Jewellery Repairs in Hatton Garden
Most jewellery that fails does not fail suddenly. Claws wear thin over years, a shank gets thinner every time it is polished, a clasp loosens by degrees — and then one day something is gone. Almost all of it is visible beforehand to somebody who looks, which is why the most valuable thing on this page is not a repair at all but a check.
What the work involves
- Claw re-tipping — the one that matters most
- The tips of the claws holding a stone wear down against everything a hand touches. Once they are thin enough, a knock is all it takes. Re-tipping adds metal back to the tip and reshapes it, and it is a small job done in time and an expensive one done afterwards. If you have a ring you wear daily and have never had the claws looked at, that is the thing to book.
- Shank replacement
- The underside of a ring thins with wear and with each polish, and eventually it goes out of round or splits. A new shank is soldered in and shaped to match — the ring keeps its head, its stones and its character, and gets a fresh band. On a ring worn for decades this is normal maintenance rather than a repair.
- Chains, clasps and catches
- A broken link is soldered and re-polished. A worn clasp is replaced, and it is worth replacing with something stronger than the original if the piece has grown heavier — a bracelet or a pendant that has been added to often outgrows the catch it came with. Safety chains can be fitted to anything that matters.
- Rhodium replating
- White gold is plated with rhodium to make it properly white, and the plating wears through in roughly one to three years of daily wear, usually showing first on the underside of the shank. Replating cleans, polishes and re-coats the piece and it comes back looking new. Platinum and yellow and rose gold never need this.
What to know before you commit
- Some things are not worth repairing, and we will say so
- Hollow chain links that have crushed or split are the clearest example: the repair costs more than the chain is worth and the next failure is already forming somewhere else along it. The same is true of very thin, heavily worn mass-produced settings. An honest assessment before the work is more use to you than a quote.
- Repairs on a hallmarked piece
- An article that has been improperly repaired is treated in law as though it had never been hallmarked. Any work that adds or removes significant metal needs to be handled with that in mind, which is a reason to be careful about who does it rather than a reason to avoid the work.
- Polishing is not free
- Every polish removes a little metal. It is why a much-polished ring has soft, rounded edges where a cared-for one has crisp ones, and why we would rather clean a piece than polish it when cleaning will do. If you want a ring to last generations, ask for it to be polished less often, not more.
Common questions
How often should I have my engagement ring checked?
Once a year for a ring worn every day. It takes a few minutes: the claws are checked under magnification for wear, the stones are tested for movement, and the shank is looked at for thinning. Nearly every lost stone we hear about was preventable at a check that never happened.
Can you repair jewellery you did not make?
Yes, and most of what comes across the bench was made elsewhere. Bring the piece in rather than sending a photograph — what is wrong with a piece of jewellery and what it will take to put right are things you establish with it in front of you and a loupe on it.
My white gold ring has gone yellow. Can it be fixed?
Yes, and nothing is actually wrong with it. The rhodium plating has worn through and you are seeing the gold alloy underneath, which every white gold ring does eventually. It is cleaned, polished and re-plated and comes back white. Expect to repeat it every year or few, or move to platinum, which is naturally white and never needs it.
Can a stone be replaced if I lose one?
Usually. Small accent stones are matched and reset routinely. A lost centre stone is a larger conversation, because matching an existing setting means matching the size and often the cut and colour of what was there. Bring the ring and any certificate you have for the original stone — the certificate makes matching far easier.