The Australian Engagement Ring Trends to Watch in 2026

Engagement ring styles shift as time goes by, with new styles and design elements bringing a freshness to designs. Unlike fashion which moves at a fleeting pace, engagement ring trends are more thoughtfully curated. The key is designing new elements into a piece, while also creating a timeless design that will feel as beautiful on your hand now as it will in decades’ time.

Here are 3 emerging trends I’m seeing at our Australian jewellery studio, to inspire your very own modern-yet-timeless engagement ring design in 2026.

1. Solitaire Engagement Rings with Unique Design Elements

Solitaire engagement rings have long been a favourite for custom diamond ring designs in various ways. While round diamonds are a traditional choice, we’re seeing more and more clients choosing a unique design elements for their solitaire engagement rings.

Even with a simple concept of one single stone in an engagement ring, it’s the detail of these elements that allow a piece to be made personal. Clients are increasingly customising their designs with alternative diamond shapes, band textures, and setting orientations to bring modern elements to their designs. Incorporated into a classic single stone design, it becomes a beautiful blend of modern design alongside timeless simplicity.

2. Engagement Rings with Local Australian Gemstones

Diamonds have been a loved choice of gemstone for an engagement ring for many decades, though Australian couples are increasingly looking for alternatives for their custom ring designs. We’ve seen a particular interest in locally sourced gems, and take great joy in incorporating Australian gemstones into beautiful handmade ring designs.

Australia is home to stunning gemstones, many of which can be incorporate into an engagement ring design that will be worn every day. We’re seeing a growing interest in Australian coloured diamonds in neutral shades, as well as Sapphires in shades of classic blue and unique green. Creating an engagement ring with Australian gemstones is a wonderful way of supporting our local industries, while also capturing an element of your engagement story in your design.

3. Trilogy Engagement Rings with Unique Shapes and Colour

Trilogy engagement rings have a long history, with their three gemstones thought to represent a couple’s past, present and future as they embark on their next chapter of life together. Traditionally, trilogy rings are made with three round white diamonds, though the three-stone framework creates so many opportunities to customise a design.

We’re seeing a growing creativity in shaking up the design elements of a trilogy ring in unique ways. Alternative diamond shapes, coloured gemstones, bezel settings, and gemstone proportions have all been incorporated into custom engagement ring designs to change the style and personality of a ring. Each of these combinations creates a personal design while also maintaining the classic essence of a trilogy engagement ring.

These trends have brought a fresh new shift to the custom engagement ring design realm, while keeping the timeless essence of a ring that’s going to be worn for many years. Whether you’ve found some inspiration for your own ring, or have sparked a new idea for a unique design, creating a ring that’s uniquely yours is a beautiful way to celebrate your engagement story.

To begin a conversation with a jewellery maker and bring your unique vision to life, book your complimentary appointment for our Canberra studio or virtual appointment.

Jewellery Trends to Watch in 2025

Fine jewellery sees trends in a different way to fast fashion. High end gemstone jewellery, gold jewellery, and platinum jewellery, are pieces we enjoy in our collections for years, decades, and even generations. So trends are less of a chop-and-change passing fad. Instead, trends add to the memories and stories the piece is all about. They’re trends that we’ll love in our collections for the long haul.

We’ve covered the trends in engagement rings we’re watching in 2025. Now, let’s look at trends of dress pieces entering your collections at the moment. Here are the 4 trends we’re seeing at our Canberra jewellery studio to watch in 2025.

1. Luxury Signet Rings

There’s a strong, growing love of signet rings for all occasions. In the luxury jewellery space, signet rings are a representation of who we are, what we value, and what we love. It’s this sentiment that’s soaring in popularity, with designs incorporating the nuances of the important things we want to be conscious of as we go about our days.

As well, there’s a growing trend of signet-like ring profiles for diamond rings, with bezel settings that flow seamlessly to a wide look band. Either as an engagement ring, or a dress ring, this style is both modern, and practical to wear.

2. Pink Diamond Jewellery

Australia’s Argyle diamond mine - the most significant source of pink diamonds in the world since the 1980s - closed its operations in 2020. So, for the last few years, collectors have taken the chance to include this gemstone in everything from engagement rings, to wedding rings, to pendants and remodels.

Knowing they’ll be harder and harder to get hold of makes these pieces true treasures for gemstone lovers. Whether it’s as a feature gem, or a minor accent, each piece featuring Australian pink diamonds are a tangible piece of Australia’s (and the world’s) history of gemstones.

3. Inset Gemstone Rings

Rings with gemstones set flush with the band are becoming a highly sought after ring style, for all occasions. This style has been a favourite for remodelling multiple jewellery pieces into one cohesive band, though it’s now extending far further into designing new one of pieces as dress rings, wedding band, and milestone celebrations.

These wider style bands are comfortable to wear, durable, and are a modern way to incorporate colour into a ring style you’ll wear day to day, with the bonus that the gemstone is protected within the ring. Blue gemstones in particular - in all shades and gemstone varieties - are seeing the spotlight in a big way for this style of ring, with meaning and personality showing through in gemstone selections.

