Cheaper platinum alloy emerges as a look-alike choice
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A debate is roiling the jewelry industry. The controversy -- which has drawn in the Federal Trade Commission, Vogue magazine, and even some bridegrooms-to-be -- is whether a ring containing little more than 58 percent platinum can still be called a platinum ring.
The white luster of platinum has become the chic look in engagement rings and wedding bands in recent years. Industry marketing helped build its cachet as a metal that wears well and has a less gaudy appearance than gold. But high prices are taking a toll on demand. Now, manufacturers have created a less expensive alloy that mixes platinum with nonprecious metals, and jewelers are rolling it out in as many as 400 stores across the country.
The makers of the new alloy, known as 585 platinum for its 58.5 percent platinum content, say it looks like the real thing and is just as durable but is around half the price. One men's wedding band in the new alloy from jewelry maker Wright & Lato Inc. has a suggested retail price of $1,070, compared with $2,370 for a platinum version. Proponents of the new alloy say the only major difference is that it's about 30 percent lighter than platinum.
But many makers and sellers of platinum jewelry say pieces should not bear the word platinum if they are less than 85 percent platinum -- an international standard for purity -- and are mixed with no other related metals. Such alloys will confuse the consumer, they say, and could tarnish the reputation of platinum as one of the purest and most durable metals in the world -- a reputation the platinum industry has spent years and millions of dollars to build. Traditionally, nearly all platinum jewelry sold in the U.S. is 95 percent pure, according to Huw Daniel, president of the Platinum Guild International USA, the U.S. marketing arm of the platinum industry.
Retailers say the cost of platinum wedding rings has nearly doubled since last year, with a thin platinum band for women that would have cost around $300 last year now selling for $550 to $600. Largely because of the high prices, demand for platinum from North American jewelry manufacturers fell 5 percent to 275,000 troy ounces in 2005 from 2004, according to Johnson Matthey PLC, a London refiner and manufacturer of platinum metal products.
The new alloy was "designed to expand the platinum market to the individual who could not afford it," says Paul Lundstedt, senior marketing director at Karat Platinum LLC, the Inwood, N.Y., company that developed the alloy in conjunction with a unit of Belgium-based Umicore SA. The alloy, composed of 58.5 percent platinum and 41.5 percent cobalt and copper, was first imported to the U.S. in 2002. The company says it has made an effort to explain clearly that the product isn't pure platinum. It requires manufacturers to mark jewelry with ".585pt/.415cocu" to reflect its composition, and provides tags that also state the product's content.
After the makers of 585 platinum sought FTC guidance on how to market the product, commission staff found that the current rules don't address the marketing of products like the new alloy that contain between 50 percent and 85 percent platinum and no other metals related to platinum.
Last year, the commission sought public comment on whether the FTC's jewelry guide should be amended to address such products. The comment period closed in October, and that question and others -- such as how to describe platinum-coated products -- are still under review. The review process "is really to address what you can call platinum," says Robert M. Frisby, an assistant director in the bureau of consumer protection.
The new alloy remains a small part of the jewelry market, precious-metals consultants say. But some jewelers feel it could take off as a compromise between pricey platinum and less-expensive white gold, which yellows over time.
The new alloy is hitting the market just as demand for some lower-cost metals is growing. North American jewelry manufacturers' demand for palladium, a lower-cost metal related to platinum, doubled to 20,000 troy ounces in 2005 from 2004, according to data from Johnson Matthey.
Many jewelers see no reason why the new alloy shouldn't bear the platinum name. "Why shouldn't it be listed as platinum?" asks Jeffrey Levin, owner of Firenze Jewels in New York City, which started carrying wedding bands made from the alloy several months ago and has sold a couple. "When you have 14-karat gold, they still call it gold."
The purest gold is 24-karat, while 14-karat gold is only 58.3 percent pure. Among other precious metals, silver, too, is sold at different levels of purity.
Squeezed by high platinum prices, some jewelry makers say that they are looking for cheaper alternatives. That's one reason Stephen Walker, owner of Walker Metalsmiths Inc., a small jewelry business in Andover, N.Y., that specializes in Celtic jewelry, has experimented with a piece in the new alloy. He favors using the word platinum for it. "In order to talk about it in a way that the consumer is going to be impressed, you've got to use the word platinum," he says.
But other jewelry makers say the alloy should use a different name. "It's like buying a Mercedes that's only 60 percent Mercedes," says Bruce Pucciarello, owner of Novell Enterprises Inc., a maker of bridal jewelry based in Roselle, N.J.
Mr. Daniel, of the Platinum Guild, believes alloys like 585 should adopt completely new names -- ones that don't use the world platinum at all. He said consumers understand platinum to be a highly pure metal. Referring to a piece of jewelry as "platinum" when it is actually mixed with metals that aren't in the same group could also cause confusion among jewelers when rings or other products go for resizing and repair, Mr. Daniel says, because metals have different melting points and can react differently.
Even Vogue magazine has weighed in on the issue, saying in comments to the trade commission that such mixed products "present a significant risk of consumer confusion and deception."
Some soon-to-be-married men say they might choose the new alloy over purer platinum for their own rings. Keeping an eye on expenses before his July nuptials in Italy, Kenneth Ziegler, the 28-year-old chief financial officer of a New York Internet-services firm, said he opted for a white-gold wedding band. At the time, he said, he didn't know a less expensive platinum alloy was available. "For the same price or slightly more expensive than white gold, I would have gone for that," he said.
But men say it's different when it comes to choosing rings for their fiancees. "Unless I plan to sell the ring, I really don't care" what the platinum percentage is, says David Zilberman, a 28-year-old venture capitalist from Philadelphia. "That said, I don't want to be seen as cheap. It's something I'll buy once in my life, hopefully."
First Published June 8, 2006 12:00 am
