This is another way to prove a diamonds' superiority compared to other diamonds, and gives those who produce precision-cut diamonds well deserved recognition; but it's questionable as to how much value it would add to the sale price. This article from JCK will explain the difference between this service and GIA's grading of diamonds. I like the fact that the report comes with a fingerprint of the diamond, among other things, and I think it's a pretty good idea, but do you think it's worth it?
GCAL Introduces 8X, Billed As “Ultimate Cut Grade” By Rob Bates | March 24, 2021
"The GCAL grading lab has introduced the 8X Ultimate Cut Grade, which is meant to salute “precision diamond cutting.”
For a diamond to qualify as an 8X, it has to be judged “excellent” on eight factors: polish, external symmetry, proportions, optimal brilliance, fire, scintillation, optical symmetry, and hearts and arrows.
“Until now, we all know what the best in color is, what the best in clarity is, but what about the best in cut?” asked Steve Feldman, GCAL’s director of sales and marketing, during an online press conference from the company’s New York City lab. “That’s the last standard of excellence in determining a diamond’s quality, but precision cut diamonds have been getting lost in the shuffle.”
Angelo Palmieri, chief operating officer of GCAL, said the 8X differs from the GIA’s “excellent” cut grade—introduced in 2005—in that it’s a “tight standard” that takes into account more criteria and judges cut based on a narrower range of proportions. He said the standard was developed after years of research.
“These aren’t proportions that are randomly selected,” he said during the press conference. “These are proportions that we’ve been able to back into from the hundreds of thousands of round brilliant-cut diamonds that we have looked at, that we’ve been able to access brilliance, fire, scintillation [for]. This is really the sweet spot of diamonds in terms of diamonds that perform the best in those light performance metrics.”
Palmieri noted that only a very small percentage of currently cut diamonds would qualify.
“If you think about, over the last 10 years, if the cut grades of the leading labs have loosened, what has been the incentive to cut to this narrow, precise, optimal range?” he said. “There hasn’t been. They could still achieve a top grade from one of the major labs. We are now providing that platform, where the manufacturers that have the technical know-how, have the resources to do this, now can distinguish their diamonds. So there’s now an incentive to cut in this fashion.”
He said the 8X is “about distinguishing these precision manufacturers, distinguishing their company, distinguishing their diamonds, and allowing their story to be told. These high-end manufacturers go to such great expense, investment in labor, in technology, to cut the best diamond they can cut, and those diamonds…are not able to stand alone and be appreciated for how much effort that goes into them.”
GCAL will still grade other diamonds by its standard cut grading scale, but if a diamond is judged “very good” in any of the eight criteria, it won’t be deemed an 8X.
GCAL founder and president Don Palmieri said at the press conference the 8X diamonds might command a premium—but he’s not sure how much.
“We have talked to dealers, and they all say this will be worth an extra 5 or 10%,” he said. “But just like we found out with country of origin with the Canadian diamonds…people thought their diamonds were worth 10 or 15% more, but when push came to shove, people really weren’t willing to pay for it. So I think it’s a matter of giving the manufacturer an advantage over competitors, and giving retailers advantages downstream over their competitors down the street.”
That was JCK's article from back in March, but this is a newer version from National Jeweler that has images of the report, and a link to the images at GCAL so you can go to that link in the story to see them more clearly. Here's more information on this 8X Ultimate Cut Grade.
GCAL Introduces Its New Cut Grade Standard, 8X
A look at the inside of the new 8X Ultimate Diamond Cut Grade grading report from GCAL, which evaluates a diamond’s cut grade against eight factors: polish, external symmetry, proportions, optical brilliance, fire, scintillation, optical symmetry, and Hearts & Arrows (Photo courtesy of GCAL)
"New York—The Gem Certification & Assurance Lab has introduced its new cut grade standard for round brilliant diamonds.
Called the 8X Ultimate Diamond Cut Grade, GCAL said it developed the cut to reflect advancements in diamond cutting technology and techniques and the resulting cuts the top diamond manufacturers are producing today.
8X is “less about distinguishing our lab from all the others, and more about providing a platform for the world’s premier diamond manufacturers to distinguish their products from all others,” GCAL founder and president Don Palmieri said in a news release.
Son Angelo Palmieri, the lab’s chief operating officer, added: “The global diamond industry has witnessed impressive improvements in technology. Diamond cutting techniques have also improved, resulting in more brilliant and beautiful diamonds. It was time to honor that craftsmanship. 8X is a cut grade standard whose time has come.”
As the name indicates, the 8X Ultimate Diamond Cut Grade will take into account eight factors.
(GIA bases its cut grade on seven factors.)
To be deemed an 8X diamond, a stone must receive a grade of “excellent” in all eight aspects of cut that GCAL is evaluating: polish, external symmetry, proportions, optical brilliance, fire, scintillation, optical symmetry, and Hearts & Arrows.
GCAL said the first three—polish, external symmetry, and proportions—focus on physical precision of the diamond’s surface, facet shapes and angles.
Optical brilliance, fire and scintillation focus on and analyze how a diamond handles light, while grading factors seven and eight—optical symmetry and Hearts & Arrows—are about optical precision, meaning the craftsmanship of the crown and pavilion facets and how they work together.
The grading scale for each of the eight factors can be viewed on the GCAL website.
GCAL introduced the change at a virtual press conference held last month from its lab in New York.
The lab said its workers spent years and analyzed hundreds of thousands of diamonds to create 8X.
GCAL has created a new design for the reports 8X Ultimate Diamond Cut Grade stones.
