Your Favorite Designers
Montana Inspired
Yogo Sapphires
Found only in Montana, Yogo Sapphires are renowned for their naturally brilliant blue hue. We have a large inventory of Yogo Sapphires. Discover the beauty and majesty of the Montana Yogo Sapphire.
Montana Sapphires
A cousin to the Yogo, Montana Sapphires are available in a stunning palette of brilliant colors – pink, yellow, green, purple, blue and orange.
Make your Montana Sapphire jewelry a one-of-a-kind statement.
Elk Ivory
Unique to Montana’s outdoor heritage, Elk Ivory has earned a place of distinction in the jewelry world. Explore our handcrafted men’s and ladies rings, pendants, watches, bolos and more.
Timepieces
At Montague’s we can help you choose a timepiece that speaks to your style and desires.
We are also experts at procuring pre-owned, authenticated, luxury timepieces for our clients. Pre-owned Luxury Timepieces include Rolex, IWC Schaffhausen, Omega, and Patek Phillippe Geneve.
We offer battery replacement services for most brands.
Education
Choosing a Diamond
Diamond Quality
Developed by the Gemological Institute of America (GIA), the 4Cs of Diamond Quality is now the global standard for assessing the quality of any diamond, anywhere in the world.
The 4Cs refer to Color, Clarity, Cut and Carat Weight. This standardized method of diamond grading accomplished two important things: First, diamond quality is communicated in a universal language. Second, buyers have a precise understanding of the value of their diamond investment.
Lab Grown Diamonds – Ethical, Sustainable, Beautiful
Diamonds are regarded as one of the most beautiful and prized of all gemstones. As early as the 15th century, diamonds emerged as luxurious accessories for the European elite. The first documented diamond engagement ring was from Archduke Maximilian of Austria to his betrothed, Mary of Burgundy. This grand gesture ignited a tradition that continues in modern times.
Early on, diamonds were collected from surface deposits along rivers and streams at various locations around the world. As those sources became depleted, prospectors began extracting diamonds through mining, primarily on the African continent.
In the 1950s, General Electric produced the first lab grown diamonds. Too small and imperfect for gems, these tiny stones were initially used in industrial applications. By 2015, researchers had refined the process for growing gem quality diamonds in the lab, paving the way for a new and sustainable source of diamonds.
Today, the process of growing diamonds in a lab replicates the natural way diamonds are created in the earth. The DNA for both is identical, with lab grown diamonds sharing the exact optical, physical, and chemical properties as mined diamonds. Side-by-side, both produce an unparalleled fire and brilliance that give the diamond life.
Learn More About Lab Grown Diamonds from Your Trusted Jeweler
At Montague’s Jewelers, we ensure that every diamond is guaranteed to be ethically sourced. With access to both lab grown diamonds and natural diamonds, we offer clients an extensive selection and ethically-sourced options.
We would love the opportunity to meet with you in person and share our curated collection of stunning diamonds. Please call (406) 294-9370 to schedule your appointment today.
The 4Cs
COLOR
A chemically pure and structurally perfect diamond has no hue – like a drop of pure water. GIA’s D-to-Z diamond color grading systems measures the degree of colorlessness by comparing a stone under controlled lighting and precise standards.
CLARITY
Diamond clarity involves determining the number, size, relief, nature, and position of inclusions (internal) and blemishes (external), as well as how these affect the overall appearance of the stone. While no diamond is perfectly pure, the closer it comes, the higher its value. The clarity scale has 6 categories with a total of 11 specific grades.
CUT
Diamonds are renowned for their ability to transmit light and sparkle intensely. People often think of a diamond’s cut as its shape (round, emerald, pear), but a cut grade refers to how well a diamond’s facets interact with light.
CARAT
Diamond carat weight is the measurement of how much a diamond weighs. A metric “carat” is defined as 200 milligrams. Each carat can be subdivided into 100 ‘points.’ This allows very precise measurements to the hundredth decimal place. Diamond weights greater than one carat are expressed in carats and decimals. A 1.08 carat stone would be described as ‘one point oh eight carats.’
Choosing Metals
GOLD
An enduring element found naturally in a distinct yellow color. Gold is resistant to rust, tarnish, and corrosion. Although gold is very strong, it’s also the most malleable of all precious metals.
SILVER
Relatively soft, very malleable. Pure silver is commonly combined with other metals to produce a more durable product.
PALLADIUM
Soft silver-white metal that resembles platinum- one of the rarest metals in the world. A naturally white metal, Palladium is hypoallergenic, will not tarnish and remains white forever.
TUNGSTEN
Unique in appeal and strong by design, tungsten carbide is a forged metal with qualities that will last a lifetime. The color of tungsten carbide is very similar to that of silver and white gold.
COBALT
Bright white metal that is highly scratch resistant, doesn’t chip or shatter and is hypo-allergenic. Because of their hardness and durability, they are less likely to crush or bend out-of-round.
PLATINUM
Purest, most durable and most valuable of the metals used for fine jewelry. Platinum is soft, ductile and easily worked, yet strong and durable, making it an excellent metal for gem settings.
