The engagement ring is the piece everyone plans for. The interesting commissions tend to come later, and they are rarely what the couple expected to want.
What people actually come back for
- An eternity band at five or ten years: usually slimmer than the engagement ring, and worn far more often than it.
- Earrings, at the point where a ring cannot get any better without getting louder.
- A pendant holding a stone from an inherited piece that nobody wears in its original setting.
- A signet or a plain band for him, which comes up more often now than it did a decade ago.
Why it is rarely a bigger version
The instinct is to upgrade the centre stone. In practice most people discover they are attached to the ring they were proposed to with, and would rather add something beside it than replace anything in it. The second piece almost always turns out quieter than the first.
Bring the first piece with you
We design the second against the first: metal colour, proportion, how the two sit on a hand together. It is a short conversation that prevents the most common outcome, which is two good pieces that never get worn at the same time.
Timing it well
An anniversary piece has the one advantage the engagement ring never had: no deadline that anyone else knows about. Use that. Start the conversation three or four months before the date so the stone can be sourced without compromise, and if it is a surprise, borrow the same tricks as a proposal: a ring she already wears for size, a sister for the style, and a made-to-order piece that can be adjusted afterwards without anyone minding.
If it is not a surprise, come in together. Most couples find that the second piece is a better conversation than the first, because there is no pressure on it and both of you already know what gets worn.
The best second commissions look like they were always meant to be there. That only happens if the first one is in the room.
Which anniversaries traditionally call for a piece of jewellery?
The traditional lists vary by country and nobody follows them closely, but the milestones that come through the studio most often are the fifth, tenth, twentieth and twenty-fifth, and the fortieth for ruby. Diamond is attached to the sixtieth on the older lists and to the tenth on the newer ones. Treat the lists as a prompt rather than a rule; the pieces that get worn are chosen for the person, not the year.
Can an anniversary piece use a stone from the engagement ring?
Only if the engagement ring is being remade at the same time, which some couples do choose at ten or twenty years. More often the anniversary piece is designed to sit beside the original rather than draw from it: a band in the same metal, earrings in a matching cut, or a pendant that picks up the engagement ring's proportions. If there is an inherited stone in the family, an anniversary is a natural moment to bring it into use.
