Oval Solitaire
A graceful oval center stone with clean metal, generous light, and a shape that feels romantic without becoming ornate.
Customize this directionBuild the ring you actually want.
Most jewelers sell whatever is already in the case. I’m Andrew Gonzalez. I buy and sell diamonds in the trade, and I build San Diego couples the ring they keep picturing: the right stone, the right setting, and CAD only when it earns its place.
GIA Applied Jewelry Professional (AJP) · 30+ years in the trade · By appointment at the Jewelers Exchange, first floor
Example of a text conversation with Andrew. Andrew says: It's ready.. Andrew sends a photo: Finished custom three-stone engagement ring in a red velvet ring box. Sarah says: ANDREW.. Sarah says: it's even better than her Pinterest board 😭. Andrew says: Now the easy part. Go ask her 🥂.
How most rings start — a text.
Why couples trust Andrew
- GIA Applied Jewelry Professional (AJP)
- Formally trained in diamonds, colored stones, and jewelry, because the report alone never tells the whole story.
- 30+ years in the jewelry trade
- A family business. Most of Andrew’s work today is wholesale: buying and selling diamonds and gold, every week.
- Owned and managed jewelry stores
- His own and his family’s. He knows exactly what retail overhead costs you, because he has run the registers.
- Jewelers Exchange, first floor
- By appointment only, downtown San Diego, in the building where the trade actually buys and sells.
Not inventory. Inspiration.
Choose a direction, then make it yours.
These are not products in stock and they do not carry fake pricing. They are starting points for shape, proportion, setting feel, and the kind of custom decisions I help you refine.
Classic Solitaire
A focused, minimal ring that lets the diamond carry the emotion, proportions, and light.
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Round Bezel
A round brilliant diamond set in a slim bezel for a clean, modern ring with soft protection and quiet presence.
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Elongated Cushion
A soft rectangular center with a plush outline, generous sparkle, and a less expected profile than a round brilliant.
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Emerald Bezel
A sleek step-cut diamond secured in a clean bezel for an architectural, understated profile.
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Three-Stone
A center diamond framed by two supporting stones for presence, meaning, and beautiful side views.
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Toi et Moi
Two complementary center stones set together for a personal, sculptural ring with strong custom-design potential.
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Marquise
A dramatic elongated shape with pointed ends, strong finger coverage, and a rare editorial feel.
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Pear Pavé
A pear-shaped center with a fine pavé band for movement, shimmer, and a soft directional silhouette.
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Radiant Hidden Halo
A rectangular brilliant center with hidden detail under the crown for sparkle that feels discovered up close.
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East-West
A center stone set horizontally for a lower, modern line across the finger.
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Vintage Step-Cut
Asscher, emerald, baguette, and antique-inspired geometry with warm detail and measured restraint.
Customize this directionWhat custom actually means
Diamond, setting, and CAD only when it earns its place.
A custom ring does not have to be complicated. The work is deciding what needs to be selected, what can be modified, and what must be built.
Select the exact diamond
Compare natural and lab-grown diamonds by shape, face-up appearance, proportions, origin, and budget fit. By eye, not just by report.
Match or modify the setting
Start from a strong foundation when it exists, then adjust prongs, profile, metal, side detail, or band fit.
Create through CAD
Use CAD when the right setting is not available or the ring needs a made-to-fit side view, basket, or stone arrangement.
Photo: Andrew Gonzalez
About Andrew
A family trade. Thirty-plus years in it. Most of them behind the scenes.
Jewelry is my family’s business. I’ve owned and managed stores, my own and my family’s, and these days most of my work is wholesale: buying and selling diamonds and gold, week in and week out. I never needed a storefront. The trade knows where to find me.
You can find me too. I meet clients by appointment on the first floor of the Jewelers Exchange downtown. Ask anyone in that building about me. I’ve done business there my whole life, and the floor knows me by name. On any given day you’ll see me crossing that floor between jewelers, picking up gold, checking stones, and calling in favors to keep a ring on schedule. When I say I work inside the trade, I mean it literally.
What I love most is building custom pieces, engagement rings above all. The ring I’m proudest of is the one-of-one I designed for my daughter, and you won’t find a photo of it anywhere. That’s deliberate. What I make for you stays yours, not a template for somebody’s mass production.
GIA Applied Jewelry Professional (AJP) · 30+ years in the trade · By appointment at the Jewelers Exchange, first floor
What the paper won’t tell you
Same report. Different diamond.
Two stones can carry nearly identical grading reports and look nothing alike in person. Mass sellers profit from that gap. I built a career inside it. It’s why I earned the GIA Applied Jewelry Professional credential instead of trusting paperwork, and why every stone I source is judged by eye before you ever see it.
Where the inclusion sits
An SI1 hidden near the girdle disappears under a prong forever. The same grade dead center under the table catches your eye every day. The report treats them the same.
Milkiness isn’t graded
A hazy stone can carry beautiful grades and still look like a window that needs cleaning. Transparency appears nowhere on the report. You find out by looking.
