What's your ring bling?

[Jaymon]

The thread about switching to only lab grown diamonds got me thinking about jewelry, and who is buying diamonds? OO is a bit of an older crowd, compared to millennials or whatever the younger folks are called. I have no idea personally what a 20 something is shopping for as a wedding ring these days.

So what is everybody wearing?

[Jaymon]

I am wearing an emerald, set in ceramic

[YellowKing]

Gold and silver, no jewels. Nothing fancy, as when I got married we were broke.

[TheMix]

No stone. I think it's got some kind of metal in it. A couple different ones, actually. I think. I only wear it when we go out (and I remember to). So it doesn't get much use these days.

[LawBeefaroni]

I wear a ring the wife got me back when we were dating. White gold with a yellow gold band in the middle with a single diamond set flush in the yellow gold band. Very simple and understated.
Hard to explain and one of a kind. Have worn it every day for 20 or so years.

[ImLawBoy]

Simple platinum band. No jewels.

[gbasden]

I have a plain gold band, but I cannot wear jewelry. It drives me nuts. No ring, no watch, no necklace or ear rings. So it sits in a keepsake box on my bedside table.

[Alefroth]

I have no jewelry. My lost wedding band was silver and I'd replace it with the same.

[stessier]

Simple platinum band. No jewels.

Same. I only wear it when I leave the house for non-exercise related activities though.

[Jeff V]

White gold wedding shackle, cost 25,000 PHP bought in conjunction with my wife's diamond-studded wedding band (that went for 35,000 PHP IIRC). It seemed odd spending that much at a kiosk in a jewelry mall at the Manila Gold Market, and I just barely was able to withdraw the cash (yes, had to pay cash) from the ATM. A day later I was on the phone, international call to Bank of America begging them to release the lock they placed on my account!

That's all the jewelry I've had since high school and a faux-emerald class ring.

[Scuzz]

I wear a simple gold wedding band. I am not a real fan of jewelry but it can look good on others. But some stuff is really gaudy.

[Holman]

My wife and I both wear plain gold bands. Our initials and wedding date are engraved on the inside (and so never seen).

[hitbyambulance]

nothing

[raydude]

I just have a platinum wedding band. As for my wife's engagement ring, I splurged and got her a 1.5 carat, colorless (D?), VS1 clarity. She loved everything except the cut (round). She preferred an oval. However, she loved how it sparkled and for the first few years of our marriage it was my "get out of jail free" card.
"Honey, just look at the sparkly ring."
"OOOOOooo!"
To this day she finds that patients just follow the sparkliness on that ring when she moves her hand as she talks.

[dbt1949]

Because of my profession (electronic tech working on airplanes in the air force) I never got into wearing rings (too many possible accidents) but I do have some nice ruby and gold rings I had made.

[Daehawk]

My main ring was my wedding ring. It is a gunmetal / silver color and is made of titanium. Every now and then Id wear a second ring from the ones my wife got me....all silver.....a turquoise one, a Templar cross ring, a skull ring...maybe one other or so.

Now days just a wedding band. I got to worry Id lose my original one my wife gave me and replaced it with a black titanium one so if I lost it no big deal. I feel weird without my wedding ring on in town and still consider myself married. Got it in black to symbolize the loss of my wife..the mourning and grieving and all..

[Jaymon]

My (much) younger brother got married, they chose silicon rings. Its a new thing. The rings are soft, so they are suitable for machinery and activities. They are also breakable, so if the drill catches your ring, the ring just rips. And they only cost about 30 bucks, it seems that most of the folks buying these rings as wedding rings, are buying them in a set, like 4 at a time, in case they are lost or broken.

[Blackhawk]

My first marriage was a plain white gold band. My second was silver knotwork. These days? Nada, save for my conch ring (which is silver, with a ball, and is a fairly large one.) It's been in there for 15+ years now, save for a few months during my radiation treatment.

[Daehawk]

Nada, save for my conch ring

I think you misspelled cock.