4. Heirloom Remodelling

While heirlooms have always been a loved treasure, there’s a growing interest in remodelling family jewellery and pieces from former chapters in our lives, into new pieces we can wear all the time - rather than stashing them in a safe place, to never see the light of day.

We’re seeing more and more people redesigning meaningful gemstones and design elements into fresh and sturdy new designs that allow them to keep the memories their heirlooms hold as part of their everyday life through jewellery. Each treasure is an honour to help recapture.

Emerging trends are a great way of finding fresh inspiration for a unique jewellery design, and adding to the time capsule that fine jewellery represents in your life-long collection. For help designing a piece that’s uniquely yours in 2025, book your complimentary appointment to delve into the process.

The Australian Engagement Ring Trends to Watch in 2025

Like all things we wear, jewellery has trends that come and go with the times. While engagement rings are more resistant to the fashions of clothing (after all, they’re an item we wear for a very long time, not just one season), there are still shifts in styles that flow through engagement ring designs as times and generations change.

While you don’t want to choose an engagement ring based solely on a “trend”, new designs and styles are great inspiration for finding fresh ideas you haven’t thought of, to find something that is uniquely yours to love for many years to come. Here are the 4 engagement ring trends I’ve seen emerge in Australia, to keep your eye on if you’re designing your ring this year.

1. Asymmetrical Engagement Rings

While engagement rings are typically thought of as a straight band with a centre gemstone in the middle, there are so many ways to design an engagement ring that challenge classic profiles.

Fluid shapes in gemstones and band shapes have shaken up what has historically been thought of as an engagement ring in a way that’s fresh, elegant, yet still timeless and wearable. Asymmetrical designs are growing in popularity with freeform gemstone cuts, angled settings, and flowing wraparound bands, to create engagement ring designs that feel very different to those of generations past.

2. East-West Set Engagement Rings

Traditionally, engagement rings with longer diamond shapes are set with the gemstone vertically, with their longest side angled up-to-down on the band. Recent years have seen more and more gemstones set horizontally, or east-to-west, on the band.

This style is particularly great for oval cut diamonds and emerald cut diamonds, and allows you to have the simplicity and practicality of a solitaire engagement ring, with a profile that feels modern too.

3. Engagement Rings with Patterns and Colours in the Band

Most trends for engagement rings revolve around the centre gemstone, or shape as a whole, though there’s growing attention to bringing a unique spin to engagement ring designs through the detail in the band, or the wedding ring alongside it. Smaller gemstones seem like a minor detail, though have a powerful impact on the style and uniqueness of a ring.

Traditionally, engagement ring bands have either been entirely plain, or had all diamonds along the band. There’s a growing interest in fresh takes on these two options for band designs, by playing with diamond arrangements, patterning, and colour, which opens up endless options. This is a beautiful way to draw in meaning and personality to your design, for example by incorporating birthstones, favourite colours, or reminders of important moments together for your unique engagement ring.

4. Solitaire Engagement Rings

It feels like cheating to include a ‘classic’ engagement ring design in a ‘trend’ round up. However the interest in solitaire engagement rings has been so strong lately, it had to make my list. Many couples are opting for a single, beautiful gemstone for their engagement ring, in a classic solitaire setting to celebrate their engagement.

With such a classic design, the gemstone becomes the all important detail. Choosing your solitaire ring brings the focus to choosing just one wonderful gemstone that you love. While the classic round brilliant cut diamond is always a favourite for engagement rings, they’re not the only shape being sought for solitaire ring designs. Brilliant cut diamonds of all shapes, sizes, and proportions are making their mark as a subtle but beautiful way to make solitaire engagement rings unique.

There’s an art to bringing these trends to an engagement ring design that feels modern, timeless, and perfectly suited to the person who wears it. Looking at these 4 trends is a great starting point to finding your perfect design.

For help designing an engagement ring that’s both fresh, and uniquely yours, book your complimentary appointment to chat directly with a jeweller.

The Biggest Engagement Ring Trends of 2023

As the year draws to a close, it’s that time to pause and reflect on the year of jewellery making that was. Given we’re a jewellery studio that specialises in custom engagement rings, our designs are shaped entirely by what are clients are looking for, not by styles we’ve decided on beforehand. So, it’s interesting to see the ebbs and flows of trends and changes in what people look for in their ring designs.

Here are the biggest shifts we’ve seen in engagement rings going out the door from our Canberra studio in 2023:

1. Traditional Yellow Gold Engagement Rings

Platinum has been the most popular choice of metal for engagement rings for the last couple of years. With pricing basically on par with white gold for the first time in history, clients have been jumping on the chance to bring platinum to their jewellery collections.

Though this year, we’ve seen a huge interest in more traditional yellow gold for engagement ring designs. Almost half of our engagement rings have been handmade in yellow this year, which took me by surprise, but is a wonderful metal to work with. In timeless designs, yellow gold is a classic that will be worn an enjoyed for many years.

