Sapphire is corundum in every colour except red, and each colour is priced on its own scale. That is why a sapphire of one carat can cost less than a hundred dinars or several hundred. This guide explains what sets the price per carat, using sapphires we hold now, with prices in Kuwaiti dinars as they appear on each stone's page.
How much is a sapphire per carat?
Across our sapphires today, the price per carat runs from about 65 KWD to about 430 KWD. Colour accounts for most of that range, and size and treatment for the rest.
Why does blue cost more?
Colour has the greatest influence on a sapphire's value, and blue is the colour the market pays most for. The most valued blues are velvety blue to violetish blue, medium to medium-dark in tone, with strong to vivid saturation. Within blue, the name on the stone tracks the price closely.
Four of our heated blue sapphires, all between 1.24 and 1.85 carats, show it step by step:
- Blue Sapphire · 1.85 ct, 220 KWD, about 119 per carat
- Cornflower Blue Sapphire · 1.31 ct, 260 KWD, about 198 per carat
- Vivid Blue Sapphire · 1.54 ct, 320 KWD, about 208 per carat
- Royal Blue Sapphire · 1.24 ct, 280 KWD, about 226 per carat
Same species, same treatment, similar size. The difference in price per carat is the colour.
What do yellow, green, teal and purple sapphires cost?
Fancy-colour sapphires are priced below fine blue per carat, which makes them the natural way to own a sapphire of real size and a colour that is less often seen. The same rule applies inside each colour: a deeper, more saturated tone costs more.
- Yellow: the Golden Yellow Sapphire · 1.22 ct is 165 KWD, about 135 per carat; the Yellow Sapphire · 2.36 ct is 240 KWD, about 102 per carat.
- Green: the Yellowish-Green Sapphire · 1.48 ct is 140 KWD, about 95 per carat.
- Teal: the Teal Sapphire · 1.12 ct, untreated, is 95 KWD, about 85 per carat.
- Purple: the Purple Sapphire · 0.86 ct is 80 KWD; the Purple Sapphire · 0.95 ct, a vivid purple and untreated, is 150 KWD, about 158 per carat.
Padparadscha, the pink-orange sapphire named after the lotus flower in Sinhalese, is a variety with its own name and its own following, and it is priced on a scale of its own.
Heated or untreated: what changes?
Heat is the standard treatment for sapphire. It deepens or clears the colour, and the result is permanent. A sapphire with no treatment is rarer and is priced above a heated stone of the same colour and size, with the widest gap in fine blue. Our product pages use the laboratory's finding in fixed terms:
- Untreated — the laboratory found no treatment.
- No indication of heat — heat has been ruled out; the report makes no wider statement.
- Treated - Heat — the laboratory found evidence of heating.
- Not determined — the stone has a report, but it does not settle treatment.
- Untested — no report exists, so treatment was not examined.
Our Blue Ceylon Sapphire · 2.05 ct, for example, carries No indication of heat and is 275 KWD.
Does origin change the price?
In some cases, strongly. Kashmir and Burma are the historic names for blue. Sri Lanka, long known in the trade as Ceylon, and Madagascar remain important sources of high-quality blue sapphire today. Origin appears on the report when the laboratory can determine it.
How much does size add?
Large sapphires of ordinary quality are uncommon; large sapphires of fine quality are much rarer. So size makes more difference to the price of a fine stone than to a commercial one. Our two Ceylon blues show the effect: the 2.05 ct is about 134 KWD per carat, and the Blue Ceylon Sapphire · 4.06 ct is 1,750 KWD, about 431 per carat. Double the weight, more than three times the price per carat.
Clarity, cut and the star
Blue sapphire with very high clarity is rare and valuable, although fine silk-like inclusions can give a stone the soft, velvety look that some of the most famous blues are known for. A skilled cutter orients the rough so that the best colour faces up, working around colour zoning and the way sapphire shows different colours from different directions. In a star sapphire the price follows the star: how sharp it is, and how well centred. Our Blue Star Sapphire · 3.69 ct, untreated, is 240 KWD.
What should the laboratory report say?
It should confirm natural corundum, state the treatment and, where possible, the origin. On every certified stone we sell, those findings are transcribed into the specification on the product page, together with the report number.
Sapphire colours are best compared side by side, in daylight. Viewings are by appointment in Kuwait City: book a private viewing, or see all our sapphires.