From my understanding, to simply put it, what Brian Gavin did is something what Marcel Tolkowsky did way back more than a century ago. During Tolkowsky's time, he used his mathematics and physics knowledge to calculate the best proportions for a modern round brilliant. A set of diamonds that are deemed beautiful are then taken into account and used to calculate the average value of the diamond set. Surprisingly, the values obtained are very close to what Tolkowsky calculated. This shows that while the diamond cutters are cutting those beautiful diamonds over and over again, they do not do it based on range of values, but rather, they determine the diamond's beauty based on their well-trained eyes. So, we can see that both Brian Gavin and Marcel Tolkowsky used a similar approach, they used their prowess in their own field to find the values to maximize on light performance and to find the ideal proportions for a modern round brilliant, respectively. Hence, naturally, the research ownership belongs to each of them, respectively as well.
With the research, comes a set of proportions range that are deemed to fit the criteria of Black by Brian Gavin, and since it is patented, naturally, other vendors cannot copy the same set of proportions for their diamonds in a consistent way. However, since this is still a 57-facet modern round brilliant, holding the other vendors violating the patent is probably almost impossible, as far as I am concerned. Nonetheless, based on the history and legacy of Brian Gavin, and his persistent and passion in contributing to the diamond industry, I have no doubts to recommend his Black by Brian Gavin, repetitively. On top of that, their price is actually pretty good, for those diamonds that are below 1 carat, based on my last observation.
Besides, according to Brian Gavin himself, his diamond design is actually the original one and a lot of "others" are just copying the same design. Well, regarding this, if we look back at history, Brian Gavin was actually doing quite a bit of OEM work for various retail, under the brand name "A Cut Above". After that, he also co-founded WhiteFlash during the Internet booming period and made his "A Cut Above" readily available for end consumers via online. Then, a few years later, they went separate ways for reasons unknown and Brian Gavin wants to quit for good. However, he reemerged a while later with a new brand using his own name - Brian Gavin Diamonds, due to popular demand. Well, whether it was due to "popular demand" or not, you can be skeptical about it, but one thing I believe is that loyal customers will always follow the "go-to guy" regardless of where he/she is. And, in Brian Gavin's case, it is really not hard to show this based on how fast it grows. Also, in case you don't know yet, they are the one of the small amount of companies who inscribe their brand name and logo on the diamond's girdle, a feat only a handful of diamond sellers willing to perform. Other diamonds do not do this most likely because they can sell off the diamonds under other "branding" or no branding at all. As far as I know, once a diamond grading report is issued, it cannot be reissued with a brand new look by removing any branding, so perhaps you can also say that brands that print their brand logo on the grading report is also considered doing the same great feat. But of course, printing the logo and brand name on the girdle, to me, is the greatest feat of all. Retails will be selling such stones at a much higher cost because those are considered "in-house" stock, but for Brian Gavin Diamonds, the price is definitely friendly, especially for its performance!
One thing I am comfortable to know is that to get into Black by Brian Gavin, contrast brilliance is one of the selection criteria. To me, it means that even if the diamond hits the spot in terms of proportions, but the contrast brilliance is lacking, probably due to the stone quality or inclusion (my guess), then it will fail to become a Black.
Last but not least, if you are interested to find out more about the patent, read it up here:
Oh, and by the way, read this interesting line in the patent document. Proportions!:
Other references:
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July 12, 2020
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