HEARD THE STORY about the businessman who spent £20,000 on a vintage platinum Rolex? He sold it to buy a much cheaper gold version after a friend mistook it for steel and jeered that he couldn’t afford the best. The friend was not the only one to make this mistake: in 1590, when the Spanish conquistadors discovered a new white metal in the rivers of Ecuador, they scoffed as well, naming the metal “platinum” (from “platina” or “little silver”) before throwing it back to mature into real silver.

A costly mistake. Platinum is the rarest and most expensive metal in the world and after some decades in the wilderness, it’s making a comeback as the first choice for buyers of vintage and contemporary jewellery and watches. It is not as shiny as gold and silver, but it is much stronger and has been used to make the settings for some of the world’s most famous diamonds, including the Koh-i-Noor, the Hope and the Jonker.

“Platinum has been used in Russia since large deposits were found in the Ural Mountains in 1824,” explains Robert Ogden of Richard Ogden jewellers, based in London’s Mayfair. “Many Russian jewellers emigrated to the West around the turn of the last century and brought the metal with them. Until then, silver was used for setting diamonds, but it is too soft to work finely and it tarnishes. Platinum is a much stronger metal; it doesn’t tarnish and so it became the ideal metal to work with. Fabergé eggs had hinges made of platinum and it was used for the working parts of many pieces of jewellery, such as the claws.” Part of the reason for this is that platinum is so strong. It can be stretched very much more thinly than other metals, giving a delicacy to the finished work. Almost all diamond settings from this period are made of platinum; not silver or gold.

Platinum jewellery’s initial heyday lasted from about 1900 to 1930, which means that a great deal of Art Deco jewellery is made from this, the most durable metal in the world. Watches, especially pocket watches, were also frequently made from platinum during this period. However, according to Marc Salem, of The Watch Guru, specialists for collectors, the soaring price of platinum in recent years has meant that many of these beautiful pieces are being destroyed.

“Pocket watches and from the 1920s wristwatches, have been made in platinum as very exclusive products,” he says. “But the value of the metal is actually worth more than the working watch, with its internal movement, which means that some people are buying these watches, discarding the mechanism and selling on the metal. There is a real danger that many of these pieces will be lost.” (Something similar happened in Russia recently, too, when someone bought a hotel to dismantle because its pipes were entirely made of platinum.)

Even so, platinum watches, both vintage and new, remain highly prized – partly because of the workmanship and partly because they are status symbols, up there with a property portfolio and classic car collection. “They are the most exclusive and expensive, and the rarest, made by people like Patek Philippe, one of the most famous and expensive watch manufacturers in the world, usually come up at auction and can cost a stratospheric amount,” says Salem.

Other watchmakers that regularly use platinum for limitededition series include Vacheron Constantin, Rolex and Breitling.

Salem estimates that the entry level for a good platinum vintage watch is about £3,000 to £4,000, although prices soar after that. He recently saw a very rare Rolex sell for more than £80,000: “Platinum is a heavier metal than gold, and some people like the reassuring feel of its weight. As for the expense – well, anyone who owns a platinum wristwatch, probably owns more than just one watch.”

In 1939, with the start of the Second World War, platinum fell out of favour with jewellers. The USA limited its use to anything other than the war effort, naming it a strategic metal and after the war, it did not immediately regain its popularity. From the 1970s though, jewellers started using it again and the buying public followed suit: between 1992 and 1998, sales of platinum jewellery worldwide soared by 700%.

In 1987, the goldsmith Tony Power and marketing executive Vicci Cox, launched their jewellery house Cox & Power. Their first collection was almost exclusively platinum, as is their most recent offering. “Platinum is intrinsically pure: it is 95% pure, whereas 18-carat gold is only 75% pure,” says Power. “White is a fashionable colour for jewellery, and since platinum is naturally white, you don’t need to plate it. Its tensile strength, meanwhile, means you don’t need to make it heavy to hold it together.”

As with vintage platinum jewellery, the cost means that modern platinum jewellery is for the elite. For instance, Power’s recent designs include a ring and a pair of earrings, both smooth oval shapes. The ring appears in the shape of a bowl, with a single pink diamond: it costs £4,975. The earrings are hanging ovals, with the diamond on the outer edge: they are £3,750. “I wanted to make them petalshaped,” he explains. “The diamonds are perched on the surface, waiting to fly away.”

A good way of learning about platinum jewellery is to visit auctions of jewellery from 1900 to 1930. All the major auction houses and many local ones hold jewellery auctions and they’re a good way to get an overview of the market. Or contact these specialist jewellers:

• Richard Ogden, 28 Burlington Arcade, Piccadilly, London, +44 (0)20 7493 9136; www.richardogden.com
• The Watch Guru; www.thewatchguru.co.uk
• Cox & Power, 35c Marylebone High Street, London, +44 (0)20 7935 3530; www.coxandpower.com

• Because of its rarity value, in the 18th century, King Louis XV of France declared platinum to be the only metal fit for a king.
• Platinum has uses far exceeding jewellery. It can be used as the catalyst in a catalytic converter or in fuel cells and in photographic archival printmaking. Platinum prints are both long-lasting and have a greater tonal range than other black-and-white prints.
• Platinum is a lot rarer than gold. The annual worldwide production of platinum is about 160 tonnes compared to about 1,500 tonnes in the case of gold.
• More than 90% of all platinum comes from South Africa and Russia, the only two places on Earth where the metal occurs in its true form: almost everything from South Africa is committed to industrial contracts.
• Around two tonnes of ore must be mined to obtain enough platinum to make a ring.
• One gram of platinum can be made into a wire two kilometres long.
• The Duke and Duchess of Windsor had platinum wedding rings made by Cartier.
• Platinum was first discovered by the ancient Egyptians about 4,500 years ago. The casket that holds the documents for High Priestess Schepenupet is decorated with platinum hieroglyphics. It is now kept in Paris’ Louvre museum.