Almost half of our engagement rings in 2023 were handmade in yellow gold; a huge swing from almost-all-platinum designs last year.

2. Quiet Luxury Engagement Ring Styles

One of the biggest trends in fashion this year has been the ‘Quiet Luxury’ movement. People have been shifting away from statement clothing, with prominent brand names, and unique features. The shift has been more toward timeless designs, in understated styles that can be worn and enjoyed for many years to come.

If you’ve been following my work for a while, you’ll know that this has always been the style I veer toward here at Harlequin - ring designs that you can love and enjoy for many years, without the impact of passing trends and fashion tastes. So it’s wonderful to see this ethos bubble up in the fashion world too.

In 2023, we’ve seen a growing interest in classic, understated styles like solitaires using a variety of gemstone shapes, which blends ‘unique’ with ‘classic’. What a joy it is knowing my handmade rings will be loved and worn with pride for many years to come.

Timeless solitaires with thoughtfully chosen gemstone shapes have been big in 2023, aligned with the ‘Quiet Luxury’ trend in the broader fashion world.

3. Thoughtful Engagement Ring Purchasing

This year, more than ever, the people that have walked through my doors have been more conscious of the choices they make when they buy.

The idea of ‘sustainability’ and ‘conflict-free’ sentiments have been strong for a number of years, but the interest in thoughtful purchasing has gone much deeper than that this year. My clients are far more in tune with where their materials comes from, who makes what they buy, and the process of how it’s all made. Couples are more conscious of who they’re supporting with their purchase-of-a-lifetime. Be that their local makers, talented Australian based faceters, and miners that they can hear about.

As a jeweller, with a passion for old fashioned manufacturing techniques, skilful gem faceting, and unique gemstones, this shift has been wonderful for my work day. My days have been filled with deep chats with my clients about jewellery and gemstones, and it has been a great joy sharing the stories behind the making of all our pieces.

There is a growing interest in who couples are supporting with their purchases, and how things are made, which makes this custom jeweller very happy!

Each year - even each day - at our studio is entirely different. I can’t wait to see what projects and trends 2024 will bring through my doors.

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The 3 Biggest Engagement Ring Trends of 2021

As a custom engagement ring specialist, each year brings exciting new projects to bring to life in the Harlequin Jewellers workshop. The clients that walk through our doors bring sensational new ideas, and unique styles to keep my creative soul buzzing, and this year has been no exception. So, as we wrap up the final days of a memorable year, I’ve taken a moment to reflect on the year that was, and the engagement ring trends I’ve seen through my Canberra jewellery workshop.

1. Platinum engagement rings

One of the unexpected changes the last couple of years has brought about, is fluctuations in the price of precious metals, including gold and platinum. In my entire career as a jeweller (and for that matter, most of the last century or so) platinum has been far more expensive than gold. White gold has dominated as the metal of choice for white toned jewellery, as a more affordable yet durable alternative to platinum.

This year, however, took a turn. With soaring gold prices, and plummeting platinum prices, platinum jewellery has instead matched the price of white gold jewellery here at Harlequin Jewellers. As a result? It was ‘the’ year for a platinum engagement ring. Couples wanting a white engagement ring largely chose platinum over white gold. Handmaking jewellers across the board, myself included, very much enjoyed a year of fabricating rings in luscious platinum.

Platinum diamond engagement rings were highly sought after in 2021.

2. Bespoke coloured gemstone engagement rings

The last year has brought a ‘pause’ moment for many, and abundant idle time to consider what they really want in life. It seems that engagement rings have been part of his deep contemplation. Many couples have given much thought in 2021 to finding ways of bucking traditions and making their engagement ring uniquely and meaningfully their own.

By far, my favourite result of this deep thought on their engagement ring design has been the increasing desire for coloured gemstones. Many clients have come to me with hyper specific ideas on what they’d like in their engagement ring, be it a gem variety they had their eye on, a specific shade of a colour, or a truly personal meaning they hope to capture for their fiancé. And I can tell you, it makes this gem loving jeweller incredibly happy to find them the perfect gemstone.

Couples selected highly personal gemstones for their engagement rings in 2021, like this Aquamarine (first ring) and Australian Parti Sapphire (second ring).

3. Simple diamond engagement rings

In somewhat of a contrast to the second trend, the final trend I’ve seen in engagement rings has been a shift to simple, classic designs in diamond engagement rings.

In the past few years, clients seeking a diamond engagement ring have largely chosen designs with smaller diamond accents, such as sparkly diamond halos and diamond set bands. Throughout 2021, I’ve seen diamond engagement rings trending more toward traditional classic designs like trilogy rings and solitaire styles. These styles are true classics for good reason, and make for versatile, timeless, heirloom engagement rings.

Diamond engagement rings trended toward classic designs like trilogy rings (first ring) and solitaire rings (second ring).

All in all? The year 2021 brought many beautiful engagement ring designs through the Harlequin Jewellers workshop that were a privilege to create. Keep your eye out in January for my thoughts on what trends 2022 may bring.

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