Engagement Ring Styles

In 2007, when Stelios Palioudakis took over this studio, the ring we made most often was a six claw white gold solitaire holding a round brilliant, set high. In 2026 the most requested centre stone is still a round brilliant. Almost everything else about that ring has changed. It is more likely to be bezel set, it sits roughly a third lower on the finger, and there is a better than even chance the metal is yellow gold, which we barely sold at all for the first decade we were open.

That is the whole classic versus modern question in one sentence. Nothing has been replaced. The proportions moved.

There is no correct answer here. Both approaches make beautiful rings, and both have moved in and out of fashion since engagement rings became the norm in the nineteenth century. What matters is which style suits your partner, her hand and the life the ring has to survive. This guide covers what classic and modern actually mean, how each reads on a hand, which settings and diamond shapes sit in each camp, and where the two are blending in the Perth market.

What counted as modern in 2007 now reads as restrained classic. What feels modern today, the clean bezels, hidden halos and kite-cut centre stones, will be the classic of 2040. Design for the person, not the year.

What Makes A Classic Engagement Ring Style

A classic engagement ring leans on shapes, settings and proportions used consistently for the last fifty to a hundred years. The visual language is familiar. You see it in old wedding photographs and new ones, on hands across every generation.

The hallmarks of a classic setting:

●        A round brilliant centre stone. The most commonly cut diamond shape since the 1950s, and still the most requested in our Mt Hawthorn showroom.

●        A traditional claw setting. Four or six claws holding a single stone, raised high enough to take light from every angle.

●        White gold or platinum. A neutral backdrop that keeps attention on the centre stone.

●        A cathedral setting for elevation. Metal arches rise from the band to frame the diamond, giving a formal silhouette.

●        A matched wedding band. Plain or diamond set, designed to sit flush against the engagement ring in the same metal.

The reason clients keep returning to the classic solitaire is structural rather than sentimental. A well proportioned 1.0 carat round brilliant in 18-carat white gold is the most repairable, most resizable and most forgiving ring we build. Claws can be retipped. The band can be replaced. The stone can move into a new setting in thirty years without touching the diamond. Very few modern designs offer all three.

What Makes A Modern Engagement Ring Style

A modern ring breaks the classic template in one or more deliberate ways. Sometimes subtly, with a bezel instead of claws, a thinner band, a lower profile. Sometimes dramatically, with an asymmetric design, a coloured gemstone, or a kite-cut or hexagonal centre stone.

What makes a ring read as modern:

●        Clean lines and minimal metalwork. Filigree, milgrain and decorative detail stripped back in favour of simple architecture.

●        Low-profile settings. Bezels and half-bezels sit the stone closer to the finger for a sleeker everyday silhouette.

●        Unusual shapes. Kite, hexagon, trillion, elongated cushion, rose cut and old mine cut all appear more often now.

●        East-west mounts. The stone runs across the finger rather than up it. Increasingly popular with our younger clients.

●        Hidden halos. A ring of small diamonds beneath the centre stone, invisible from above, visible from the side. Sparkle without visual weight.

●        Coloured gemstones as centre stones. Sapphire, spinel, tourmaline, morganite and salt-and-pepper diamonds in place of a white stone.

Modern rings photograph differently. A classic solitaire is at its best face-on. A bezel or east-west design reveals itself from every angle, which matters more than people expect given how these rings actually get shared.

How Perth Couples Are Mixing Both

The most requested style in our showroom over the last three years has been neither classic nor modern. It has been a hybrid. Clients want the durability and wearability of a classic setting with one or two modern moves that make the ring theirs rather than a template.

The hybrids we build most:

●        A round brilliant in a bezel rather than claws. Classic stone, modern housing.

●        A classic solitaire on a very thin band. Traditional silhouette, contemporary proportions.

●        A three stone with an elongated cushion centre and baguette sides. Art deco bones, modern lines.

●        A hidden halo under a classic round brilliant. Classic face-on, unmistakably modern from the side.

●        Yellow gold with a flush-set centre stone. Warm traditional metal, cool clean architecture.

The real change we have watched across Perth is that clients are less interested in belonging to a category and more interested in a ring that matches their actual aesthetic. That is a healthy shift, and it makes for better rings.

Setting Styles Through The Classic-Modern Lens

The setting is where classic and modern separate most clearly.

Solitaire. The most classic option. A single stone held by claws or a bezel. Works with almost every diamond shape and remains the setting we build most often.

Halo. Small diamonds ringing the centre stone. Classic in a traditional halo, modern when doubled, floating or hidden. A halo makes a smaller centre read visually larger and lifts total carat weight.

Double halo. Two concentric rings of accent stones. Heavier in the hand, more sparkle, strongly associated with the statement rings of the 2010s.

Three stone. A centre with two side stones, often read as past, present and future. Classic versions use graduating round brilliants. Modern versions pair an elongated centre with baguettes or trillions.

Bezel. A metal rim in place of claws. Modern, low-profile and genuinely practical for active hands. Half-bezels soften it.

Cathedral. The band arches up to cradle the stone. Classic, formal, and a natural fit for round brilliants and ovals.

Pavé. Small diamonds along the band held by tiny beads. Classic in a narrow pavé, modern in a wider one.

Channel. Accent stones between two rails of metal. Cleaner than pavé, structurally strong, and far less prone to snagging.

Bead setting. A vintage technique where small stones are held by beads raised from the surface. Strongly classic, and the backbone of most art deco work with filigree and milgrain.

Diamond Shapes And Style

Shape matters as much as setting.