Fancy shapes have no cut grade
GIA grades cut on round brilliants only. The ovals, cushions, and pears everyone is saving photos of? Bow-ties, spread, hidden depth: graded by nobody.
The open-book offer
Found a ring online? Bring it to me.
The big diamond websites say no storefronts keep their prices low. Then they spend millions marketing the brand and pay thousands of employees to sell you a stone off a report, sight unseen. The chain store needs you to leave with something from the case, financed if necessary. Neither of them works for you.
I do. I hold no inventory, and I buy to build: your stone, sourced from reputable dealers after you’ve told me the look and the number. Bring me the listing or any written quote and I’ll put my number next to it on the same specifications. If their deal is genuinely better, I’ll tell you to take it.
Photo: a listing and a written quote, side by side
Natural or lab-grown
Same sparkle. Different reasons to choose.
A natural diamond and a lab-grown diamond can both make a beautiful engagement ring. The difference is not whether one can look good. The difference is origin, rarity, budget, size, and what the stone means to the person wearing it.
Same ring direction
Two diamond paths
Natural
Origin + rarity
Lab-grown
Size + flexibility
Natural diamonds
Choose natural when geological origin is part of the emotion.
A natural diamond was formed by the earth over an extraordinary amount of time. For some couples, that origin is part of the meaning. They want the traditional diamond category: geological, finite, and naturally formed.
- The stone's natural origin can feel meaningful because it was formed by the earth over time.
- Rarity and tradition matter to some couples because they are part of the engagement story they grew up imagining.
- A natural diamond can feel like a keepsake with its own history, especially when origin is part of the proposal meaning.
- The tradeoff is usually size or budget, so I put the actual stones in front of you, cut and presence and price, before you decide.
Lab-grown diamonds
Choose lab-grown when the ring you picture matters most.
A lab-grown diamond has a different origin, but it can give you a larger or more specific center stone within the same budget. For many couples, that means the ring can look closer to the inspiration photo without forcing the budget higher.
- Lab-grown can feel freeing because more of the budget goes toward the shape, size, and setting she keeps saving.
- A larger oval, radiant, or cushion becomes possible without making the ring feel less personal or less meaningful.
- The origin is different, so I say so plainly and compare it honestly beside natural options.
- For many couples, the meaning comes from choosing the design intentionally, not from spending more for geological origin.
The real question
You do not have to decide before talking to me.
The easiest way to choose is to compare both paths in the same ring direction. Oval vs oval. Radiant vs radiant. Solitaire vs solitaire. Same setting idea, same budget range, two different diamond origins.
I hold no inventory, so I have no stone to push you toward. I’ll walk you through what changes, what stays the same, and what each choice means before the ring is made.
Not sure where to start?
Find the smartest path for the ring, not just the style.
Most people already know what they like. The valuable question is how to get there with the right diamond path, the right setting path, and the right level of custom work before production begins.
Text the photo first.
If you already have screenshots or a saved ring, Andrew can translate the look into the real decisions: diamond shape, setting profile, metal, budget range, and whether a stock foundation can be modified.
- Best when you know the look but not the jewelry terms.
- Fastest way to learn whether the ring is simple, semi-custom, or CAD.
- Texting keeps the first step easy.
Private process
A focused path from saved photo to finished ring.
The appointment model keeps the process personal while still giving every decision a practical next step.
01
Send the photo or idea
Text the ring style, diamond shape, proposal date, and your budget. That’s enough for me to map the smartest path.
02
Compare diamond paths
Natural and lab-grown, side by side in the same shape and budget, judged by eye instead of just by the report.
03
Choose or create the setting
I modify a strong foundation when one exists and move into CAD only when the right setting has to be built.
04
Approve and produce
You sign off on the stone, the design, and the timeline before production. Most rings finish in 14–30 days.
Why Andrew
Passion, trade experience, and direct guidance.
Luxury Custom Jeweler is built for couples who want direct guidance, private attention, and a custom engagement ring path that keeps the budget focused on the diamond, setting, craftsmanship, and the person wearing it.
Private appointment focus
One conversation at a time, on your schedule, with nothing in a case that needs selling.
Natural and lab-grown guidance
Both paths on the same desk, compared honestly, with no inventory steering the answer.
Setting modification and CAD
Use what exists when it works. Build only what has to be built. Your budget stays in the stone.
San Diego service area
Serving couples across San Diego, La Jolla, Del Mar, Coronado, Rancho Santa Fe, North County, East County, and South Bay by private appointment.
View location pagesPrivate by design
Inspiration is public. Your finished ring is not.
One honest note about this site: the ring imagery you’re browsing is AI-generated inspiration, on purpose. I’m not a photographer, and I don’t publish clients’ finished pieces for mass producers to copy. That includes my daughter’s ring. The work is real. It just doesn’t live on the internet, and frankly, photos never did it justice anyway.
