Going platinum
Words: Virginia Blackburn Sometimes misunderstood as the dull relation of gold, platinum is, in fact, the most precious – and most collectable – of metals and prized pieces range from exquisite Art Deco jewellery to luxury wristwatches 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 [...]
Words: Virginia Blackburn
Sometimes misunderstood as the dull relation of gold, platinum is, in fact, the most precious – and most
collectable – of metals and prized pieces range from exquisite Art Deco jewellery to luxury wristwatches
alt="Platinum – the metal is making an investment comeback as gold prices shoot up"
align="left"src="http://www.bmivoyager.com/images/2008/july/voyager_july_092.jpg">
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.
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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.
alt="A platinum Rolex has the same cachet value as classic cars for the super-rich – one recently made £80,000"
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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.”
GETTING STARTED
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; href="http://www.richardogden.com">www.richardogden.com
- The Watch Guru; www.thewatchguru.co.uk
- Cox & Power, 35c Marylebone High Street, London, +44 (0)20 7935 3530; href="http://www.coxandpower.com">www.coxandpower.com
DID YOU KNOW?
- 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.
