White Gold vs Platinum for Engagement Rings?

ggr55

I'm currently looking into engagement rings - and the vast majority I see are white gold - whereas a friend who works in the industry says stay away from white gold, only go with Platinum. She said they wear badly and look terrible after a year or so and you have to get it redone. Is this really true? The rings I'm looking at are hailos with small diamonds on the ring so I dont think any major part will be badly visible.

Can anyone tell me what they found with their rings please?

fits

With white gold, you need to get it redipped in rhodium every so often or it loses its colour. But it will polish up nice and shiny.

Platinum wont lose its colour but it will lose its shininess as it develops a 'patina' or dullness over time which wont polish out. Platinum is more durable than gold and probably the strongest setting for a diamond.

Another option is palladium.

I went with platinum, its all grand so far but definitely developing that patina.

Faith

Platinum is significantly more expensive, so if your budget is a bit restricted, that's something to bear in mind.

Mine is 14k white gold, as is my wedding ring. It will need to be redipped every so often, but I think it looks great.

Milly33

I was going to ask where you male or female and then thought sure if you are looking for the ring you must be male, but silly me you don't have to be..

I would say my twupence is. If lets say you are working in industrial job or someplace like where you would be scraping the ring a lot I would go Platinum if not then a good quality white gold ring is so pretty.

I think it depends on the quality, I know a friend of mine got a white gold ring and it lost its colour straight away, with my own it has remained nice and bright and shiny still 3 years on or is it 2 . I have noticed though himself got a white gold wedding ring and you can see the little scratches on it already, but then it is flat and he would be scrapping it off things, I would take mine off all the time when washing or if I thought I would scratch it off something...

michellie

Mine is 18k white gold. I have had it over a year and half now and it has been 're dipped once. It only fades on the back of the ring- as in the part inside the Palm of my hand, the top hasn't faded at all, it still looks great.

lazygal

Mine rings are white gold. I didn't really consider the change in colour when we got them but I think I might get them reset in platinum longer term. I get about two years out of them before they need to be redone which is standard I think. I think you can get platinum rebuffed to bring up the shine. My husband has a cheap titanium ring and you'd never know it wasn't a higher end ring.

westernlass

My ring is vintage and nearly 100 years old. It hasn't faded at all and is white gold

fits

westernlass wrote: »

My ring is vintage and nearly 100 years old. It hasn't faded at all and is white gold

Probably a different method of making it.

One other thing i had to consider was potential for allergic reaction as i do react to a lot of jewellery.

Ms.Sunshine

I have a white gold halo set ring. My OH picked it out himself and I love it!
I got my wedding band into the shop and I will definitely need to get my E.ring reset before the big day so they are both the same colour.

Personally the change of colour doesn't bother me because once I get my E.Ring reset and I start wearing my Wedding band..they should wear down in colour at the same time so it won't look as obvious!?!

** the Lighting is not great in that picture as was taken on my phone, but in real life it looks as good as new!

Ms.Sunshine

Ms.Sunshine wrote: »

I have a white gold halo set ring. My OH picked it out himself and I love it!
I got my wedding band into the shop and I will definitely need to get my E.ring reset before the big day so they are both the same colour.

Personally the change of colour doesn't bother me because once I get my E.Ring reset and I start wearing my Wedding band..they should wear down in colour at the same time so it won't look as obvious!?!

** the Lighting is not great in that picture as was taken on my phone, but in real life it looks as good as new!

Came across a better photo of the ring on my phone in Natural Daylight! ! Gives you a better idea OP. ☺

lazygal

westernlass wrote: »

My ring is vintage and nearly 100 years old. It hasn't faded at all and is white gold

Is it definitely white gold? Just wondering because I remember reading it wasn't common until the 1920s and redipping was necessary even then because of the nature of the metal coating. Platinum was more common for vintage rings that I saw, as well as rose gold.

sm213

If you want it to be a more silvery colour get a lower carat. 12ct white gold is 50% gold 50% other metal.
There's no such thing as white gold being naturally occurring which is why they end up getting a slight yellow tint.
Redipping every couple of years doesn't cost an awful lot.
It's the rhodium that makes it that brilliant shiny colour.
Beware of rhodium dipped yellow gold being called white gold. White gold is yellow gold mixed with non precious metal.
Actually makes it harder as pure yellow gold is very soft and prone to damage moreso than other metals.
My ring is 8ct white gold and will need to be dipped. I've had it two years so not so bad and I'm very bad with jewellery doing dishes cleaning etc with it on.
I'm going to get it redipped for my wedding so matches my ring and let them fade together.
It's not really all that noticeable just sometimes see a yellowish sheen off it.

