By now, you’ve probably seen a grainy, zoomed-in paparazzi photo or two of the massive diamond engagement ring Justin Bieber gave Hailey Baldwin in the Bahamas last weekend. Since then, the story of how exactly that gorgeous piece of jewelry made its way to Hailey’s left hand has largely been a mystery. But on Thursday, the jeweler behind the bling, Jack Solow of New York City-based Solow & Co., Inc. Diamond Jewelers, shed some light on the time he spent with Justin custom-designing the ring.
“Justin had a big hand in it. He had certain design elements that he wanted and he had certain expectations, and I think we delivered,” Jack told E! News. Among those elements was a show-stopping rock. “It was about the diamond. I think he knew very well what Hailey wanted in a ring, but he wanted it very much to be about a very special diamond. He left it in my hands to try and select the most beautiful diamond for someone like Hailey,” Jack said, adding that Justin was also specific about the type of band he wanted that diamond set on, asking Jack that it be made of 18 karat gold. “My guess is that it was important to Hailey,” Jack said of the band’s material.
Jack told E! that the entire process of creating the “beautiful” ring, including setting up design meetings and exchanging photos with Justin, took only a few weeks. He hand-delivered the piece to Justin the Friday morning before Justin and Hailey jetted off to the Bahamas, and sat down with the pop star to let him examine the ring through a magnifying glass. “Like any other young man, he said, ‘Wow, it’s gorgeous,'” Jack said. “There was one moment when he looked into the diamond and I said, ‘What do you see inside that diamond?’ He goes, ‘I think I see Hailey’s face,’ so that was kind of cute.” Take note: Find you someone who sees your face in literal diamonds — then buys you those diamonds.
Throughout the time he spent discussing the engagement with Justin, Jack said he sensed a “certain serenity and peacefulness” around JBiebs. “I had a sense that he was very, very ready for this decision,” he said, adding, “I was very genuinely excited for him, and I had heard that he was with somebody very, very special and that they had bonded over personal things, and I was just very, very happy, like I would be for any young man who’s on that next stop of his life. But for Justin, of course, it’s that much more special and that much more visible for everybody.”
And, for the record, the jeweler reported that Hailey “really loves” the ring he and Justin created for her. “I was very, very gratified,” said Jack, who also donated $5,000 to Hailey’s family’s Carol M. Baldwin Breast Cancer Research Fund, as an engagement gift of sorts.
Related: Hailey Baldwin Reportedly Gave Justin Bieber His Own Engagement Ring