Classic shapes are the round brilliant, cushion and oval. Round brilliant is the most requested shape globally and the default when most people picture a classic ring. Cushion leans vintage. Oval leans contemporary.

Modern shapes include kite, hexagon, trillion, elongated cushion, rose cut, old mine cut and salt-and-pepper diamonds. All have existed for centuries. All have returned over the past decade, usually paired with minimalist settings that let the geometry speak.

Emerald cut sits between the two worlds. Classic in its stepped facets, modern in the clean lines it produces in a simple band. Our emerald cut guide covers it properly, and the radiant cut offers the same outline with far more fire.

Carat weight plays into this too. A larger centre stone tends to read classic simply through presence. Smaller stones in unusual shapes read modern.

Metal Choices And Style

The metal shapes how the finished ring reads.

●        Platinum. Classic. Hard-wearing, heavier in the hand, holds a white finish for life.

●        18-carat white gold. Classic or modern depending on the design. The standard across most of our commissions, though it needs rhodium re-plating every year or two.

●        18-carat yellow gold. Almost extinct in engagement rings through the 2000s. Back strongly over the last five years, and it reads distinctly modern against clean-line settings. Yellow gold now sits at roughly a third of our new commissions.

●        18-carat rose gold. Reads modern because it is a recent arrival in engagement rings. Pairs well with vintage-inspired halos and morganite centres.

●        Mixed metal bands. Two colours of gold in one ring. Modern, and increasingly asked for.

Pure 24-carat gold is too soft for a ring worn daily. Eighteen carat is the durability point for anything that stays on a hand.

A Recent Build That Blended Both

A couple from Swanbourne came to us last year wanting what the bride described as “the ring my grandmother would have loved, made for now.”

She already wore minimalist jewellery. Thin stacking bands, one fine gold chain, a plain pair of studs. Her partner assumed, reasonably enough, that she would want a classic solitaire to match the family photographs she kept referencing.

What we landed on satisfied both instincts. An elongated cushion centre stone at 1.4 carats, G colour, VS1. A low bezel in 18-carat brushed white gold, so the stone sat close to the finger and caught light without dominating a small hand. A hidden halo of small diamonds beneath, invisible from above and visible only when she turned her wrist. A plain 2mm band, no filigree, no accent stones.

The ring photographs as classic from the usual angle and as distinctly modern from any side view. She told us afterwards it was the first piece of fine jewellery she had ever worn daily without taking it off for work, which is the only review of a ring that really counts.

Frequently Asked Questions

Answers based on what we actually see across the bench rather than on national averages.

Which Engagement Ring Style Is Most Popular In Australia?

Classic solitaires with round brilliant centres remain the most popular nationally, at roughly 40 per cent of the market by volume, with halos second. Our own numbers look different. Because everything we make is bespoke, our commissions skew heavily toward hybrids, and pure textbook classics are now a minority of what leaves the workshop. If you want the national average ring, a chain store will sell you one more cheaply than we can make one.

Does Modern Mean More Expensive?

Usually the opposite. Modern designs tend to use less metal and less decorative work, so at identical stone specifications a clean bezel often comes in below a cathedral solitaire with pavé shoulders. Cost is driven by the centre stone and the metal weight, not by which era the ring belongs to. Our guide to what an engagement ring costs breaks the numbers down.

Can A Classic Ring Be Made To Feel More Modern Over Time?

Yes, and it is a steady part of our work. Resets run at several a month, most commonly at the fifteen and twenty year marks. The stone moves into a bezel, a hidden halo goes underneath, or the band changes metal entirely. The diamond is untouched. What surprises people is how often the reset ring gets worn more than the original did, because the profile finally suits the hand it is on.

What Suits A Partner Who Wears Almost No Jewellery?

A low bezel with a single stone. Clean lines, nothing to catch on a sleeve, nothing announcing itself across a room. The pattern we see repeatedly is that partners who do not already wear jewellery find a high-set classic solitaire unexpectedly intrusive, and often stop wearing it during the working week within a year. Better to design for that on day one than to reset it later.

What If Our Styles Disagree?

Design it together. This is the entire reason bespoke exists. We will pull out what each of you actually cares about, which is usually two or three specific things rather than a whole aesthetic, and build around those. In our experience, couples who disagree at the start end up with better rings than couples who agree immediately, because the disagreement forces both of them to be specific.

Do You Design Rings With Coloured Gemstones?

Yes, and demand has climbed steadily. Sapphire in every colour is the most requested by a wide margin, followed by emerald, ruby, spinel, tourmaline and morganite. We also set Australian South Sea pearls and Western Australian pink diamonds. A classic design with a blue sapphire centre reads completely differently from the same design with a white diamond, and we will talk you through wearability before aesthetics.

Is A Wedding Band Designed At The Same Time As The Engagement Ring?

For most couples, yes, and we push for it. Designing the pair together costs nothing extra at the design stage and avoids the most common regret we hear, which is a band that will not sit flush against a ring it was never planned around. If the engagement ring already exists, we shape the band to follow its curves, stones and profile.

Come And See The Differences In Person

Classic versus modern is a question that resolves in about ten minutes with rings in hand, and never quite resolves on a screen.

Come to our Mt Hawthorn studio and we will lay the full range out side by side, from traditional solitaires through to bezels and hidden halos. Try them on. Compare diamond shapes on the actual hand the ring is for. Watch how each metal behaves as the light changes through the shopfront window, which tells you more in a minute than a month of scrolling will.

If you are not in Perth, we run the same consultation over video and post reference pieces for sizing and feel. You can also start shaping something first in our custom gallery.

Book a consultation and we will have the range waiting.