Is Jewellery a Good Investment? What Menswear Buyers Should Know
Is a diamond ring worth more in ten years than it is today? In this video, Chris sits down with Matthew Wildsmith of Wildsmith Jewellery to answer a question we are asked often: is jewellery a good investment. The short answer is complicated. This post goes further, covering hallmarks, gold quality and diamond grading, and why the best pieces earn their keep by being worn rather than resold.
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Why Jewellery Is Rarely a Short-Term Investment
Ask a jeweller whether jewellery is an investment, and the surest sign of an honest answer is hesitation. That was Matthew Wildsmith's first response when Chris put the question to him, and it holds up under scrutiny. Unless you are moving into the world of rare, museum-quality pieces that trade more like fine art than personal adornment, jewellery is not a reliable way to grow your money over a short period. It is, first and foremost, something to enjoy wearing.
That does not make price irrelevant. It simply means the maths works differently to how most people assume. Walk into a well-known name on Bond Street and a meaningful part of what you pay covers the showroom, the packaging and the experience of being served there, rather than the metal or the stone in front of you. There is nothing wrong with paying for that experience if it is what you want. It is only a problem if you mistake it for the value of the object itself.
The more useful question, then, is not whether jewellery behaves like a stock or a property, but whether you are paying a fair price for real quality. Get that right and a piece will hold its value reasonably well over time, even if it was never bought with resale in mind. Get it wrong, and the gap between what you paid and what the piece is actually worth can be considerable, whichever end of the market you are shopping in.
Reading the marksWhat a Hallmark Actually Tells You About Gold Quality
Karat gold sounds like a fixed standard, and on paper it is. Eighteen karat gold made and hallmarked in the UK has to contain 750 parts of pure gold per thousand, verified by an assay office before it can legally carry that mark. But the standard only guarantees the purity of the metal. It says nothing about how the piece was made, and that gap is where most of the price difference between a high street ring and a fine jeweller's ring actually lives.
It is also worth knowing that hallmarking has not always been universal. The legal requirement to hallmark jewellery above a certain weight, across gold, silver and platinum, dates to 1973, when the UK entered the European common market. Antique pieces made before then were often never hallmarked, or have had the mark worn away or rubbed off over decades of wear. None of that makes an older piece worth less. It simply means the metal should be tested rather than assumed, which any reputable jeweller can do quickly.
If you are buying something new, a hallmark is close to a non-negotiable. It is the clearest, most objective confirmation that the gold content matches what you are told you are paying for. On an antique piece, the absence of a hallmark is a prompt to ask a question rather than a reason to walk away.
Why a Handmade Signet Ring Costs More Than a Cast One
Two rings can both be stamped 18 karat gold and still be worth very different amounts, and the reason is construction rather than purity. A cast signet ring is made by pouring liquid gold into a mould shaped like the finished piece. A handmade signet ring starts life as a flat sheet of gold, usually two to three millimetres thick, from which the ring's outline is punched before being hammered and tooled by hand into its final shape.
The handmade version takes considerably longer to produce and uses more skilled labour, which is reflected in the price. It also tends to be structurally sounder. Cast pieces are more prone to porosity, tiny air pockets left behind in the casting process, which make them less solid than a piece built up by hand. For a ring you intend to wear daily for decades, that difference in durability is worth paying for.
Weight is a related but separate question. A heavier ring is not automatically the better one. What matters is how the gold has been worked, not simply how much of it there is. The comparison below sets out the practical differences.
Handmade Signet Ring
- Cut from a solid sheet of gold and shaped by hand
- Hammered and tooled, giving a denser, more solid structure
- Far less prone to porosity or air pockets
- Slower to produce, reflected in a higher price
Cast Signet Ring
- Formed by pouring liquid gold into a mould
- Faster and cheaper to produce at scale
- More likely to contain small air pockets
- Can look similar at a glance despite the same karat mark
Why Antique and Vintage Jewellery Can Be the Better Buy
Secondhand goods in the UK are not subject to VAT, which means buying antique jewellery saves you the twenty per cent that would be added to an equivalent new piece. That alone makes older pieces worth considering. But the more interesting argument is about what you are actually paying for. With a new piece, part of the price covers labour that has only just been carried out. With an antique piece, that cost was paid decades ago by somebody else, and you are instead buying an object of appreciated value, one whose worth has already been tested by time rather than promised by a receipt.
This is particularly true of finely made antique pieces from respected workshops of the past. A gold stick pin, for example, might have a couple of hundred pounds of gold in it, but the craftsmanship behind it can make it worth many times that. The intrinsic metal value and the actual worth of the piece are two entirely different numbers, and with well-made antique jewellery, the gap between them tends to favour the buyer more often than the reverse.
None of this means every old piece is a bargain. Fashion and desirability move in cycles, and what looks unfashionable today can command a premium in ten years, just as the reverse is true. The safest approach is the same one that applies to any considered purchase: know roughly what things should cost before you commit, and buy from someone whose reputation you trust.
Mid-article showcase
What the Four Cs Actually Mean When Buying a Diamond
Diamonds are graded on four measures: colour, clarity, cut and carat. Carat is simply the unit of weight used to measure a diamond, and it is easy to confuse with size, though two stones of the same carat weight can look noticeably different depending on how they are cut. Cut, in this context, does not mean shape. It refers to the proportions, polish and symmetry of the stone, and it is the single factor that determines how much a diamond actually sparkles.
