It is natural to look at the stone of an engagement ring first. This is the part you notice from across a room and the focus of many ring photos. The rest of the ring is easier to miss, but those details affect how the finished ring looks and wears. The height of the stone and the width of the band change how the ring wears daily and how a wedding band will fit against it later. Knowing the names for those parts makes it easier to say what you like about a ring and to ask a jeweler about the details a photo leaves out.
Two parts of the stone matter to how it is set. The girdle is the thin edge around the widest point of the stone. Prongs or a bezel grip the stone there. The pavilion is the pointed underside that drops down into the head. It accounts for much of the ring’s height above the finger, so a deeper stone means a taller head before any style has been chosen, and a taller head is easier to knock.
Prongs are the small metal claws bent over the girdle to keep the stone in place. Four prongs show more of the stone. Six add grip and are a common choice on larger stones. The tips can be rounded or tapered to a point, and the pointed kind is called a claw prong. On a pear or a princess cut, the tip of the stone is the part most likely to chip, and a V-prong wraps around that tip to cover it.
A bezel replaces prongs with a rim of metal folded over the girdle all the way around. There are no tips to catch on a sweater or a glove, and the edge of the stone is covered on every side, so less of it is exposed to knocks during daily wear. The rim covers the girdle, so from the top the stone looks a little smaller than it would in prongs, by roughly the width of the rim.
A half bezel keeps two arcs of metal on opposite sides of the stone and leaves the other two sides open. On an emerald or a princess cut, the arcs can cover the corners, which are the points that chip, while the open sides show more of the stone. GOODSTONE’s Half Bezel solitaire series is built this way, with the stone set lower than most prong heads would.
Below the stone, the prongs are joined by a small framework called the basket. A thin horizontal wire running around the basket near girdle height is the gallery rail. It keeps a prong from bending inward if the ring is knocked, so it is worth asking about on a ring that will be worn daily. A peg head is a prong head with a post underneath that drops into the band, and it usually sets the stone higher than a basket head does.
Turn the ring on its side. The space under the stone, between the basket and the top of the finger, is the gallery. An open gallery lets you see more of the stone from the side, including its underside. A filled gallery is a design that only shows in profile. A common one is the hidden halo, a ring of small pavé stones set around the base of the basket that you cannot see looking down at the ring.
The bridge is the metal beneath the head that rests on top of the finger and joins the head to the band. Its thickness contributes to how high the stone ends up above the finger.
A high-profile setting lifts the stone well above the finger, so the stone shows more from the side, and a straight wedding band can usually slide underneath it. It also catches more easily on knitwear and on the inside of a glove.
A low-profile setting keeps the stone close to the hand, so there is less to catch and less to knock, and a straight wedding band may not fit flush underneath it. Height is worth choosing early, since it affects both daily wear and which wedding bands will fit against the ring.
This section also includes the option to add a button in primary or secondary style, and also control the colors, including the option for a gradient background. Since this is rich text, you can also format it as you wish and include links.
A cathedral setting arches the shoulders up to meet the head near the girdle, and the name comes from those two arches. A split shank divides each shoulder into two strands before they reach the head, with open space between them.
From the top, a cathedral setting and a straight one can look the same. The arches only show from the side, along with how much room they leave under the head.
Band widths on product pages are given in millimeters. They run from a little over one millimeter on the thinnest solitaires to four or more on wider styles. A thinner band can make the stone look larger by comparison. A wider band shows more metal next to the stone. A thinner band also has less metal in it, though how well any band resists bending also depends on its thickness and the metal.
Profile is the cross-section of the band. The outside can be rounded or flat. A knife edge is a third option, with two angled faces meeting at a ridge. It can make the band look thinner than it measures. Comfort fit refers to the inside, which is rounded so there is less of an edge to catch on the knuckle as the ring goes on and off. Along the band, two flat profiles meet face to face. How flush they lie all the way around depends on the head and shoulders as well.
The sizing bar is the plain stretch of metal at the bottom of the shank, opposite the stone. When a ring is resized, this is where a jeweler cuts the band to take it in or adds metal to let it out. Plain bands can generally be adjusted a small amount in either direction. The jeweler will say how far a particular ring can safely go.
A band with stones partway around can often be adjusted within a smaller range, since the cut has to stay away from the stones. A full eternity band has stones all the way around, so there is no plain metal to cut without disturbing them. Resizing one may not be possible, or may mean removing and resetting stones. If you are guessing at a size from a borrowed ring, a plain band leaves more room to correct it later.
Look inside the band for a small stamp for the metal, such as 14K or 585 for gold or PLAT or PT950 for platinum. A maker’s mark sometimes appears beside it. Markings vary and are not on every ring, so the stamp is a starting point.
If the diamond came with a grading report, the report number may be laser-inscribed on the girdle. When it is, a jeweler can read it under magnification and match the stone to its report.
This section also includes the option to add a button in primary or secondary style, and also control the colors, including the option for a gradient background. Since this is rich text, you can also format it as you wish and include links.
A low-set head or a wide bezel can meet the band first and leave a gap between the two rings on the hand. A halo widens the head, and cathedral arches can leave room or take it up, depending on how low they reach. A gap comes from how the two outlines meet and is not a flaw in either ring. It can be left as it is or closed with a band made to follow the engagement ring.
The options for a closer fit are a contoured band, curved to follow the outline of the head, or a notched band, straight except for a cutout the head drops into. Have the jeweler try a plain band against the engagement ring first. It may fit well enough, and a contoured or notched band is one way to close the gap if a closer fit matters.
The band does not have to be chosen when the ring is. A contoured band can be made later to fit the engagement ring, and the jeweler will usually want the ring itself on hand to fit it against.
