FACETWIREPrice Intelligence
MarquiseFACET WIRE TREND REPORT
Elongated Diamonds Are the Shape of 2026
Published 2026-10-21 · From live tracked listings
The round brilliant held the top spot for a generation. In 2026 it has company — and the company is long. Industry coverage this fall puts oval at roughly 25% of engagement-ring diamonds against round's 26% (The Knot's 2026 study), the marquise is the year's comeback cut, and searches for the vintage "Dutch marquise" are up 174% year over year. Our own tracked market tells the same story in inventory: of the 2,803 diamond listings Facet Wire tracks tonight across 10 retailers, 1,320 — 47% — are elongated shapes: pear (508 listings), marquise (455) and oval (357).
Why elongated wins
Three practical reasons, before any fashion argument. First, spread: an elongated stone covers more finger than a round of the same weight, so it reads larger on the hand. Second, the line of the stone lengthens the finger it sits on. Third, the season's settings favor it — bezels that wrap the stone instead of prongs, chunkier gold bands, and east-west settings that turn an oval or marquise sideways. A shape that looks bigger, flatters the hand and fits the current settings does not need a celebrity to sell it. It is getting those anyway.
What the trend costs: tracked medians
Median tracked prices for lab-grown diamonds, from tonight's listings. Bands are 1.00–1.09 ct and 1.90–2.10 ct; the round is included as the benchmark.
| Shape | 1 ct median | Listings | 2 ct median | Listings |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Marquise | $709 | 25 | $1,345 | 52 |
| Oval | $656 | 29 | $1,691 | 42 |
| Pear | $519 | 39 | $1,381 | 44 |
| Round (benchmark) | $717 | 81 | $1,237 | 72 |
Two honest reads from that table. At 1 carat, the pear is the value pick of the trend — a $519 median, nearly $200 under round — and the marquise tracks close to round money. At 2 carats the order shuffles: oval's median rises above the others because the oval stock skews to higher grades, which is exactly why a median is a starting point and not a quote. The same shape at the same weight still spreads widely by color, clarity and retailer — track the whole market in the Price Index, and compare complete rings, stone included, on our Rings pages.
Real stones at the low end of tonight's elongated market:
MarquiseMarquise
Oval
PearThe color twist: fancy yellow, post-Fantasy Bra
The other 2026 shift is color — warmer stones, champagne and yellow among them — and it got a very loud amplifier on October 18, when Kylie Jenner wore a 75.54-carat Fancy Vivid Yellow radiant as the center of the $50 million Jacob & Co. Fantasy Bra. Here is the part the headlines skip: in the real, buyable market, fancy color is still scarce. Only 12 of our 2,803 tracked listings carry a fancy color at all (pink, yellow, green or blue), and exactly two are yellow — both lab-grown, both at With Clarity. Scarcity is why the yellow look still reads as a statement rather than a default.
OvalMarquiseShop the trend without overpaying
Two shape-specific checks before you buy. Elongated stones can show a "bow-tie" — a dark band across the middle where light leaks instead of reflecting — and it varies stone by stone, so judge the individual diamond's photos and video, not the shape in general. And pointed ends (marquise tips, the pear's point) are the fragile part of the stone: a setting that protects the points, such as V-prongs or a bezel, is not an upsell, it is insurance. Beyond that, the rule is the same as for any shape: the identical certified stone is often listed by more than one retailer at different prices. Read How We Match, run the stone through Check a Price, and see what your budget buys across every shape in our engagement-season budget guide. The trend has receipts this week: Ryan Destiny's 3.5-carat oval and Kamie Crawford's 4-carat oval halo were both announced on October 21.
Frequently asked questions
Which elongated shape looks biggest for its weight?
The marquise, generally — its long, pointed outline covers the most finger per carat, with oval and pear close behind. All three read larger than a round of the same carat weight.
Why is the marquise back?
It sat out the last decade as a "vintage" shape, which is now the point: antique-leaning cuts are in demand, high-profile engagements have worn it, and its size-per-carat advantage fits a market that is buying bigger stones at lower lab-grown prices.
Are elongated diamonds cheaper than rounds?
At 1 carat in tonight's tracked listings, yes for pear ($519 median) and oval ($656) against round's $717; marquise is about level at $709. At 2 carats the medians reshuffle with the grade mix in stock — compare the exact stone, not the shape average.
Data: live retailer listings tracked by Facet Wire (7,802 listings across 11 retailers at publication), refreshed on every scrape. Prices are the retailers' listed prices at capture time. Survey figures are The Knot's 2026 study as reported in fall 2026 industry coverage.