Girard-Perregaux Tip of the Week 14

It took 3 million years, in conditions of extreme heat and pressure deep within the earth for the carbon to crystalize and transform into one of its most precious products: the diamond.

The word is derived from the Greek (adamas) meaning "untamable, inflexible, unshakable", a reference to the eternity of love, and denotes the hardest material on the Mohs scale (10).

The price of a diamond is determined by various factors: the cut, color, clarity, and weight in carats (1 carat equal to .20 grams). Once cut and polished, the diamond will have lost on average about half its original weight, and ten tons of mineral must have been extracted to obtain one carat.