Short answer: stop wearing the piece now, and put it somewhere safe, with the stone if you have it, in a small sealed bag or envelope. Search before you vacuum or sweep. Don’t glue the stone or push the prongs back yourself. Take the piece and the stone to a jeweler, and ask them to check every other stone as well as the empty setting. If the piece is new, contact the seller before a jeweler touches it, because a repair by someone else can end your return rights. Then check what your warranty, plan or insurance actually says before you pay for the repair.

If you’ve just looked down and seen an empty prong or an empty bezel, what you do in the next hour can decide whether you find the stone and whether you keep your options with the seller or your insurer. A home repair can also make the job bigger. This guide applies to any piece with set stones: a solitaire, a pair of studs, a pendant, a tennis bracelet. If yours is a pavé or eternity band, our pavé band guide covers the checks specific to small stones set in a row.

In the first few minutes

Take the piece off and stop wearing it, even if the other stones look fine. Whatever let one stone go may affect its neighbours.
Put the piece in one small bag or envelope and the stone, if you have it, in another, and seal both.
Note when and where you last saw the piece whole. It narrows the search, and an insurer or seller may ask.
For earrings, check the back and the post as well as the setting.
Take clear photos of the empty setting before anyone works on it.

Finding a dropped stone

Search before you vacuum or sweep. Members of the Ganoksin jewelers’ forum, swapping tips on finding lost diamonds, suggest searching with a torch or head lamp: “When a diamond on the floor catches the beam of light, it ‘winks’ at you.” Another added: “while you are on the floor with your head lamp, look up, in addition to looking down.” A third described a stone that “bounced up about a foot off of the ground” and lodged in a stack of plywood. Check your clothing, cuffs, bags and gloves too.

If the vacuum has already run, don’t empty the bag into the bin. One answer in a 2015 Q&A thread about an earring lost to a vacuum was to lay out a plastic sheet, open the bag and “carefully spread it into as thin of a layer as possible”.

If a stone is loose but still there

GIA notes on its 4Cs blog that “Prongs can shift and loosen over time.” Our care guide gives the check: “Gently push each set stone with a fingertip. If it moves, stop wearing it and see a jeweler.” For bezel settings, our guide to bezel and prong settings explains what a gap looks like.

Don’t tape it, glue it or press the prongs over yourself. One maker on Ganoksin who had cabochons glued into a piece wrote: “I now realize that was a big mistake” (Ganoksin, 2021).

If the piece is new

Contact the seller first. In a 2024 Ganoksin thread, an owner whose ring was “about 2 weeks” old had found the stone but was “not sure how to put it back”. A forum moderator replied: “You should take this ring to a jewelry store with a good repair department to diagnose and resolve the problem,” and suggested that, since the ring was so new, the owner take it back to where it was bought. The owner later wrote that “The jewelry store has agreed to send me a replacement”.

A repair by someone else can affect a return. For orders from us, our return and refund policy says: “Items showing wear, resizing, engraving, repair, or alteration by any third party cannot be accepted.” Its “Faulty or Incorrect Items” section says:

“If your order arrives faulty, damaged, or incorrect, contact us within 30 days of delivery with photographs. We will arrange a replacement or full refund at no cost to you, including all shipping. This is in addition to, and does not limit, your statutory consumer rights.”

That section covers an order that arrives faulty. If you bought the piece from us, whether the stone was missing on arrival or came out later, email Concierge@impervora.com with your order number and photos before a jeweler works on it, and keep all the packaging.

At the jeweler

Bring the piece and the stone, in their separate bags.
Ask them to check every prong, bead or bezel, not just the empty one. In a 2023 Mumsnet thread, one reply suggested asking a jeweller “to check the other diamonds to make sure the little claws are okay and still holding the stones tightly”, and added that on the replier’s own ring “a few of the little claws had been damaged and the stones were becoming loose.”
Ask whether the stone can simply be reset or whether the setting needs rebuilding first. GIA says “Tightening prongs is a routine task for a bench jeweler.” Our pavé guide says: “Often a stone only needs tightening; if the metal holding it has worn away, it may need rebuilding.”
If the stone is lost and the jeweler replaces it, ask what the replacement is (natural diamond, laboratory-grown diamond or a simulant such as cubic zirconia or moissanite, with its size and quality) and get that written on the receipt. Our guide to stone labels explains the words to look for.
Ask for a written estimate before any work starts.

Who pays

It depends on when it happened and what paperwork you have. If a piece from us arrives faulty, the policy section above applies. After normal wear, look at any warranty, plan or insurance before you pay for a repair. Jewelers Mutual, a jewelry insurer, says in its guide to jewelry inspections that a manufacturer’s warranty “typically does not cover damage resulting from normal wear and tear”. GIA adds: “Many insurance companies also require that the ring receive regular check-ups.” So read your own terms, and check whether your insurer wants to hear from you before the repair. Our guides to warranties, plans and insurance and to appraisals and paperwork explain what to look for. If you think the stone or the piece was stolen, our travel guide gives Jewelers Mutual’s steps.

IMPERVORA doesn’t list a repair or stone-replacement service, so for a piece from us that has lost a stone after wear, ask our Concierge what your order’s paperwork shows.

If it keeps happening

The Mumsnet poster above had already paid for one repair after two small diamonds fell out of the ring; when another went missing, she wrote that if it kept losing stones, “I won’t feel confident repairing it”. If you’re in the same place, ask the jeweler to check every setting on the piece, and ask whether a more protective style suits the way you wear it; our bezel and prong guide compares the options. GIA lists “Exercise, gardening, catching on clothing and accidental bangs” among the things that “all may take their toll”, and our guide to when to take jewelry off covers the habits that help.

Next step

Take the piece and the stone to a jeweler and ask for a written estimate. If the piece came from us, email Concierge@impervora.com with your order number and photos first, and we’ll tell you what our policy and your order’s paperwork allow.