Personalise Your Ring

What better than a diamond — the ultimate symbol of eternity — to mark a love? In most cultures the engagement ring is worn on the fourth finger of the left hand: the finger, it was long believed, that carries a vein running straight to the heart. The Romans called it the vena amoris, the vein of love.

A ring is built from three decisions, taken in order — the style that frames the stone, the setting that holds it, and the metal that carries them both.

Styles

The style is the architecture of the ring — how many stones, and how they are arranged.

• Solitaire — a single diamond, alone and unrivalled. The purest expression of the stone.
• Diamond Band — a band set with diamonds along its length, light running the full circle.
• Three Stones — a central diamond flanked by two, read by many as past, present and future.
• Side Stones — a principal stone with smaller diamonds at its shoulders, lending it scale.
• Micro-Pavé — a surface paved with tiny diamonds, so close-set the metal nearly disappears.

Settings

The setting is how the stone is secured — and how much light reaches it.

• Claw set — held by four or six fine claws that lift the stone into the light. Four claws give a squarer, more open look; six hold more securely and read a touch rounder.
• Closed — a band of metal encircling the girdle, protective and quietly modern.
• Initials — initials worked into the shoulders, plain or set with small diamonds.
• Pressure held — the stone held by the tension of the metal alone, seeming almost to float.
• Twist — two strands crossing beneath the stone, a sense of movement carried through the band.

Materials

The metal is the last decision, and it changes everything above it — the colour the stone reads, and how the ring wears over a lifetime.

Metal	Colours	Karats
Gold	White · Yellow · Pink · Black	14kt · 18kt · 22kt
Platinum	Naturally white	—

White gold and platinum keep a stone looking its whitest; yellow and pink gold lend it warmth. Karat marks the proportion of pure gold: higher karats are richer in colour and softer, lower karats harder-wearing. Platinum, dense and naturally white, holds a stone with quiet authority.