WHAT IS PIQUE CLARITY?

P1, P2 and P3?

Piqué clarity (often abbreviated as P, or PK in Europe) is a pretty common clarity grade.

In fact, Piqué clarity is one of the largest clarity grades there is.

(And no, it doesn’t stand for soccer player Gerard Piqué)

Piqué clarity is made up of 3 clarity grades: P1, P2 and P3.

So what is Piqué clarity?

P clarity, or Piqué clarity, is the European term for “imperfect“. It’s actually a French name meaning “mark“, “blemish“, or “pricked“.

And that’s because in Piqué clarity, these marks or blemishes (inclusions), are visible. Visible to the bare eye, without the use of a microscope or a 10x jeweler’s loupe. You can see the flaws just by looking at the diamond, and often, these flaws and imperfections are huge.

3 Piqué clarity grades

There are 3 clarity grades in all with Piqué: P1 (Piqué 1, or 1st Piqué), P2 (Piqué 2, or 2nd Piqué), and P3 (Piqué 3, or 3rd Piqué)…

P1 is the highest of the bunch, then P2, followed by P3 at the bottom of the bucket (P3 is the lowest clarity grade there is).

Piqué is the equivalent to GIA’s “I clarity range“, which is I1, I2 and I3.

Piqué is used in just about every country, even the US. But since GIA devised the standards for grading diamonds (the 4 C’s), and they called this lowest clarity range “included” or “imperfect“, that’s what is common in the states, and that’s what most people know and use.

You will still see “Piqué” sold in stores today if you look hard enough. It all depends on the actual grading report that came with the stone.

Compare Piqué to GIA

Take a look at how Piqué compares to the GIA grading scale…

Included clarities:

You see, Piqué really does line up perfectly with the “included clarities” of I1, I2 and I3.

Certification companies that use Piqué are the Scandinavian diamond nomenclature (Scan D.N.), the World Jewellery Confederation (CIBJO), which includes the following nations: Australia, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Great Britain, Italy, Japan, Netherlands, Norway, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, and the USA… and lastly, the Hoge Raad voor Diamant, the Diamond High Council of Belgium (HRD).

Many times online stores or even store’s catalogs will list the term Piqué or PI, PII, or PIII. And as long as you know that it means “included“, and that you will see eye-visible flaws and inclusions in the stone, then you won’t be surprised when you suddenly notice a huge black mark in the stone.

Piqué, as well as I clarity, is the lowest grades that diamonds can get before they veer off and become “industrial” diamonds.

You will see flaws.

You will see flaws and things like: lines, cracks, clouds, pinpoints, fractures, nicks, chips and black spots. That’s just the nature of included or Piqué diamonds.

I would suspect that some jewelers in the states take advantage of this not so commonly used Piqué clarity grade. Piqué sounds better than included. And what people don’t know, won’t hurt them, right?

But now you know.

Keep your eye out for P, Piqué, P1, P2, P3, PI, PII, or PIII…

They’re pretty easy to spot, once you know what to look for…

FLAWS!

If you don’t mind some visible flaws, and want to save a ton of money, check out these I1 included diamonds here. Some stones look way better than others.

Cheers! :P