[coopasonic]

I had a gold band that I wore 24x7. I lost it around 2015 after 16 years of marriage. A couple years ago we got silicone rings. Mine is a dark red, she has a couple. She still has her engagement and wedding ring but only wears them once or twice a year. The diamond would be a problem for her work where she puts on/takes off gloves all day and the wedding ring and engagement ring are connected so she can't just wear the wedding band (that has a bunch more smaller diamonds) either.

Hopefully my kids know better than to spend thousands on a single piece of jewelry.

[Brian]

I wear no jewelry at all. Not even a wedding ring.

I did wear my wedding ring for a while but I find jewelry to be a combination of distracting and uncomfortable.

With the proliferation of smartphones I was finally able to ditch wearing a watch and have been unadorned ever since.

[Madmarcus]

My (much) younger brother got married, they chose silicon rings. Its a new thing. The rings are soft,

You mean silicone not silicon.

I wear a gold wedding ring. I lost my first wedding ring on our honeymoon (it fell off in the ocean) so this is ring 2.0. Basically I don't take it off except for some work with robotics. Other then that the only jewelry I wear is a watch.

[Kraken]

I've worn a simple gold wedding band since 1983. My finger has grown around it, and yet I can still slip it on and off with a little effort. I also have a Seiko kinetic "Sports" watch that's good to 10 meters underwater, for some reason. If I ever swim with the fishes, my watch will live on. I don't think of watches as jewelry.

When my dad died I inherited his diamond onyx ring, which I wore on special occasions for several years before losing it. I think I left it in the pocket of a sports coat that I had dry cleaned. IDK if the cleaner stole it or if it just fell out or even if it was really there to begin with. There's a vanishing small chance that it's still in the house somewhere.

I bought Wife an engagement ring when I made something like $13,500 and managed to scrape together a few hundred bucks to buy a tiny speck of an emerald in a white gold setting. She wore it for a few years before the stone fell out. Quite a few years later, I found myself with several thousand dollars that I didn't need and decided to buy her a proper ring that she chose for herself -- a beautiful marquis sapphire "estate" (meaning used) ring. Eventually her finger got too fat to wear it. She assures me that she knows where it is, but it will probably never see the light of day again. She won't have it resized because someday that finger is going on a diet.

Just last month the guy who cleaned out her late brother's house found a diamond ring that she didn't know existed. She thinks maybe it was her grandmother's. She doesn't like diamonds and it has no sentimental value so I hope she'll sell it. It's fairly large, so if it's a real diamond it must be worth a few thousand at least.

[Lassr]

It was a 14k gold band with 6 tiny diamonds in a row along the band.

Now, nothing.

[Madmarcus]

I don't think of watches as jewelry.

I didn't think of a watch as jewelry until last year. I'd worn a smart watch for a number of years but generally found it clunky to wear. Plus it was starting to charge poorly. So I bought some old Soviet mechanical watches. They were cheap, I like the look and the history, and so far they keep great time. My wife gave me shit about it until I pointed out that it was more or less costume jewelry for a guy and cost less then many of the earrings and necklaces that she doesn't wear (in her defense she also doesn't buy them - they are left over from when she did wear them more often).

[Kraken]

I don't think of watches as jewelry.

I didn't think of a watch as jewelry until last year. I'd worn a smart watch for a number of years but generally found it clunky to wear. Plus it was starting to charge poorly. So I bought some old Soviet mechanical watches. They were cheap, I like the look and the history, and so far they keep great time. My wife gave me shit about it until I pointed out that it was more or less costume jewelry for a guy and cost less then many of the earrings and necklaces that she doesn't wear (in her defense she also doesn't buy them - they are left over from when she did wear them more often).

I've had watches continuously since my first Timex when I was a child. It is a device to see the time. I have a phone, but don't usually carry it around with me...and even when I do, it's still easier to glance at my wrist. I did affect a pocket watch for a little while, but we don't speak of that.

