Article: Why We Price After We've Met (and not before)
Why We Price After We've Met (and not before)
You find a ring you like. You click, ready to see the number — and instead there's a button that says Enquire.
We know how that reads. A missing price can feel like a hidden one, as though the number is being kept back until someone has you on the phone. So here is the actual reason we work this way, and what happens instead.
A ring isn't finished until it has a hand
Almost everything we make is made to order. That isn't a flourish. A ring has to fit the finger it's going on, and a bracelet has to sit properly on the wrist. Sizes are specific to the wearer in a way that very little else you buy online is.
Which means that when you're looking at a photograph on this site, the piece doesn't exist yet. You're looking at a design. The price of the actual object depends on decisions neither of us has made.
What moves the number
Four things, mostly.
The stone. Carat weight does the heavy lifting — a one-carat and a two-carat centre stone are not a small difference. Shape matters too. An oval and an emerald cut of identical weight can sit some way apart.
The metal. 18k gold or platinum, and how much of it. A wider band uses more than a fine one, and platinum is denser than gold.
The setting. A clean four-prong solitaire is a different amount of work from a pavé band with forty melee stones placed by hand. The labour is real, and it is not evenly distributed.
The size. Rarely dramatic, but it isn't nothing — a size 4 and a size 10 use measurably different amounts of gold.
Quote a single figure to cover all of that and you're either rounding up to protect yourself, or naming a number you'll have to walk back later. We'd rather do neither.
What happens instead
We talk first. Then we quote.
Before anything is made, you'll see what the piece is made of and what each part of it costs — the stone, the metal, the setting, the work. If a choice moves the price, we'll tell you by how much at the moment you're making it, not afterwards.
Nothing appears at the end that you haven't already seen. That's the whole of it.
Where it starts
Bridal commissions begin at SGD 5,000. That's a solitaire engagement ring and two wedding bands, in lab-grown diamonds and solid 18k gold or platinum, with an IGI-certified centre stone.
A larger stone, a different metal, or a more detailed setting will move that — and we'll tell you exactly where it lands before you commit to anything.
The one exception
Ready to Ship pieces carry their prices on the page, because those already exist. They've been made, they're sized, and they can be with you quickly. If you'd rather not wait, start there.
Why we bother
Fine jewellery has a long habit of making people feel they're not being told everything. The vague quote. The number that grows. The sense that the person across the counter knows something you don't.
Pricing after a conversation isn't a way of holding the number back. It's the only honest way to price something that hasn't been made yet.
Or start a conversation. There's no obligation in it, and you'll leave knowing the real number.
