With gold prices hitting new highs, and poised to climb further in 2026, independent fine jewelers have been getting even more creative in the way they design and how they do business.
Like most market watchers, they’re stunned by prices, which have risen more than 40 percent this year and are on track to rise a further 6 percent through the middle of 2026, according to Goldman Sachs.
In response, they’re coming up with all sorts of solutions. They’re pressing platinum and silver into action, reducing the weight of their solid gold pieces and changing production methods in order to control the amount of gold they use.
In most cases, they’re also taking stock of their values and finding ways to stay true to their aesthetics and to the desires of their clients.
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Heavy Metal Makes a Comeback
In his many decades as a jeweler, Stephen Webster said he’s never seen gold prices spike like they have over the past year. As a result, he’s trying to “shift” clients from white gold to platinum, while all of his new bridal designs are in the latter metal, which is around one-third the price of gold.
“There’s a generation that needs to be reintroduced to platinum and all of the qualities it holds. It’s pure white, it doesn’t need any plating, or anything that white gold tends to need. It’s heavier, so you have to work with it slightly differently. It’s a brilliant metal and it’s great for bridal, where the heroes are the gems, and for making great big bracelets because of its weight,” said Webster.
The designer, known for his edgy, rock ’n’ roll designs which are on display in his new Burlington Arcade flagship (which has its own cocktail bar), said he’s also been re-educating his sales staff.
“They’ve not really dealt much with platinum, because we’ve been making things in gold for such a long time. But now I’m very enthused by reintroducing the metal,” he said.
Another British jeweler, Annoushka Ducas, has recently begun working with silver again. Ducas, who cofounded the silver brand Links of London and launched her eponymous jewelry brand in 2009, has done her Knuckle chain collection in sterling silver.
She is working with the same Tuscan workshops she used when she was running Links of London, and the master craftspeople are still making the chains by hand, not machine.
Ducas said that when she sold Links in 2006, “I honestly thought I’d never design in silver again. But this collection, and the hands that make it, bring everything full circle from the 1990s to now.”
She added: “Silver feels absolutely right for this moment. It’s understated, unpretentious, and allows us to bring this bold, sculptural design to a wider audience — without compromise.”
In an interview, Ducas stressed that her choice to create a silver Knuckle collection was not a reaction to surging gold prices. Instead, it was a way to reach new audiences who perhaps could not afford to buy statement gold — even when the prices were lower.
“Gold is not affordable for everybody, and it’s becoming less affordable for everybody,” said Ducas, adding that she was thinking about her own children, who are now in their late 20s and early 30s, and their friends.
She said the kids love Knuckle, “but they can’t necessarily afford a chain at four or five thousand pounds. So I decided to do this collection in silver about a year ago and it’s a happy coincidence that it’s come out at a time when gold is so high. But it wasn’t a reaction to that. I wanted the collection to be a bit more affordable, and have much wider appeal.”
Ducas added that working in silver has also allowed her to make “much bolder, heavier pieces, and bigger chains. I couldn’t afford to do those in gold.”
Although Ducas is hoping gold prices will come down soon, she’s taking action now to mitigate the impact of prices. “I’m definitely trying to design some of the gold out of my spring collection,” she said.
Pen Mané cofounders Vincent Guy-Raffin and Calvin Wang, who use 14-karat gold for their fine jewelry, are also concerned about spiraling gold prices. In an unconventional move, they are working silver into their high jewelry offering for aesthetic, and business, reasons.
Wang said using silver “allows us, from a cost perspective, to present pieces that are truly in the spirit of high jewelry in terms of design, craftsmanship and finishings…to an audience of jewelry lovers who can’t, or don’t necessarily want, to buy and wear something for a quarter of a million U.S. dollars.”
Silver has also enabled the duo to play with oxidation as a finish in the designs, and to make sculptural and voluminous pieces that are more comfortable to wear, as silver has a lighter weight than gold.
“In high jewelry, you choose the materials that best support the art. That’s why there can be pieces made in silver or wood, as long as it best supports the artistic vision,” said Guy-Raffin, adding that the cost of doing business plays a big role, too.
Jewelry, he said, “is not just an artistic experience, it’s also a responsibility [for jewelers]. We’re here to make jewels that people will be able to wear according to the lifestyle of today.”
Time to Lighten Up
Designers have also been looking at ways to stretch gold, or use less of the metal, in their designs.
Webster believes a solution lies in 18-karat gold electroforming. The process sees a 3D model saturated in a gold solution, with the jeweler ultimately deciding how much metal is used to cover it. The result is a lightweight piece that costs a fraction of the price of a solid gold one.
Although Solange Azagury-Partridge continues to work with gold and precious gems, she has tweaked her Solid collection, which offers 24-karat gold rings, earrings and chain links, to suit the times.
She now has two versions of her “Goldhenge” ring, which has a shape inspired by Stonehenge. One has less gold and is lighter, while the other has more gold and is weightier. “The look is exactly the same, but the depth in the lighter one is finer and that makes a huge difference to the cost. It’s something I would never, ever have thought about doing in the past,” said Azagury-Partridge.
