The Beauty of Baguette Cut Diamonds

A baguette diamond describes both the cut and shape of a diamond. To be a baguette, the diamond will be thin and elongated in a rectangular shape. A baguette is rarely a square, in fact it more commonly reaches a ratio around 3:1 in length to width.

A member of the step-cut family along with emerald and Asscher cuts, the biggest difference with baguette diamonds is that the corners are perfectly square. They traditionally feature 14 cuts made as straight lines. These lines create exceptional clarity with more minimal sparkle and brilliance - a perfect accent look.

The long, narrow faceted cuts produce a clear reflection instead of brilliance, hence why step-cuts are often referred to as embodying the look of a hall of mirrors. Because of their minimal cuts and clean lines, they exude a prismatic reflection full of clarity and light, sure to enhance any cut of center stone in a ring.

You will likely only see baguette diamonds as straight or tapered in shape. Straight baguette diamonds have straight edges, creating a perfect rectangular shape. Tapered baguette diamonds feature edges that angle in on the length sides, creating one shorter width edge in a narrowed trapezoidal shape.

Baguette diamonds are most often used in smaller carat weights since they are rarely used as center stones. This also helps to ensure their quality since the lower number of facets provides less shine and allows for imperfections to be noticed much easier. However, because the imperfections can be more apparent, it’s important to choose a higher quality stone and match the color grade of the center stone, if it’s a diamond, so a difference in the white of the diamonds isn’t obvious.

And although they’re usually a smaller accent stone, because of the baguette diamond’s square corners and larger surface area from fewer facets, they are more vulnerable to chips and cracks. Choosing a more secure setting, like bezel or channel settings, can help to protect these stones against damage.

The style of the modern-day baguette cut stems from a diamond cut established in the 16th century called the hogback. This cut was an elongated table cut often used to make diamond monograms and jeweled letters. Famed jewelry designer Cartier reintroduced the baguette cutting style in 1912, and it reached its height of popularity in the Art Deco period that soon followed.

Revered for its elevation of minimalist, clean lines and geometric shapes in jewelry, the Art Deco period inspired the mass appeal of this diamond shape. Its streamlined form and few cuts – only 14 facets – make for a lightweight diamond with a unique individuality. During the 1920s and 30s, the baguette diamond was often the main feature of a piece of jewelry, with many stones coming together in intricate, precisely patterned designs. Today, baguette cut diamonds have gained prominence for their versatility and vintage, yet modern, look and feel.

Cut

Baguette diamonds are slender and long in a rectangular shape, commonly reaching a ratio of around 5:1 in length to width. It is a member of the step-cut diamond family with perfectly square corners and 14 faceted cuts made as straight lines. These long and narrow facet lines focus more on clarity and a depth of clear light reflection over the sparkle of the brilliance cut.

They come in two shapes: straight or tapered edges. For straight baguettes, all edges are parallel to each other. In tapered baguettes, the long sides angle inward on one of the short edges, creating a narrowed look.

The cut of a baguette diamond is one of its most important features. This is because step cuts are more likely to show inclusions than a brilliant cut that is excellent at hiding them. This, combined with the very few facet cuts, means that an excellent cut is standard use for jewelry. Also, since there are so few cuts made, the symmetry of the facets becomes very important since any deviation from perfectly symmetrical will be more noticeable to the naked eye.

Color

Baguette cut diamonds lack the depth required to hide more body color in a diamond, so they typically reveal color more compared to brilliant cut diamonds. The shallow cut combined with the style and minimal number of cuts means that color will likely be easily visible to the naked eye.

In order to get a white, colorless look to a baguette diamond as they appear face up, a G or H color rating is probably going to be the lowest you’d want to consider. However, because the stones are predominantly used as side and accent stones, it’s important that they match closely in color to the center stone. You don’t want diamonds that show noticeably less or more color than the center stone as that will impair the overall look of the ring.

Clarity

Next to cut, clarity is going to be the most important quality to consider. The discussion about clarity follows the same lines of reasoning as cut and color – since there are so few facet cuts and they are applied to achieve a clear light reflection, even minute flaws will be far more noticeable.

Since even minimal inclusions like carbon crystals and feathers will show up easily, a higher clarity grade will be critical to achieve an eye clean look for the baguette diamond. Some may think that because these are smaller accent or side stones, their size will help make these imperfections less apparent. It’s simply not the case as a result of their minimalist, streamlined cut. So, at least a VS2 clarity grade is important for a clear, beautiful diamond.

Carat

Baguette cut diamonds are very rarely used as center stones and are mostly made available in smaller carat weights to serve as side and accent stones. The smaller size does help ensure their quality though since it is easier to cut around imperfections and not have them present in the final stone.

Interestingly for baguettes, they are purchased in sets since they are used in multiples of even numbers on a ring to create the same look on either side of a center stone. So you will often see an indication of ‘tcw’ next to the numerical amount, signifying total carat weight. While it should be standard practice that the ‘tcw’ should split fairly evenly between the two or more baguettes, they may naturally differ by the smallest amount.

Baguette cut diamonds are less expensive than other cuts mainly due to their carat size. There’s likely to be some variation based on the quality, but there shouldn’t be big jumps in price since they’re produced within a fairly specific size and quality range to fulfill their main role as side and accent stones. You can expect to pay more for the best quality and larger size of baguette diamonds, but there shouldn’t be an exponential price increase as you see with larger cut round and fancy-shaped diamonds.

The ideal color, cut, and clarity for a baguette diamond are pretty straightforward that you want to aim for the higher grades across the board to achieve a beautiful and appealing eye clean look. However, since these are used as accent stones, there must be a larger discussion about the ways in which baguette diamonds need to ‘match’ in order to be most ideal.

Since baguette diamonds are sold in multiples, it’s important that they closely match one another in all of their qualities. This matching is how a stunning symmetrical look is created for a ring. So aside from matching in color, cut and clarity between each other, their dimensions must also be extremely similar. For the look of baguettes, the surface area dimensions need to closely match more than they need to match in carat size.

The other important matching baguette diamonds do is to the center stone. Depending on the color, cut, and clarity of your center stone, a professional jeweler can help you select the most complementary gradings to look for in accenting baguette cut diamonds. A good rule of thumb is to make sure the baguettes are matching in color and preferably close in clarity grades from the center stone, but it is always best to see them in person next to one another.

Vintage Inspired Rings with Baguette Diamonds

Fully embracing the clean beauty of baguette diamonds, it’s clear to see how well they play with other diamond shapes and cuts, as well as ring design elements. In our vintage-inspired Elani, two graduated baguette diamonds create the perfect transition from a halo-set center stone into a pave-set diamond band. Incorporating a literal stair-step look creates a refined flow to the ring and perfectly frames the center stone.

In another example of the baguette diamond’s versatility, our Hennelly wedding band pairs baguette diamonds with marquise diamonds in an intricate pattern.

Wedding Bands with Baguette Diamonds

As the key feature in a wedding band, our Iva, Lizeth, and Lexus designs accentuate all the clean and clear sophistication of baguette diamond rings. Set vertically or horizontally in the band, the geometric nature of baguette diamonds lend a subtle, architectural feel to each band while perfectly accentuating an engagement ring.

Baguette diamonds bring a classic, understated elegance to any piece of jewelry. Their versatility for setting type can take them from vintage channel sets, as with our Afrik, to timeless side stones, as seen on our Wandris, to a timeless and modern step down design, as with our Hydra, without ever looking wrongly placed. A truly beautiful diamond cut, it has reserved a uniquely special place in jewelry design!