I’ve been shopping around the Internet to find the perfect pearl necklace, and I’ve noticed almost everywhere I look that Akoya necklaces are only graduated within a half-milimeter… Can you explain why this is? 

That is a great question!  All of our Akoya strands are going to be graduated within .05mm, the smaller pearls will be in back with the largest pearls in front.  The graduated sizing has been the industry standard for many, many years and it has become very difficult to create a non-graduated, perfectly matched strand of Akoya pearls these days without it being prohibitively expensive. 

One of the reasons for all of this uniformity regarding size is the sheer volume of pearls being farmed today.  Currently, thousands of kilos of cultured Akoya pearls come to market every year from China and Japan in certain sizes (Chinese Akoya will typically be under 7.5mm and the Japanese pearls will dominate the larger-sized categories).  The non-graduated style has always been considered an ideal in pearl jewelry due to the gem’s rare nature (try and imagine purchasing a natural non-cultured pearl necklace of all the same size, color and quality; the price would be astronomical!).  Today because pearls are cultured, certain sizes and qualities are produced on-demand and this is simply the easiest way to grade, match and string pearls for the international markets with the historical ideal in mind.