She launched the Solid collection before gold prices began rising, but she doesn’t regret it one bit.
“The Solid collection is all about gold as a comforting element. You return to it in times of trouble, the color doesn’t change and the price only seems to improve. There’s a really solid feeling you get when you wear gold — it’s just elemental,” she added.
Other than lightening up her “Goldhenge” ring, Azagury-Partridge has zero plans to change how she works, and will continue designing with gold and precious gems.
“I don’t do huge quantities and with my Hotlips collection I work with silver anyway. With my fine jewelry, I’m just doing what I do and using the materials I’ve always used,” she said.
Amélie Huynh, founder of the Parisian jewelry label Statement, is taking a similar approach. To remain competitive, she is working on lightening the metal weight of her gold collections and has considered other avenues such as switching to 14-karat gold, although this would be detrimental to her main market of France, where 18-karat gold is preferred.
“After that, it’s about being creative and using other materials,” said the designer, who in the past has created designs in ebony.
Sheherazade Goldsmith, founder of Loquet London, is taking a different approach to the gold price crisis: She’s making less. She has drastically reduced the number of stock-keeping units of her charms and chains, and continues to focus on craftsmanship and the demands of her fine jewelry customers.
She said higher gold prices mean that many people are spooked and won’t buy, “but if your craftsmanship and design and everything you do stays at a very high level, then your customer will continue buying your product.”
She said rising gold prices have made her focus “on each and every piece to ensure all of them can sell, as opposed to designing a collection for fun. You end up focusing on the mood of the consumer.”
Last year Goldsmith took Loquet, which makes transparent lockets designed to be filled with colorful charms, upmarket. She now works with 14- and 18-karat gold, instead of 9-karat gold. “We also added more detail to meet the expectations of the client, who is very knowledgeable about jewelry,” she said.
Although gold prices are rising, diamond prices are falling, which means Goldsmith is able to use better-quality rocks in her designs.
“Every charm has become a little jewel in itself because it’s made with rubies, sapphires and diamonds. The diamonds are F Color, a higher clarity that the G Color ones I was using in the past,” she said.
She has also been working with colored stones. Earlier this year Goldsmith collaborated with the food writer Skye McAlpine on a limited-edition lemon charm, made from 18-karat yellow gold, tsavorite and quartzite jade.
It was inspired by McAlpine’s tableware collection, her citrusy Venetian recipes, and Goldsmith’s own obsession with lemons. The lemons were the latest addition to Loquet’s Charms for Change series, where a percentage of sales is donated to a charity.
Charms range in price from 200 pounds to 800 pounds, while the lockets start around 1,200 pounds and can go as high as 10,000 pounds.
Jeweler Sarah Müllertz, founder of the Copenhagen-based brand Kinraden, is taking a similar tack, sharpening her focus on craftsmanship and design rather than letting the high prices get her down.
“It’s a difficult landscape for independent jewelry designers. The larger houses can hedge their gold and buy in bulk, which allows them to stabilize prices in ways that smaller brands simply can’t. We have to maneuver carefully and be creative in how we adapt,” she said.
Müllertz added that, in the end, “good design is what truly carries you through — design that is both beautiful and intelligent in its use of materials. The rising costs have made me even more intentional — every gram of gold matters. So we work with precision, balancing proportion, structure and sustainability to create pieces that feel substantial, but are engineered with care and restraint.
Bigger Brands Are Challenged, Too
It’s not just the indie jewelers that are finding solutions to the spiraling price of gold. Bigger brands are also looking at ways they can deliver gold jewelry collections, satisfy their customers — and protect their margins.
Earlier this week Vivienne Westwood unveiled a collection made from 9-karat gold and lab-grown diamonds. The jewelry features the house’s signature gold orb motifs and paperclip pendants, while prices start at a relatively modest 235 pounds, slightly less than a cropped Westwood sweatshirt.
Jewelry giant Pandora said during its third-quarter results presentation earlier this month that it has no plans to give up on precious metals — or affordable jewelry.
“We believe we can offset the majority of this headwind on silver and gold coming into 2027, and in the [following] years, while still remaining an affordable proposition,” said the jeweler’s outgoing president and chief executive officer Alexander Lacik.
Lacik told WWD that Pandora is working on “a lot of innovation in terms of material strategy, how we build our product,” but declined to go into further details for competitive reasons.
Meanwhile, SMO Gold, an organization that is pioneering traceable, transparent and responsibly sourced metals, is supporting a new generation of gold jewelry designers.
SMO, which stands for Single Mine Origin, sources its gold from approved mines that stick to the highest global standards and are audited independently on an annual basis.
The organization has partnered with Jewellery Cast, a mentoring and consultancy platform in the U.K. that wants to promote the next generation of fine jewelry designers.
SMO Gold supplied all the gold for Jewellery Cast’s inaugural exhibition in October, helping young designers pursue their creative ambitions without paying the high price of working with gold.