Clarity describes the presence of inclusions, tiny natural marks within the stone. A flawless diamond has none visible under magnification. Moving down the scale through internally flawless, then the VVS and VS grades, inclusions become more numerous and, eventually, visible to the naked eye. A trained jeweller will spot the difference between grades instantly. Most buyers will not, particularly at the higher end of the scale, which is one reason it pays to buy from someone who will explain honestly what you are looking at rather than simply quoting a grade.
If you are buying with an eye to long-term value, the pattern holds across all four measures: higher grades cost more and tend to hold their value better, while entry-level stones are harder to resell for anything close to what you paid. A jeweller's showroom is rarely the place to buy a diamond purely as a short-term investment. It is, however, exactly the place to buy one properly, with the grading explained and the price justified.
How Easily Can You Sell Jewellery for Its Value?
Gold is the most liquid form of jewellery you can own, in the literal sense that a bullion dealer will quote you a price based on that day's gold price and pay out fairly quickly. Diamonds and coloured stones are traded in a similar way in the wider market, but selling one is a slower, more comparative process. You will need to visit several jewellers, since offers vary considerably, and a reputable one should honour a quoted price for a few days rather than pressuring you to sell immediately.
The mistake worth avoiding is treating scrap value as the true value of a piece. Selling gold jewellery to a cash-for-gold service pays you for the weight of the metal alone. It ignores everything else the piece is worth: the design, the maker, the age, the craftsmanship. Pieces that could have sold for a meaningful premium at auction or through a specialist dealer are melted down every year for a fraction of their real worth, simply because the owner did not know there was another option.
The wider lesson is that jewellery is a longer-term proposition than people often expect. You will not sell a piece for a profit the same day you bought it, and thinking of it as a short-term trade is the surest way to be disappointed. Treat it instead as a considered purchase, made to be worn and, eventually, passed on or sold with a story attached, and the numbers tend to work out better in your favour.
The power of a signatureWhy Signed and Branded Jewellery Holds Its Value Best
Provenance matters more in jewellery than almost any other category of object. A signed piece from a respected maker such as Cartier, Tiffany or Van Cleef & Arpels tends to hold its value in a way that an unsigned piece of similar quality does not, precisely because the maker's name is a verified guarantee of standard. Fashions in jewellery come and go, but the reputation attached to a signed piece from the mid-twentieth century has, in most cases, only strengthened with time.
Desirability also moves in cycles that are worth watching rather than predicting. Vintage Bulgari, largely overlooked five or six years ago, has appreciated sharply in recent years. Vintage Chanel costume jewellery has followed a similar path, with pieces that traded for modest sums a few years back now commanding several times that figure, particularly designs associated with well-known past wearers. Anyone who grew up around the jewellery of a particular decade should not be surprised to see it become fashionable again roughly ten years later. It is a pattern that repeats reliably enough to be worth remembering.
Even everyday pieces can carry this kind of premium when they become scarce. Antique gold watch chains, once made for carrying a pocket watch and its accompanying fob, were widely scrapped for their gold weight once men largely stopped wearing them and the gold price climbed. The rarer surviving designs, sometimes referred to as fetter and trombone links, now command prices well beyond their weight in gold, simply because so few good examples remain. If you own one, or inherit one, it is worth having it looked at before assuming its only value is as scrap.
So Is Jewellery Worth Buying as an Investment?
The most honest answer is that jewellery is an emotive purchase first and a financial one a distant second. You are not likely to sell a well-bought piece for more than you paid the day after buying it, and treating jewellery as a short-term trade will usually leave you disappointed. What you can do is buy well: check the hallmark, ask how a piece was actually made, understand what you are paying for at the till, and lean toward antique and signed pieces where the craftsmanship and the provenance are already proven.
It is a philosophy that will feel familiar if you already buy carefully elsewhere in your wardrobe. The same logic that makes a handmade tie from our handmade silk tie collection worth the extra cost over a mass-produced equivalent applies just as well to a signet ring or a pair of cufflinks. Quality is rarely the cheapest option in the room, but it is consistently the one that still looks and performs well a decade later. Our thanks to Matthew Wildsmith for the conversation and for sharing his expertise so generously.
Frequently Asked Questions
Your Questions Answered
Is jewellery a good investment?
Rarely as a short-term one. Jewellery is best bought to be worn and enjoyed rather than traded for profit, since resale rarely covers the original price straight away. Buying real quality at a fair price, checking hallmarks and favouring well-made or signed pieces will help a piece hold its value over the years, even if it was never bought with resale in mind.
What does a hallmark on gold jewellery actually mean?
A hallmark is an assay office's verification that the gold content matches the karat stated, such as 750 parts pure gold per thousand for 18 karat. It has been a legal requirement in the UK on jewellery above a certain weight since 1973. Antique pieces made earlier were often never marked, or the mark has worn away, which is not a sign of lower quality on its own.
Is it better to buy antique jewellery or new jewellery?
Both have a place, but antique and secondhand jewellery carries a real financial advantage in the UK: it is exempt from VAT, saving you twenty per cent against an equivalent new piece. You are also buying craftsmanship and design that has already proven itself over time, rather than paying for labour that has only just taken place.
What are the four Cs of diamond grading?
Colour, clarity, cut and carat. Colour measures how close a stone is to colourless, clarity measures visible inclusions, cut describes the proportions and symmetry that determine sparkle rather than the stone's shape, and carat is simply the unit of weight. All four affect price and, over time, resale value.
Can you sell gold jewellery for cash easily?
Gold is the most liquid form of jewellery, since a bullion dealer will pay based on the day's gold price fairly quickly. Diamonds and other stones take longer to sell well, and it pays to get quotes from more than one jeweller. Avoid cash-for-gold services where possible, since they typically pay only for scrap weight and ignore the design and craftsmanship value of a piece.
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