See Princess Eugenie’s Padparadscha Engagement Ring

The princess’s colored gemstone ring continued a long-standing royal bridal trend.

Ashley Davis Ashley.Davis@nationaljeweler.com

Princess Eugenie sported a unique engagement ring featuring a padparadscha sapphire to announce her engagement.

Princess Eugenie of York, cousin to Princes William and Harry, is engaged, and she has a stunning and unusual ring to prove it.

Announced Monday on the British Royal Family’s website and social media, the 27-year-old Eugenie is set to wed her boyfriend of seven years, 31-year-old Jack Brooksbank, this fall.

The Royal Family released official engagement photos of the couple, which showed the princess sporting a ring featuring an oval-cut padparadscha sapphire center stone surrounded by a halo of round-brilliant white diamonds and two trillion-cut white diamonds on a yellow gold band.

   
  
 


 
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Eugenie follows an interesting trend seen in the British Royal Family—the use of a colored gemstone surrounded by a halo of white diamonds.

Princess Diana chose a 12-carat oval sapphire engagement ring, surrounded by white diamonds and with a yellow gold shank, which, several years after Diana’s death, Prince William gave to Kate Middleton as her engagement ring.

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Princess Anne, Queen Elizabeth II’s only daughter, received sapphire and diamond engagement rings for both of her engagements, while Princess Margaret, Countess of Snowden—Queen Elizabeth II’s sister—had a ruby and diamond engagement ring

And Eugenie’s own mother, Sarah, Duchess of York, received a ruby engagement ring from the Duke of York when he proposed, also in a halo design and in yellow gold.

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Indeed, only Prince Harry and Meghan Markle seem to have bucked the royal colored gemstone trend in favor of white diamonds.

Where Eugenie’s ring stands out is in its selection of gem, with hers being much more unique than her familial predecessors.

“These special sapphires are rare in their optimal color and typically demand a hefty premium over fancy pink or orange sapphires,” explained Niveet Nagpal, president of Omi Gems & Omi Privé. “They are the rarest of all for their specific color range of pink and orange.”

Gem aficionados agree that the publicity garnered by Eugenie’s engagement will increase interest in the rare stone.

A selection of padparadscha sapphires from Omi Gems illustrates the color variation of the stone.
Nagpal said: “Most people don’t know about colored gemstones and especially what a padparadscha sapphire is, so Princess Eugenie’s engagement will be a great start to getting the information out there and driving people to specifically ask for it.”

And Oscar Heyman’s Tom Heyman noted that royal and celebrity engagement rings that feature colored gemstones have correlated with consumer demand in the past.

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“When a high-profile engagement occurs, we generally see an uptick in interest in similar ring styles because of the couple’s visibility,” he said. “After Kate Middleton got engaged to Prince William, we had a significant increase in sapphire entourage rings being sold as engagement rings. Many people previously unfamiliar with padparadscha sapphires now know that it is a beautiful choice it is for a ring, engagement or otherwise.”

Princess Eugenie is right on trend ahead of the Tucson gem shows, as dealers have predicted that fancy color sapphires will continue to rise in popularity.