Single Stone Solitaire Ring

One stone, one band, nothing else. A single round clear stone sits in a small collet on a fine gold-tone wire band, and that is the entire design. It is the least expensive gold ring here and the plainest thing in the range.

Design and detail

Plainness at this price is harder to carry off than ornament. There is nowhere for a cheap finish to hide: no carving to break up the surface, no crowd of stones to distract from the setting. What makes it work is the proportion — the stone is small enough that the band does not look overwhelmed, and the collet is low enough that the ring sits almost flat.

A solitaire is a Western form rather than an Indian one. Indian tradition massed stones and used closed settings; the idea of one stone standing alone on a thin band comes from nineteenth-century European engagement rings and arrived in India relatively recently. It is now the single most-worn ring shape in the world, which is some indication of how well the proportion works.

This is the ring to buy if you want something you genuinely never have to think about. It goes under gloves, it does not catch on anything, it stacks with other bands, and at this price losing it would be a mild irritation rather than a loss.

Fit and adjustment

The band is adjustable rather than sized: a tapered strip coiled so the ends overlap, which can be eased a little wider or a little tighter. Adjust it off the finger and in small movements — working the same band open and shut repeatedly is what eventually fatigues the metal.

Colours and availability

Only one colourway is stocked, with a clear white stone. There is reasonable depth on it, which is unusual here.

Materials, and looking after it

American Diamond is the Indian trade name for cubic zirconia: furnace-grown, hard enough to hold a sharp facet edge, and a little more dispersive than diamond. The coloured stones beside it are glass, because glass takes a deeper shade than CZ will.

The metal is brass with a gold-tone finish over it, not gold, and nothing on this page describes it as gold.

Delivery runs two to five working days within India from the day the order is dispatched, and five to twelve working days for international orders; Sundays are not counted. Returns follow the policy published on this site. Returns follow the policy published on this site; tell us on arrival if anything is wrong and we will sort it out.

Nothing here is hallmarked and nothing here holds resale value. What it holds is design: shapes drawn from a jewellery tradition several centuries old, made at a weight and a price that let you match a piece to one outfit without thinking twice about it. That is a perfectly good reason to buy jewellery, and it is the only claim this page makes.

The care is dull but it decides how long the colour lasts: dry hands, no perfume on the metal, a soft cloth afterwards and a sealed pouch between wearings. Keyura takes prepaid payment only, with no cash-on-delivery anywhere on the site.