I have had 3 ASHAs for close to three years now. First was a 1 ct pear to replace a 1.37 ct diamond which was poorly cut.(I then sold that one, so no more diamond for me.) The ASHA looked much better. The ASHA was smaller in dimension than my original diamond, so I quickly justified a purchase of a 2.5 ct pear when available. The 1 ct has had very limited wear since and still looks good. The 2.5 ct was and is a beautiful stone, very fiery and impressive. I followed that with a 2 ct Flanders.
I have worked in a jewelry store selling diamonds and gems for over 7 years previously, and know how to clean and take care of my rings. I don't abuse them, but expected to be able to wear my 'engagement' 2.5 ct pear everyday, taking it off for the rough stuff like hiking and camping, etc. But I have been disappointed in the amount of scratching and wear taking place on the edges of the table, and on the table (top) itself. It is enough for the average person to notice. I have had the large pear and the Flanders each replaced once, as I purchased them when the warranties were still in effect. I regretfully learned that I could not wear them everyday. Even with putting them away and only occasional wear, I will have to send in the pear for eye visible wear on the edge of the table again, and since the Flanders has been worn less (not the 'engagement' ring) it is still looking ok. I would be very hesitant even with the lower prices to purchase an ASHA as an engagement ring that would be worn everyday. A diamond will NOT suffer any appreciable wear due to its hardness. Two 1 ct diamonds worn by my mom, which belonged to my great aunt and were purchased in the 50s and 60s, are still perfect after being worn for everything from gardening to hiking in the Grand Canyon. With an amorphous "diamond" coating I expected the same from my ASHAs. Even some plain old CZs, though not as beautiful as the ASHAs, have held up much better and have no scratching after years of wear.
Decide what is most important - the initial beauty (ASHA beats all by a long shot) or longevity of your purchase (ASHA falls short here, unfortunately).

This last comment leads me to believe that something more is at play here. Under the diamond and optical coating of the Asha is a CZ. We know (through science) that the amorphous diamond coating is significantly harder than a CZ. Or in other words, it is impossible that adding the diamond coating will make the Asha softer. Therefore if you find that your Asha stones sustain more damage than "plain old CZ", you clearly are not wearing them the same.

I am also confused with the timeline. BTD suspended the warranty in May of 2005, or in other words, nearly 4.5 years ago. You have had your stones under 3 years, yet you were still able to trade them in under the warranty?

I hate to admit it, but both of my asha erings have excessive scratching and abrading as well and I've owned them less than a year.
The difference is that I am thinking that it was the initial scratching of the asha by non-board jewelers that compromised the stones.
At any rate, I am willing to give it another try for my 3 ct asha because I am waiting for the v6 anyway so once that's available, I'll have AshaDiamonds set the stone and then I can really judge how well the asha holds up.
For my other ring, I'm probably going with an enhanced moissanite. Durability is very important to me and moissanite does have an advantage over asha there.

May I suggest an illusion mount for the .50 carat? Those things really do wonders for smaller diamonds. That way you can wear both!

illusion mount? I'm sorry, I'm so clueless!

It's a type of mount that has a metal "cup" or disc, for lack of a better word. The disc is usually scallop shaped, under the center diamond to make it appear larger, thus the illusion.

Good example pic, 4th post down -
http://betterthandiamond.com/discussion/ubbthreads.php/ubb/showflat/Number/365644/fpart/2

Here's another example -
http://cgi.ebay.com/1950s-Diamond-Engage...4QQcmdZViewItem

or a halo mounting for the .5ct (sorry if halo already got vetoed - I didn't read the whole thread)


Entirely possible. The local jeweler that mounted several of my stones (and did fantastic) either got sloppy or got an attitude after a while, and scratched the CW oval that is in my mom's ring and one of my other stones. It must have been a file or something used to brush across the tops of the prongs b/c there were parallel line scratched across the tops of both stoned. I haven't been back there since. I thought it was their way of saying they didn't want any more sim work or stuff that I didn't buy there.

here's a super closeup of an illusion mounting that i just had a stone removed from:

Hi all,

I am planning to get an Asha modern cushion set in a L Mege halo with a rather large keystone (4-5ct). This thread has me concerned with the Asha's durability. I plan to be careful with my ring, but I would like to hear from others how their LARGE Ashas (3+ ct) have held up over time.

FYI I am thankfully able to afford a large stone and many of my female professional colleagues sport 6ct+ at work as if this were normal in the real world...but I cannot in good conscience spend the 6 figures on the keystone when Asha offers such an amazingly realistic alternative.

Wench34 has some large Ashas and has written about the longevity of them in this thread: http://betterthandiamond.com/discussion/ubbthreads.php/ubb/showflat/Number/535880#Post535880

Other threads on longevity and durability of Ashas:
http://betterthandiamond.com/discussion/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=549059
My baby scratched
Less scratches/Stay cleaner: Asha or other CZ?

Also, if you do get the Leon ring, please please please come back and post photos here for us!