Opal is for October

October is a beautiful month with all the wonderful colours of Fall, but it's also beautiful because of the wonderful colours of Opal; October's birthstone.

Opal is an interesting gemstone because of its play of colours or "fire". A good natural Opal has flashes of red, blue, green and sometimes purple. The red flashes are the most desirable.

You can see (even with my poor photography skills) the pretty red flashes in this opal. And in person it has incredible flashes of colour. This beautiful 14KY ring sells for $549.

The thing about natural opal is that every one is unique; you won't find two natural opals exactly the same. And the quality of natural opals is really variable.

This natural opal is obviously less "opalescent" than the previous one. While still a very pretty stone, the flashes of colour are a real mixture of red, green and purple rather than predominately red like the previous stone. This stone is also larger but set in sterling silver. Because of the difference in quality of the stone and the metal, this ring sells for $125.

Natural opals need to be treated delicately because they are a soft stone and the surface is easily scratched. Also, any harsh soaps or chemicals aren't good; think of opals like your skin, it's also easily scratched if hit against something and can get irritated by chemicals.

Natural opals are also partly made up of water which means that there are a few more considerations when wearing an opal:
1) They like to be hydrated so every now and then it's a good idea to just let your opal jewellery sit in water for a few hours.
2) If they dry out their colour is less brilliant, but don't worry, the brilliance returns once the stone is hydrated.
3) If they dry out too much they can crack, and unfortunately this isn't fixed by hydration.
4) And one other consideration is that, because of the water they contain, they can freeze if going from hot to cold too quickly and this can cause cracking.

With that said, opal really isn't very difficult to take care of as long as you treat it with care. We want to let you know what CAN happen but don't let the information scare you off, just keep it in mind.

As with many gemstones today, there are options for a synthetic or simulant. We usually promote synthetics over simulants because synthetic stones have the exact same make-up as the natural stones they're just made in a lab instead of coming from nature.

When it comes to opal, however, we prefer a simulant; Opalite. The reason Opalite is a simulant and not a synthetic is because it doesn't contain water like natural opals do. Other than the water, Opalite is exactly the same as natural opal (including needing to be treated delicately because it is also soft).

The lack of water in Opalite can be a good thing because you don't have to take into consideration all of the points above.

Opalite, as a simulant, also has a much more brilliant play of colour than natural stones and the colour patterns are more regular.

These opalite earrings are obviously more colourful than the natural stones shown above.

And this Opalite and cubic zirconia pendant also shows the intense colour that comes with the simulant option. This sells for $32.50.

Both of these Opalite pieces are set in sterling silver. Generally, Opalite isn't set in gold which makes it a less expensive option.

So whether you love the uniqueness and variability of natural opal or the intense play of colours of Opalite, you can get the look of opal with any budget.

We've got a good selection of both natural Opal and Opalite so come in and see the difference in person. We also have a wide variety of unset natural Opals that can be used in any custom piece of jewellery.

We've upped our watch game with Bulova

We've been pretty busy the last couple of weeks with yet another wave of new inventory. This time we were receiving, displaying and learning about our new stock of Bulova and Caravelle by Bulova watches (as well as new clocks, but they'll get their own post next week).

We're excited to have the Bulova brand in our store because we know they are a reliable brand with beautiful watches.

The Caravelle by Bulova watches that we have in stock start at just $89.95 and go to $175. Caravelle has tons of great designs and all are covered by the Bulova 3 year limited warranty.

We've got a couple of the Ladies' Charms watches which will fit charms or beads from almost all the brands out there.

These watches are only $150 and they're so much fun.

We've also got a couple of watches from the Diamond line in Caravelle by Bulova. All of the Bulova Diamond watches include genuine diamonds and all stones are hand set.

This elegant watch is the most expensive of our Caravelle by Bulova watches at $175, which is still an amazing price for a great watch that includes 4 diamonds on its face.

We've also got a wide selection of Bulova watches ranging from $195 up to $850, with the majority of our current stock between $250-$495.

We've got a few of the Bulova Diamond collection for both men and women.

This sleek watch has 1 hand-set diamond at the 12 marker and is priced at $295.

We love the trend of larger watch faces and we've got a great all-black, large-face watch that has an added bonus of being extremely thin and light.

This watch is a great deal at $295.

We've also got a few self-winding mechanical watches. These watches don't require a battery. They wind themselves as long as they're moving, and they will even run up to 40 hours without being worn.

All Bulova self-winding mechanical watches have a window on the front and a completely transparent back to showcase the intricate movement of over 100 moving parts inside.
This watch, with its beautiful bronze face, is $450.

And, finally, we've got a selection of the Bulova Precisionist line. These watches are some of the most accurate watches in the world. They feature a continuously sweeping second hand and are accurate to within 10 seconds per year. Compare that to standard quartz movement watches that are accurate to within 15 seconds per month.

I could try and give you the reasons why the Precisionist watches are so accurate, but I found an article that will explain it better than I can. If you're interested in how this line of watches works, skip to page 4 of this article: http://electronics.howstuffworks.com/gadgets/clocks-watches/bulova-precisionist.htm .

The watch pictured above is the chronograph Precisionist which can time up to 12 hours and has dials for the hours, minutes and seconds. This watch is also water resistent to 300 meters.

Just a little disclaimer about the water resistence; we asked a whole lot of questions when buying the watches that we did because we like to know what we're selling you and we want to be able to give you the right information.
When it comes to the water resistent watches it's important that you pay attention to the word "resistent". Unless it says "water PROOF", it is not. If you choose to wear your water resistent watch under water (and this goes for all brands, not just Bulova) we've been informed that if you press any buttons that may be on the watch you will let water in while doing so.
So, you can wear water resistent watches under water but you cannot expect them to keep water out if you push buttons or, if for some reason you decide to, set the time under water.


We hope that you'll come in and take a look at the new watches we've got in stock. If we don't have something that you love in the store we also have the Bulova and Caravelle by Bulova catalogues and can order any watch you want.