Watch Buying Guide

The first thing to consider when buying a watch is, what is its purpose? Will you use it to time your lap speed, your flying speed, or your lunch hour? The wide availability of watch styles and features allows you to pick the watch that fits your needs, style, and taste perfectly.


Form & Function
This list below will help you choose the right features for your purposes:


Casual
Look for casual features that ensure you can keep your mind on taking it easy. Choose a watch with a comfortable band and higher water resistance so you don't have to worry about your watch when you're reaching in the cooler for a drink or slipping in for a swim. View our casual Skagen watches for men and women.

Dressy
For a more formal look, choose a watch that matches your attire. A stainless steel bracelet band and a black face perfectly match a black sweater and gray pants. Or if you wear a leather belt, choose a watch with a matching black or brown leather band. Michele and Bulova watches for women feature luxury touches like diamond and gemstone bezels, and Skagen offers watches for men and women with cutting-edge Scandinavian design.

Diving
Look for screw-down crowns and casebacks and extreme water resistance. Also, a unidirectional bezel helps you keep an eye on how long you've been underwater. View our Seiko and Chase-Durer watches for men featuring screw-down casebacks and crowns, and water resistance to at least 330 feet or deeper.

Racing
Whether you're in a car, a plane, on a bicycle, or on foot, these watches will help you measure your time. To find your miles per hour, rotate the tachymeter to target your exact speed, then set the elapsed timer to pinpoint the distance you covered. Some watches even store lap times and split times. View our men's racing watches by Festina, the official racing watch of the Tour de France, and our Chase-Durer watches for men, built specifically for racing and flying with navigational slide rule bezels and tachymeters that help you measure speed over time


Learn More Information

Diamond Buying Guide

Before you start diamond shopping, you want to have an understanding of what you're buying. This guide simplifies the four Cs of diamonds - cut, color, clarity, and carat weight, so you can select your diamond based on the same criteria jewelers use to grade them.

Cut
The cut of a diamond has the most effect on its sparkle, or brilliance. Even if the diamond has perfect color and clarity, a poor cut can make a diamond look dull. Blue Nile carries only the highest grades of diamond cut, for the most sparkle. Learn how to choose the right diamond cut with the most brilliance for your budget.

Color
Diamonds with very little color are the most highly valued and are priced accordingly. A little color can diminish a diamond's brilliance. To help you choose the most brilliant diamond, Blue Nile offers diamonds with the highest grades of color. Learn how to choose a diamond with no color noticeable to the unaided eye.

Clarity
Diamonds with few flaws, or inclusions, are very rare and highly valued. Clarity is graded based on the number, location, size, and type of the inclusions found in a diamond. Blue Nile has some of the clearest diamonds available. Learn how to choose the right grade of clarity for your diamond.

Carat Weight
The weight of a diamond is measured in carats. Since larger diamonds are more rare than smaller diamonds, diamond value tends to rise exponentially with carat weight. Read more about carat weight and learn how to balance diamond quality with the size of your diamond.

Certification
The most important step in choosing a diamond is reviewing the diamond certificate, referred to by diamond grading labs as a grading report. A grading report documents the characteristics of a diamond, like the four Cs. Before purchasing a diamond, review a copy of its grading report, as this is proof that it has undergone an unbiased, professional examination. Learn more about the diamond grading report.

Lorne More Information!.

Jewelry Buying Guide

Whether you're shopping for bracelets, earrings, or necklaces, it's important to select versatile, high-quality jewelry. Look for the fineness marks in precious metals to ensure their quality and durability.

Silver
For silver jewelry that will last, choose durable sterling silver. Blue Nile offers only sterling silver, so your gift won't wear down to brass like silver plating can. Silver is very affordable, and many of the sterling silver bracelets, key rings, and cuff links at Blue Nile can be engraved for a truly personalized gift.

Pearls
For the most beautiful pearls, the most important thing to look for is a high to medium luster grade. Luster gives a pearl that deep, reflective look only pearls are known for. Also, for a smooth appearance, choose pearls with a surface grade of flawless to lightly spotted. At Blue Nile, you'll find pearl jewelry that upholds these standards. And pearls make the perfect gift. The classic pearl necklace - an Akoya princess-length strand - is an essential for every woman's wardrobe. And for an affordable gift for any occasion, she'll love Freshwater pearl stud earrings.

Gold
For beautiful gold jewelry, look for 18k gold. It has more beautiful gold color than 14k, but more strength and durability than pure 24k gold. Our gold jewelry is all 18k gold, but may include 14k gold accents, clasps, or posts in instances where strength is essential. Choose a beautiful 18k gold Byzantine necklace and matching bracelet for a gift she'll love to wear - and she'll think of you each time she puts it on.

Platinum
Choose only the finest jewelry-grade platinum with 95% purity. Our platinum jewelry includes 95% pure platinum, and 5% alloys of metals to increase the metal's beauty and durability. We set all loose diamonds in our engagement settings with the strength and security of platinum prongs. For a gift she'll love, choose stylish platinum hoop earrings or a classic platinum woven necklace.

Lorne More Information!.