Choosing Your Gold: 9ct, 14ct, 18ct & Platinum — An Honest Adelaide Guide

The metal you choose for an engagement ring shapes its colour, how it feels, how it wears over a lifetime — and, a little, its price. Here's the honest version, the way a diamantaire would explain it across the table.

The karats, simply

"Karat" (ct) is how much pure gold is in the mix — pure gold is too soft to hold a diamond safely, so it's alloyed for strength.

• 9ct — 37.5% gold. The hardest-wearing and most affordable.
• 14ct — 58.5% gold. A popular middle ground: richer colour than 9ct, still very durable.
• 18ct — 75% gold. The richest colour and the fine-jewellery standard worldwide.
• Platinum — not gold at all: a naturally white, dense precious metal that cradles a diamond beautifully and never needs colour-plating.

White, yellow or rose

Yellow and rose hold their colour for life. White gold is finished with rhodium for that bright white — over years it gently warms, and a quick re-plate restores it (a simple service we'll always look after). Platinum is white right through, so it never needs plating.

How they wear

Lower-karat golds (9ct, 14ct) are a touch harder day-to-day; 18ct has the warmest, purest colour; platinum is the most enduring of all. One honest note: 9ct carries more non-gold metal, so over many years it can show a little more change than 18ct — worth knowing, not a dealbreaker.

The honest truth about price

Here's what surprises most people: on an engagement ring, the metal is only a small part of the cost — the diamond is the cost. Choosing 9ct over 18ct saves a few hundred dollars; it won't halve the price, because the stone does the heavy lifting.

Getting the most ring for your budget

If you're working to a number, here's how we'd genuinely help you stretch it:

1. Consider a lab-grown diamond — a real diamond, optically identical, IGI certified, often around a third of the natural price. This is where the real savings live.
2. Choose your carat to suit — a beautifully cut smaller stone outshines a larger, poorly cut one.
3. Then pick your metal — 9ct or 14ct trims the setting a little further.

Stacked together, a stunning ring becomes far more reachable. No one should feel priced out of the right ring.

Our honest recommendation

For an heirloom to wear for life, 18ct or platinum is timeless. 14ct is a smart, hard-wearing everyday choice that looks just like 18ct. And 9ct makes a beautiful ring genuinely accessible. There's no wrong answer — only the right one for you.

Every Simon Alexander ring is Australian made, designed in our King William Street boutique and made to order around the diamond and metal you choose — natural (GIA) or lab-grown (IGI), certified either way. Browse our engagement rings or lab-grown engagement rings, tell us your budget and what your partner loves, and we'll show you what's possible. Book a consultation, or visit us at Level 1, 14 King William Street, Adelaide.