No public client gallery
What I make for you stays yours. Finished pieces are shown only when a client asks for it or approves it, never as templates for the next buyer.
Start from your inspiration
Bring a photo, a shape, a setting you almost love, or an idea that may not exist yet. The imagery here is a starting point, not a catalog.
Referral-driven work
Most of my work comes through long-time clients and their families. This site exists for everyone who doesn't already know someone who knows me.
Meet where the trade meets
By appointment on the first floor of the Jewelers Exchange downtown. Stones in person, reports on the desk, before anything is made.
In their words
What couples say after the ring is on her hand
We walked in thinking $3,500 wouldn’t get us anything special. Andrew built Jasmine an oval that gets compliments almost weekly, and he never once tried to push us past our number.
Tyler & Jasmine
Custom oval engagement ring
I had about three weeks before I shipped out and every store quoted me six to eight. Andrew asked for my date, said that’s doable, and the ring was in my hand in 17 days. She said yes with time to spare.
Sean
Engagement ring on a deployment timeline
He put two diamonds with nearly identical reports under the loupe and showed me exactly why the cheaper one wasn’t the better deal. I have never had anyone in a sales situation talk me out of spending money before.
Priya
Radiant engagement ring
We came in with a screenshot from one of the big diamond websites, basically daring him. He sourced the same specs with a noticeably better stone, side by side you could see it, and his number was lower. Honestly didn’t expect that.
Miguel & Sofia
Compared against an online listing
Andrew reset my grandmother’s diamond into something Lauren actually wears every day. He handled it like it was his own family’s stone, and he returned the old setting in a little pouch, which meant the world to my mom.
Derek & Lauren
Heirloom diamond reset
Two jewelers told me my ring’s low basket meant I’d have to live with a gap band. Andrew made one that sits completely flush. It’s the detail I didn’t know to care about until he explained it.
Hannah
Flush-fit wedding band
Straight talk about money
A $3,000 budget deserves a great ring too.
Most of my couples are just getting started in life, working with $3,000–$5,000. At that number, a ring built for you beats the store case, because the budget goes into the stone and the metal instead of the rent. I also build one-of-one pieces well beyond it: engagement rings, anniversary pieces, earrings, brooches.
The money side stays simple: a short written contract, a deposit so I can source your stone, and the balance when the ring is finished. Most rings are done in 14–30 days.
See what your budget buys$3,000–$5,000
The honest sweet spot. A stone chosen by eye, a setting that fits her hand, and nothing decided for you in advance.
Custom doesn’t mean more expensive
When the right setting already exists, we use it and your budget stays in the diamond. CAD only when the ring has to be built.
Contract, deposit, balance at the finish
Everything in writing before anything starts. No store cards, no financing desk theater, no surprises.
Explore the custom ring paths
Custom Engagement Rings San Diego
Start with a diamond, a setting direction, a photo, or a CAD concept.
Explore
Custom Wedding Bands San Diego
Create a band that works with the engagement ring and feels right every day.
ExploreLab-Grown Diamond Engagement Rings
Explore lab-grown diamonds with the same setting and design care as natural diamonds.
Explore
Natural Diamond Engagement Rings
Compare natural diamond options with guidance on shape, size, quality, and setting fit.
Explore
Engagement Ring Settings
Choose, modify, or create a setting around the stone and the person wearing it.
ExploreDesign Your Own Ring / CAD Design
When the right setting is not already available, build the ring path through CAD.
ExploreQuestions couples ask before the first appointment
What does custom mean here?
Built for you, which is not the same as built from scratch. Sometimes I source the exact diamond and set it in a setting that already exists. Sometimes I modify a strong foundation. CAD comes in only when the right ring needs to be created around your stone. Custom doesn’t mean more expensive; it means nothing is decided for you in advance.
Can we start with a photo?
Yes, and it’s the best first step. A screenshot shows me proportion, mood, shape, and details, and I can usually tell you the smartest path from one image. Text it to (619) 279-7738.
Do you work with natural and lab-grown diamonds?
Both, and I don’t care which you choose. I hold no inventory, so I have no stone to push. I’ll put a natural and a lab-grown next to each other in the same shape and budget and let your own eyes decide.
How fast can a custom ring be made?
Most rings finish in 14–30 days. CAD work or unusual stones can run longer, and you’ll know the realistic window before any deposit changes hands.
What does it cost?
Most of my couples work with $3,000–$5,000, and at that number a ring built for you beats the store case. I also build one-of-one pieces well beyond it. The process is simple: a short written contract, a deposit so I can source your stone, the balance when the ring is finished.
Where do we actually meet?
By appointment on the first floor of the Jewelers Exchange in downtown San Diego, the building where the trade itself buys and sells. You’ll see the stones in person, next to their reports, before anything is made.
Text Andrew the ring style you keep coming back to.
A photo, sketch, or even a rough idea is enough to start. I can usually tell you whether the smartest path is a sourced diamond, a modified setting, a CAD build, or a short call to compare options.