The earliest diamond cuts, point cuts, were simple refinements of the diamond's natural octahedral shape. As tools evolved, the table cut was developed; one of the points was ground into a flat surface, and facets were added. The rose cut has facets that meet in a point at the center, like the petals of a rosebud; it was popular from the sixteenth century to the early 1900s.

The full-cut brilliant made its debut in the late 1600s. It had the same number of facets (58) as today's modern brilliant; the difference is in the proportions. The Old Mine Cut, an early version of this style, often has a cushion shape. The Old European Cut is a more refined version, and the direct ancestor of the modern brilliant. The most distinguishing feature of an Old European Cut diamond is its open culet; instead of coming to a point at the bottom, the diamond has a small flat facet. It usually has a smaller table and higher crown than modern-cut stones, and is usually seen in rings from the 1870s through the 1930s. The early 1900s also saw the popularity of the Asscher cut, a square diamond with cropped corners, often referred to as a "square emerald cut."