Metals
Choosing your metal: silver vs 9ct vs 18ct vs platinum
The stone gets the headlines, but the metal decides how your ring looks, wears, weighs, and costs. Here is the honest comparison, with live prices from our collection.
The thirty-second version
- Silver if budget leads and you do not mind the occasional polish.
- 9ct gold if you want solid, hard-wearing gold at the friendliest gold price.
- 18ct gold if you want the rich classic colour and the heirloom feel.
- Platinum if this ring must outlast everything, including trends.
What each metal costs, live
The typical price of a 1 carat engagement ring from our current collection, by metal. These figures are computed from the live catalogue, and every product page shows the exact per-metal price for that specific piece, side by side, before you choose.
| Metal | Typical 1ct ring price |
|---|---|
| Sterling silver | R14 999 |
| 9ct gold | R21 999 |
| 18ct gold | R24 999 |
| Platinum | R26 999 |
Typical here means the median across 1ct engagement rings in the live collection right now. Gold tiers cover yellow, rose, and white; colours within a tier usually share a price on a given piece.
The four metals, properly
Sterling silver
- Colour:
- Bright, cool white with a soft grey undertone.
- Durability:
- The softest of the four, and the only one that tarnishes. It dulls with exposure to air and skin but polishes back to bright with a cloth. Lovely for occasional wear; for a daily engagement ring it will show its life honestly.
- Weight:
- The lightest on the hand.
- Price logic:
- The most accessible entry point, which makes it a brilliant way to wear a serious stone sooner.
9ct gold
- Colour:
- A softer, subtler gold. In yellow it is gentle rather than brassy; rose and white versions read modern and quiet.
- Durability:
- 9ct is 37.5% pure gold alloyed with harder metals, so day to day it resists scratches well. It is the practical gold: built for keys, gym bags, and real life.
- Weight:
- Noticeably lighter than 18ct, comfortable for all-day wear.
- Price logic:
- The middle path: solid gold that will not tarnish, at a price meaningfully below 18ct.
18ct gold
- Colour:
- The rich, warm gold of heirloom jewellery. 75% pure gold gives yellow real depth, rose a proper blush, and white a soft warmth under its bright finish.
- Durability:
- Slightly softer than 9ct because it carries more pure gold, so it can pick up fine surface marks sooner, but it polishes beautifully and lasts generations. This is the traditional engagement ring gold.
- Weight:
- Pleasingly heavier than 9ct; you feel that it is the good stuff.
- Price logic:
- The premium gold tier. You are paying for double the gold content of 9ct.
Platinum
- Colour:
- Naturally white through and through. It never needs replating to stay white, and it develops a soft, satiny patina over years that many people love.
- Durability:
- The most durable choice for a forever ring. Platinum is dense and does not wear away the way gold slowly does; when scratched, the metal displaces rather than disappears.
- Weight:
- The heaviest of the four. Substantial is the word.
- Price logic:
- The top tier, and the closest thing jewellery has to a buy-once decision.
Three deciding questions
1. What does she already wear? Look at the jewellery in daily rotation. Warm yellows, soft rose, or cool whites? Matching the existing collection beats every other rule, because a ring that stacks with what she loves gets worn, and worn is the whole point.
2. How hard is daily life on her hands? Gardens, gyms, clay, kitchens: the more contact, the more 9ct gold or platinum earn their keep. Office hands and careful wearers can choose purely on colour and budget.
3. Is this the forever piece or the first piece? All our metals are solid and hypoallergenic, nothing plated over brass, no nickel. So the question is honest budget allocation: on a forever engagement ring, platinum or 18ct repay the spend over decades. For a first diamond or a stacking piece, silver and 9ct let the stone lead. And because every piece is made to order, the same design is yours in any of the four. The maths of where the budget goes furthest is in lab-grown vs mined prices.
Talk it through with a human
Book a free consultation, virtual or at our Cape Town showroom, and we will walk you through stones, metals, and budgets at your pace.
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