Lab-grown melee is increasingly sold pre-set rather than loose

A growing share of lab-grown melee reaches buyers already set into pavé and halo mountings rather than sold loose, which changes how easily a price can be compared against a loose-stone quote.

• Pre-set melee bundles stone and labour cost into a single line, which can make direct comparison against a loose-melee-plus-setting-fee quote harder than it looks at first.
• Setters working at volume have driven efficiency gains that make pre-set melee competitively priced, sometimes cheaper than sourcing loose stones and setting them separately.
• Buyers who want full visibility into what they're paying for stone versus labour should ask for the two costs broken out even on a pre-set piece.

We break out stone and setting cost separately on every quote, pre-set or otherwise. Ask for an itemised quote before comparing prices between suppliers.