[Sudy]

About 15 years ago in my early 20s, I took a horrible call center job with the specific intention of saving to buy Mrs. Nym an engagement ring. (Not the horrible call center job I have now; an even worse one. ) It wasn't my intention to spend the bullshit multiple-months-of-salary on the ring, but I still wanted to get something special. I spent hours researching, discussing her preferences without giving too much away, etc. I found a reproduction antique setting by a jeweler in California, and had it shipped to another jeweler/diamond specialist elsewhere in the U.S. to have it completed.

I forget the total cost and whether shipping/duty were a major concern. I think it was somewhere between $1700-$2300, and even then I felt somewhat inferior after reading all the BS articles and posts on jewelry forums stating I should spend even more. This was for a kid without a degree or any real savings. Well, she loved the ring. Though I kind of botched the proposal. She hasn't worn it for years though, because it needs to be resized.

We chose our wedding bands online as well. (Plain white gold.) I think they were several hundred dollars. In the images, they appeared to have this cool banding. But, it turns out that was just a reflection, and they were fairly plain with dimpling around the edges. I joked, disappointedly, that they looked like little napkin holders. But we had decided to have a very small, rushed family wedding and didn't have time to return them, so we just went with it.


Even back then, we knew the conventions were bullshit. But we were young, and still somewhat swept away by notions of the way things "should be". Cubic zirconia was on our radar, and I wish we'd pursued it, or perhaps gone with custom designs featuring less (artificially) expensive stones. As it happened, almost everything went on to credit cards and, financially, we had a disastrous start to our marriage that we're only now recovering from.

I don't regret it though. I just wish we'd been more patient. But while we could have spent less (not that we spent much to begin with, on the wedding), we didn't really have a choice if we wanted to be together, because it was the only way for one of us to be able to immigrate and work across the border. (Canada-U.S.)

[Z-Corn]

We were broke college kids when we got married so we got the cheapest rings we could. Pretty sure they were $130 for both.

I've never taken mine off since, it'll be 32 years this year. I can't take it off now. I need to get it cut off some day and resized. I tried to cut it with some wire snips one time so now it's all dented in one spot.

My wife would be PISSED if I bought her a diamond. Whenever we have that much money to burn we go to Jamaica, something we can both enjoy.

[Jeff V]

When I was having trigger finger issues on my left hand ring finger, the finger swelled to the point the ring was strangling it, and I just barely was able to remove it. It stayed on my right hand (where it fit as good as ever) for about a year and a half, then the trigger finger subsided and the swelling also went down, so it's back on the left.

[coopasonic]

My wife would be PISSED if I bought her a diamond. Whenever we have that much money to burn we go to Jamaica, something we can both enjoy.

...and I never would have gotten a yes without one. It's all a matter of expectations I suppose. My wife is old school. I think it might be different for us now, but that time is long passed. On the other hand I doubt she'd sell it.

[Holman]

A friend of mine wore a titanium ring (for macho reasons) until he learned that they're a real risk: if you break your finger, paramedics/doctors can't cut the ring, so the swelling will probably require amputation to avoid sepsis.

[Isgrimnur]

NPR

In this case, the ring cutter failed, and the fire department came in with its own specialized cutting gear. The ring wouldn't budge. The patient was admitted to the hospital and spent the night with his hand elevated. The next morning one of the physicians suggested they try something else, namely bolt cutters, which are often on hand in hospitals.

It worked! But "the other problem is that once you cut it, you have to take it off," says Salibi. And that takes a lot of force. So using some large, heavy-duty paperclips, the two physicians pulled the ring apart. The man's finger was fine. The doctors say bolt cutters are preferable to dental saws or diamond-tipped saws, which aren't likely to be lying around the hospital and require more manpower.

[Jeff V]

My wife's wedding band has a string of diamond inlays. One of them fell out (and was lost), she took the ring in to get it replaced, and they suggested having all of the diamonds remounted since the existing ones were failing. I think rehabbing that ring cost more than we paid for it.

[Daehawk]