If you’re like most men, you probably don’t have a lot of experience with getting jewellery hand made.
The good news is its not hard and there are plenty of quality jewellers out there to choose from. Just go the Yellow Pages and look under Manufacturing Jewellers and you’ll find plenty to work with. (Or you can check out our list of preferred jewellers to see if there’s one near you.)
The other bit of good news is that for rings that retail for more than, say, $1,500 to $2,000, it’ll almost certainly cost less to have a comparable one hand made than to buy the same thing off the shelf (unless the ring has been heavily discounted).
And, there’s more …
Rings hand-crafted by quality bespoke jewellers generally value-up higher than similar off-the-shelf items.
Plus, hand made rings are truly unique. You might see similar ones if you go for a popular design, but hand making means no two rings are ever the same.
There are four things that impact on the cost of having a ring made up:
Generally, a simple solitaire ring will be cheaper than a complicated, multi-stone ring — regardless of the size of the diamond or gemstone.
As a very rough guide, allow around $500 for a simple ring, and up to $2,000 for a complicated one. (More if you’ve chosen platinum because it’s harder for the jeweller to work with.)
In this respect, it pays to shop around.
Jeweller’s hourly rates vary a lot — usually somewhere between $40/hr and $80/hr — and this can be a function of their operating costs rather than necessarily their skill.
You may well be better off all round finding yourself a good suburban jeweller or a ‘trade’ jeweller who works from home, rather than going to one of the big retailers in the city. (Most ’big’ jewellery retailers outsource their hand-makes to trade jewellers and take their cut of the final price — so going direct to the jeweller is well worth it.)
Importantly, the cost of having a ring made really doesn’t change that much regardless of the value of the finished ring. (One thing however, that might make a noticeable difference is if your partner wants a ring with a lot of stones. Setting costs can vary from $10 each for tiny stones to $80 for large singles — so making a ring with 40 or 50 tiny diamonds might cost $400 to $500 more than setting one big stone.)
Generally if you allow up to $1,500 for a gold ring and $2,000 for platinum, you’ll be fairly safe. (Bear in mind it could be as little as $500 for a simple gold band with a small solitaire diamond.)
When it comes to the ‘raw materials’, really it comes down to whatever’s left in your budget after allowing for the make.
To our way of thinking, you’ll need to allow at least $1,500 for the precious metal and some diamonds or gemstones.
After that your partner might want to add a “big” diamond or coloured gemstone.
Diamonds are typically the most expensive ring component (apart from some very rare and unique coloured gems).
Prices vary considerably according to quality, size and shape. We will illustrate this with the following example of the price variations for a G Si1 diamond. Please note, this is not a price list, but an example only, prices are subject to change.
| G Si 1 Size | Price range (per carat) |
Price per stone |
| 25 to 30 points | $2,300 - $3,000 | $690 - $900 for 30 points |
| 40 to 49 points | $3,200 - $4,200 | $1,600 - $2,100 for 49 points |
| 50 to 60 points | $4500 - $5,500 | $2,700 - $3,300 for 60 points |
| 65 points to one carat |
$7,000 - $9,000 | $5,250 - $6,750 for 75 points $7,000 - $9,000 for one carat |
| 1.5 carats | $9,000 - $13,000 | $13,500 - $19,500 |
| 2 carats | $14,000 - $18,000 | $28,000 - $ 54,000 |
| 3 carats | $20,000 - $30,000 | $60,000 - $ 90,000 |
A bit of comparison-shopping.
Let's consider a popular ring style, the half carat six claw solitaire in 18 carat yellow gold.
Purchased from a high-end retailer (not a mass market, made offshore chain store) it would set you back anywhere from $8,000 to $12,500.
You could purchase the top of the range G Si1 half-carat diamond for $2,100, a bar of 18 carat yellow gold for $540 and at the very most (highly unlikely) pay a jeweller $1,000 to make it.
That would give you the same ring for $3,640, spend less than an extra thousand and have it in platinum! You could even go for a higher grade stone, say E VS for around $6,000 and still have a less expensive ring than our off the shelf example.
How long it takes to make a ring depends mainly on two things — how complicated the ring is and how busy your jeweller is.
Complicated rings — with many set stones and perhaps different coloured metals – take longer for a jeweller to make than a simple ring — but more importantly, many jewellers outsource certain parts of the process.
Jewellers will typically send rings away to specialised gem setters and engravers, so not only does the make-time depend on how busy your jeweller is, but also how busy these third parties are. Valuations and rhodium plating also add a time cost.
There are also seasonal influences. Most jewellers tend to be busier in Spring and Summer — during the wedding season and leading up to Christmas. (Often jeweller’s workload is heavier at this time because manufacturing jewellers also get trade work from retail jewellery shops that outsource makes, repairs and resizing.)
For a simple ring in a quiet time — allow around two weeks. For a complicated ring in a busy time — allow up to six weeks. (If your ring is an expensive one or you’re a repeat customer, you might get priority, so these times could be shorter.)
Click here to view a current list of our preferred jewellers.