Palladium: The New Metal

Palladium is becoming a very popular metal in fine jewellery these days, but in reality it has been used for the last several decades. It is in demand today with the rising popularity of silver, platinum and white gold settings. However, palladium helps to offset some of the major problems of each of those traditional metals. It’s 44% lighter than platinum and 38% lighter than gold. However, that’s not a drawback – it’s a selling point. It’s more comfortable to wear, especially in earrings or larger rings and necklaces, but not so light that it feels like aluminium – it’s got enough weight to feel comfortable without being heavy.

Palladium doesn’t oxidise at room temperature. It doesn’t need to be polished as often. And it has a double cost advantage: not only is it cheaper than its rivals, but the manufacturer uses less metal in making the piece.

And it gives the wearer options. If you buy palladium, it doesn’t mean that you’d never wear platinum jewellery again. You might save the platinum jewellery for a special occasion, but you’ll wear the palladium jewellery all day, every day.

Since 1939
Palladium is a platinum group metal, and was first used for jewellery in 1939, when platinum was declared a strategic metal and reserved for military use. Palladium is white, noble, malleable, lightweight, hypoallergenic, easy to finish and polish, and has desirable, platinum-like setting and forming characteristics. Perhaps most importantly, jewellery made with palladium does not require rhodium plating, which can rub off over time or use.

Palladium versus other jewelry metals
Alone or alloyed with silver or gold, palladium offers some of the same metal working properties as other jewelry metals, yet it remains tarnish free. It also offers jewelers a sharply different pricing point than either gold, white gold or platinum. It is more precious than silver and whiter than platinum. Because it is also lighter than platinum, nearly half the weight, more intricate necklaces and bracelets can be made capable of bearing larger gemstones with no gain in overall weight. For the same reason, Palladium can be an especially good choice in earrings. With the price of platinum and gold reaching recent highs, use of palladium for jewellery offers consumers some excellent lower-cost alternatives.

• PALLADIUM IS A PLATINUM GROUP METAL. It doesn’t tarnish or lose whiteness when worn.
• PALLADIUM IS NATURALLY WHITE and does not require rhodium plating as white gold does. Rhodium plating is impermanent, so the natural off-white color of most white gold alloys becomes evident through normal wear.
• PALLADIUM WEARS BETTER THAN WHITE GOLD. Wear testing revealed a 15% longer wear ratio, similar to how platinum wears in comparison to white gold.
• PALLADIUM WEARS LIKE PLATINUM. As with any piece worn daily, both platinum and palladium jewelry will show surface wear over time. Surface wear is easily restored by cleaning and polishing – a regular practice performed by Pommier Jewellers.
• PALLADIUM IS 95% PURE. Common alloy ingredients are ruthenium and iridium, also platinum group metals.White gold is typically alloyed with base metals making it less pure.
• PALLADIUM IS COMPARABLE IN WEIGHT TO 14K WHITE GOLD , making it comfortable to wear even larger pieces.
• PALLADIUM AND OTHER PLATINUM GROUP METALS ARE HYPOALLERGENIC. Many 14k white gold alloys contain nickel, an element which is known to commonly cause allergic reactions.

• For more information, please Contact Us.

Back to Library