Many people shopping for diamonds have at one time or another come across the term "hearts and arrows". However, what most don't understand is that this is an industry generic term used to describe the optical symmetry of a diamond and has nothing to do with a particular diamond brand or even diamond shape.

For example, when a round brilliant diamond's facets are in perfect alignment to one another the resulting effect is a "hearts" pattern as seen through the pavilion of the diamond and an "arrows" pattern as seen through the crown of the diamond. This pattern has varying degrees of perfect symmetry but suffice it to say that only the most precisely cut diamonds exhibit this optical symmetry as an overall effect of cut precision.