Diamonds may be a girl's best friend, but colored stones are good pals, too. Not only are these baubles big, bright and budget-friendly, but they seem less likely to catch a thief's eye.

One such example is semi-precious stones. While they’ve been used in jewellery since around 300BC, they’ve gained particular prominence in both fine and high jewellery today.

Semi-precious stones include tourmaline, spinel, garnet, amethyst, peridot, alexandrite, topaz and tanzanite – and European royals love them In Asia, pieces by contemporary designers like ...