Rose35

My ring is an 18ct white gold and I was advised to get it dipped every year, have it only 9 months at this stage and it is still looking like the day I got it as I would still expect at this early stage. Didn't even consider platinum because thought it looked duller or maybe that's just me, platinum is more expensive aswell. Have picked out my wedding ring aswell in 18ct white gold. My sisters rings are white gold and she only needs them touching up now after 5 years of marriage, don't know what carat they are though.

stickybookmark

fits wrote: »

Platinum wont lose its colour but it will lose its shininess as it develops a 'patina' or dullness over time which wont polish out. .

Man I didn't know this!

I have one of each - engagement is platinum and wedding ring is white gold. I actually used an existing ring for the wedding ring and I've had it for 3 years already and on the front of it you can't see that it's turning yellow as there's diamonds all the way along it, but on the back I can see that it's turning yellow. I can't be bothered getting it redipped to be honest,it's not noticable to anyone excpet myself and I was kinda relieved when I saw it going yellow as it proves it's actually gold and not silver :P

Himself got palladium for his, it was cheap enough only 450 for his wedding ring.

stickybookmark

sm213 wrote: »

If you want it to be a more silvery colour get a lower carat. 12ct white gold is 50% gold 50% other metal.
There's no such thing as white gold being naturally occurring which is why they end up getting a slight yellow tint.
Redipping every couple of years doesn't cost an awful lot.
It's the rhodium that makes it that brilliant shiny colour.
Beware of rhodium dipped yellow gold being called white gold. White gold is yellow gold mixed with non precious metal.
.

Very interesting. My mother's wedding & engagement rings are 35 years old and she says they are white gold, she's never had them redipped. They look like silver to me.
What would the 50% other non precious metal typically be? Is Rhodium considered the other non precious metal?

westernlass

lazygal wrote: »

Is it definitely white gold? Just wondering because I remember reading it wasn't common until the 1920s and redipping was necessary even then because of the nature of the metal coating. Platinum was more common for vintage rings that I saw, as well as rose gold.

I've never had it checked honestly. We are actually going Saturday to talk to a jeweller designer so I'll ask her. I've never had it redipped nor does it fade. It's a very thick band, makes a massive sound if I hit it off a table or something like this.

fits

Gold on its own is not very strong so its normally an alloy with some other metal. I would be worried that an old white gold ring would have some nickel in it. I think there are different ways of making white gold. But I dont know very much about these things. I have a woeful metal allergy (probably nickel but Im not sure) which was really the deciding factor in going for platinum in the end.

fits

stickybookmark wrote: »

Very interesting. My mother's wedding & engagement rings are 35 years old and she says they are white gold, she's never had them redipped. They look like silver to me.
What would the 50% other non precious metal typically be? Is Rhodium considered the other non precious metal?

I have worn a silver ring on my right hand for almost 20 years now, and its positively warped in shape. Silver is very soft.

Deco99

Has anyone mentioned normal yellow gold? would go well with the wedding ring then.

sm213

stickybookmark wrote: »

Very interesting. My mother's wedding & engagement rings are 35 years old and she says they are white gold, she's never had them redipped. They look like silver to me.
What would the 50% other non precious metal typically be? Is Rhodium considered the other non precious metal?

Nickel manganese or palladium according to this. Metals they are typically white in colour.
I actually didn't know this until very recently. I love the look of white gold. Even faded I still love my ring
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_Gold

Rose35

stickybookmark wrote: »

Very interesting. My mother's wedding & engagement rings are 35 years old and she says they are white gold, she's never had them redipped. They look like silver to me.
What would the 50% other non precious metal typically be? Is Rhodium considered the other non precious metal?

The rings have to be hallmarked inside if they were gold, don't they? I think I read this somewhere before. Different marks refer to the carat