Gemstone Education
Alexandrite
It’s the color-change variety of the mineral, chrysoberyl. Bluish green in daylight, purplish red under incandescent light; hard and durable.
Amber
Fossilized resin, color of the burnished sun–orange or golden brown. Amber might trap and preserve ancient life, including insects, leaves, even scorpions and occasionally lizards.
Amethyst
Purple variety of the mineral quartz, often forms large, six-sided crystals. They come from African and South American mines.
Ametrine
Ametrine, one of the rarest types of transparent quartz, combines two colors: amethyst’s purple and citrine’s orange-to-yellow.
Aquamarine
Blue to slightly greenish-blue variety of the mineral beryl. Crystals are sometimes big enough to cut fashioned gems of more than 100 carats.
Citrine
Citrine’s color comes from traces of iron. It’s perhaps the most popular purchased yellow gemstone and an attractive alternative for topaz and yellow sapphire.
Diamond
This hardest gem of all is made of just one element: carbon. It’s valued for its colorless nature and purity. Most diamonds are primeval—over a billion years old—and form deep within the earth.
Fancy Color Diamond
Fine color diamonds are the most rare and costly of all gemstones. Their ranks include the world’s most famous jewel—the Hope—.
Emerald
The most valued variety of beryl, emerald was once cherished by Spanish conquistadors, Inca kings, Moguls, and pharaohs. Today, fine gems come from Africa, South America, and Central Asia.
Garnet
The garnet group of related mineral species offers gems of every hue, including fiery red pyrope, vibrant orange spessartine, and rare intense-green varieties of grossular and andradite.
Iolite
Known in the jewelry trade as iolite, this mineral is known as cordierite to geologists and mineralogists. It was named after French mineralogist Pierre Cordier.
Jade
Prized by civilizations from ancient China to the Aztecs and Mayans of Central America, jade is crafted into objects of stunning artistry. With its beauty and wide-ranging expressiveness, jade has held a special attraction for mankind for thousands of years.
Kunzite
Trace amounts of manganese give this pink to violet variety of spodumene its feminine glow. Kunzite was only confirmed as a unique variety of spodumene in the early part of the twentieth century.
Lapis Lazuli
Lapis lazuli is a gemstone of the kind that might have come straight out of the Arabian Nights: a deep blue with golden inclusions of pyrites which shimmer like little stars.
Moonstone
Feldspar prized for its billowy blue adularescence, caused by light scattering from an intergrowth of microscopic, alternating layers. Favored gem of many Art Nouveau jewelry designers.
Morganite
Like its cousins emerald and aquamarine, morganite is a variety of the beryl mineral species. This gem gets its subtle blush when a trace amount of manganese makes its way into morganite’s crystal structure.
Opal
Opal’s microscopic arrays of stacked silica spheres diffract light into a blaze of flashing colors. An opal’s color range and pattern help determine its value.
Pearl
Produced in the bodies of marine and freshwater mollusks naturally or cultured by people with great care. Lustrous, smooth, subtly-colored pearls are jewelry staples, especially as strands.
Peridot
Yellow-green gem variety of the mineral olivine. Found as nodules in volcanic rock, occasionally as crystals lining veins in mountains of Myanmar and Pakistan, and occasionally inside meteorites.
Rose Quartz
Microscopic mineral inclusions cause the pink color and translucence of rose quartz. Well shaped, transparent pink quartz crystals are rare.
Ruby
Traces of chromium give this red variety of the mineral corundum its rich color. Long valued by humans of many cultures. In ancient Sanskrit, ruby was called ratnaraj, or “king of precious stones.”
Sapphire
Depending on their trace element content, sapphire varieties of the mineral corundum might be blue, yellow, green, orange, pink, purple or even show a six-rayed star if cut as a cabochon.
Spinel
Although frequently confused with ruby, spinel stands on its own merits. Available in a striking array of colors, its long history includes many famous large spinels still in existence.
Sunstone
Sunstone, a member of the feldspar group, can be an orthoclase feldspar or a plagioclase feldspar, depending on chemistry. Both can show aventurescence. “Sunstone” applies to the gem’s appearance.
Tanzanite
Named for Tanzania, the country where it was discovered in 1967, tanzanite is the blue-to-violet or purple variety of the mineral zoisite. It’s become one of the most popular of colored gemstones.
Topaz
Colorless topaz treated to blue is a mass-market gem. Fine pink-to-red, purple, or orange gems are one-of-a-kind pieces. Top sources include Ouro Prêto, Brazil, and Russia’s Ural Mountains.
Tourmaline
Tourmalines are gems with an incomparable variety of colours. The reason, according to an old Egyptian legend, is that the tourmaline, on its long journey up from the centre of the Earth, passed over a rainbow. In doing so, it assumed all the colours of the rainbow.
Turquoise
Ancient peoples from Egypt to Mesoamerica and China treasured this vivid blue gem. It’s a rare phosphate of copper that only forms in the earth’s most dry and barren regions.
Zircon
Optical properties make it bright and lustrous. Best known for its brilliant blue hues; also comes in warm autumnal yellows and reddish browns, as well as red and green hues.
