is the part of the purchase that is easiest to sell past. That gap is why no price chart can value a colored diamond, which I cover in my guide to fancy color diamond pricing.

How I evaluate a stone

When I am assessing a fancy color diamond for a client, I am looking at:

• Hue, and its modifiers. The primary color, and what else is in there. Brownish Yellow and Yellow can be a large price difference and a larger visual one.
• Saturation against tone. Saturation is the intensity of color; tone is how light or dark. The most desirable stones are saturated without going dark. Plenty of stones achieve their grade by being dark rather than intense.
• How the cut serves the color. Fancy color diamonds are cut to maximize color, not brilliance, which is the opposite of white stone cutting. A well-cut color diamond concentrates its hue. A poorly cut one leaks it.
• Face-up performance in real light. Under a grading lamp, in daylight, under a dinner table’s warm light. A stone you will wear needs to work in the light you live in.
• Fluorescence. In high-color white diamonds, strong blue fluorescence usually carries a discount, though GIA’s own research found most fluorescent stones show no noticeable difference face-up. In fancy colors it can interact with the body color under UV-rich light. Either way, it is worth understanding before you price it in or out.

What I actually do for you

I find things. If you want a 3-carat cushion Fancy Intense Yellow with no brown modifier, I will go look for it, and I will show you what comes back, including the ones I do not think you should buy and why.

I also tell you no. That is the part clients say they value most, and it is the part a commissioned salesperson at a counter structurally cannot offer you.

Credentials and standing

• In the diamond trade since 2011
• KK Diamonds LLC founded 2021
• A+ rated, BBB Accredited Business since 2022
• Member, Jewelers of America and the Fancy Color Research Foundation