Huge diamond awaits world's best couple
08 Oct 2010
New Zealand jeweller Michael Hill has teamed up with glamorous US celebrity Kim Kardashian on a quest to find the world’s best couple - offering a massive 22-carat diamond engagement ring as the prize.
The international competition to find the world’s best couple is open to residents of the US, Canada, Australia and New Zealand, and contestants must be over 18 and newly-dating, engaged or married.
The competition launches on Sunday (17.10.10) in New York when reality star Kim Kardashian will model the ring at the Rockefeller Centre. Michael Hill will then tour the ring through nine US cities from 19 October - 4 November.
"I have made a living from the love and romance industry and I really thought it was time to give something back … in the form of a 22-carat diamond engagement ring," said Hill.
Girl’s best friend
Hill said that the 22-carat diamond chosen for the "ultimate engagement ring" is one of only three princess-cut diamonds of a similar size in the world.
"The cut, clarity, colour and carat of this diamond is absolutely brilliant. The rarity of the stone is what initially attracted me to the diamond and I just had to have it," he said.
The 22-carat ring is set in 0.6 carats of accent diamonds and platinum.
World’s best couple
The world’s best couple competition is free to enter for residents living in the participating countries. Contestants will have to complete a series of online challenges, with six successful couples making it to the next round.
A panel of judges will then pick the winner, who will be flown to Chicago to receive their prize.
The contest can be entered from Sunday through Michael Hill’s Facebook and Twitter pages, or on a dedicated website at my22ct.com.
Michael Hill - NZ success story
Michael Hill is one of New Zealand’s most successful businessmen - operating a chain of jewellery stores by the same name in North America, Australia and New Zealand.
Hill and his wife, Christine, started with a small jewellery store in Whangarei, in northern New Zealand, and received several international awards for their quirky advertising campaigns and window dressing.
Michael Hill had expanded to 10 stores by 1987 before branching into the Australian market - opening four stores in four weeks. The company entered the Canadian market in 2002, and expanded into the US in 2008.
Today, there are more than 200 Michael Hill stores around the world.
Hill is a great patron of the arts, sponsoring the Michael Hill International Violin Competition, and also a passionate amateur golfer.
He owns a private 18-hole championship golf course set on a 500-acre property near Queenstown. The Hills golf course has hosted three New Zealand Open Golf series.
Fun diamond facts
- The largest known diamond is half the size of the moon and twinkles in the Sagittarius constellation, 50 light years away from earth. It weighs 10 billion trillion trillion carats.
- The marquise cut is named after Madame de Pompadou, who offered her lips as a model.
- The world’s biggest diamond is the 3106-carat Cullinan diamond. It was found in a mine near Pretoria, South Africa - and was cut up into nine principle stones and 96 smaller diamonds. The largest principle stone, a 530-carat, pear-shaped diamond, adorns the Royal Sceptre in the Tower of London.
- The first woman to wear a diamond was Agnes Sorrel, the favourite mistress of King Charles VII. Before that, the right to wear diamonds was solely the preserve of men.
- Diamonds are the hardest material on earth and can only be cut by another diamond.
More information
Romantic New Zealand
Michael Hill - NZ entrepreneur
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