I don't get white gold

[Scottish Steve]

Steel is great, Platinum is great, yellow/rose/pink gold is great. White gold is a con. Nobody ever actually sees white gold because white gold looks so rubbish it's only ever presented with Rodhium (or other) plating which actually is white and as soon as it wears off you're supposed to get it re-plated. It's a waste of time and effort and money. If someone says they love white gold what they actually mean is they love Rodhium. Which is three times the price of Platinum. I'd love a Rodhium ring or watch.

[geoffbot]

Palladium is a precious metal. It's part of the platinum metals group and much rarer than gold. It's my favorite precious white metal for jewelry.

And there's me thinking that it was cheaper than gold...

[seoulseeker]

And there's me thinking that it was cheaper than gold...

Palladium is about $600 per ounce, while gold runs about $1600. Palladium is rarer than gold, but significantly cheaper.

[Scottish Steve]

White gold isn't a metal. It's an alloy. It's a bad comparison.

[mleok]

Rhodium has dropped significantly in price from its high in 2008, and the price of Rhodium and Platinum is now comparable to (actually cheaper than) Gold (by weight).

Current spot prices are:

Gold: $1605/oz
Platinum: $1411/oz
Palladium: $579/oz
Rhodium: $1150/oz

In practice, there should still be a slight price premium of Platinum jewelry due to the higher density and the greater purity of the metal used. However, the reality is that the price of the metal used in the watch is a small fraction of the markup in retail price in going from steel to gold (or platinum), and much of that price increase is probably attributable to the exclusivity premium.

[mleok]

White gold isn't a metal. It's an alloy. It's a bad comparison.

This is why 18K white gold and 18K rose gold is more expensive than 18K yellow gold, since the remaining 25% of the alloy in white and rose gold consists of more expensive metals than the 25% in yellow gold.

[shameless]

of course there is a personal and private pleasure in owning a gold watch - and white gold particularly because its not in your face -it is heavier for sure which is nice to have with a smaller watch like my day date -if you were to be selling a white and a gold -certainly in uk -the white would fly out - nobody wants or wears yellow gold anymore --at least when one is wearing it no one is asking you if its real gold or not as they do with yellow -much more delightfully understated -i have to admit mine is the very least worn of my rotation of watches -but when you do its like taking out that special car that never sees rain !i have a ss rolex -and they are two different animals -plus anyone who advocates two tone seriously should be reported to the fashion police!

[CitizenM]

I've been doing some reading on it since I'm not very well educated on precious metals. It appears that a lot of platinum jewelry is also rhodium plated, but people don't really notice the plating wear away because that platinum underneath is whiter than the white-gold, which retains some of its yellowish characteristics.

Rhodium itself appears to be a really fascinating metal, apparently being whiter and purer in appearance than platinum (hence platinum is often plated in this) with lots of interesting properties. Apparently, it's highly resistant to the elements, making the plating pretty robust. And its cost, in addition to its difficulty to make jewelry out of, keep it from actually being the element of choice for fine jewelry.

I picked it all off a wikipedia page lol so take it with a grain of salt. I'm definitely not an expert in this area.

[John MS]

Interesting information about rhodium, thanks for posting it. At least one of my watches has a rhodium plated movement. The Bulova Gemini uses an 2892-a2 that with machined decoration and rhodium plating is quite a sight through the display back,

[ljb187]

I don't get white gold either...but that's mostly because I can't afford it.

And...

Come to think of it, it's more desirable to have a platinum/diamond wedding ring as opposed to a cheaper but very similar looking cobalt chrome/moissanite ring.

The specialness of an object extends beyond the visual aspect. I'm not a fan of WG because the rhodium plating can fade, but I totally dig solid platinum (if only I had the money).

I thought this was a particularly good answer.