Baguette-cut describes a small step-cut diamond, usually rectangular, with straight or tapered edges. Its crown facets sit in terraces that run parallel to the edges of the table, giving clean, straight lines. On watches, matched baguettes ring the bezel to form an unbroken band of light.
How is a baguette cut?
A baguette is a step cut. The table is the flat facet on top, and the terraces of the crown run parallel to its edges. The result is a long rectangular outline with straight, linear facets. Some baguettes keep straight sides. Others narrow towards one end, and these are called tapered baguettes. The stones are cut from the long, thin pieces of rough diamond left over after an octahedral crystal has been cleaved twice.
Where it comes from
The baguette is thought to have developed from the hogback, an elongated table cut known since at least the mid-1500s. Cartier brought the cut back in 1912. Art Deco jewellery designers of the following decades liked its clean, geometric lines. The French word baguette is usually translated as rod or stick. Randle Cotgrave’s French–English dictionary of 1673 also gives one meaning as a little jewel.
Not to be confused with
The emerald shape can look similar at a glance. Both have a rectangular outline, so the two are easy to mix up. The difference is at the corners. An emerald-shaped stone has its corners cut off. A modern baguette keeps its corners square. It is a rectangular step cut with a long outline and straight, linear facets, and nothing is trimmed away at the four corners.
How are baguettes used on watches?
On a watch, baguettes are set around the bezel. The stones are carefully matched and placed side by side so that the light runs round the dial in one continuous ring. The cut is not limited to diamonds. The bezel of Tiffany’s Eternity Baguette Blue Gradient watch holds 36 baguette-cut coloured gemstones. They are invisibly set.
Checked