Engagement rings
Roughly two thirds of what leaves this bench is an engagement ring. Here is how the decisions actually get made, in the order they matter.
Budget, then stone, then design
Every ring is a negotiation between three numbers: what you want to spend, what the stone costs, and what the metal work costs. Deciding the design first inverts that and produces a drawing nobody can afford to make. We talk about the budget in the first ten minutes, and we do not treat it as impolite.
Five settings, and what each is actually for
| Setting | What it is good at |
|---|---|
| Solitaire | A single stone held in four or six claws. The most repairable setting there is and the reason it has outlasted every trend. |
| Halo | A centre stone ringed with pavé. Adds visual size to a smaller centre; needs the halo cut as one piece to look right. |
| Three stone | Centre with two shoulder stones, usually graded. Sits low and takes daily wear better than most people expect. |
| Bezel | A rim of metal around the stone. The safest setting for an active hand and the hardest to make well in gold. |
| Cluster | Several stones arranged as one form. The right answer when a client owns inherited stones of mixed sizes. |
Certificates, and what they do not tell you
Every diamond above 0.5 ct we sell carries a GIA or HRD certificate, and we will not sell one without it. What a certificate cannot tell you is how the stone behaves in a room with normal light, which is why we ask you to look at two or three side by side rather than choosing on paper.
Sizing, and the ring that gets worn every day
Fingers change size by up to half a size across a day and more across a year. We size at the end of an appointment rather than the start, we ask about winter versus summer, and for a wide band we size up slightly because a wide band always feels tighter than a narrow one of the same size.
Timings
| Route | Time | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Collection piece, your size | 4–5 weeks | Stone from stock or sourced to order |
| Collection piece, different stone | 5–7 weeks | Depends entirely on sourcing |
| Full commission | 8–10 weeks | Two drawing rounds included |
| Reset of inherited stones | 6–8 weeks | Assessment of the stones comes first |
We do not promise a ring in under three weeks. Where a date is genuinely fixed and close, we will say so and suggest a collection piece rather than take a commission we cannot finish properly.
