How Fine Jewelry Is Actually Priced

The formula behind every number on this site — for sourced pieces and handmade originals both.

I am a materials science professor. I work with numbers every day. When I started Bravais Fine Jewelry, the first thing I did was build the pricing formula from first principles — not borrow an industry convention, not pick a number that felt right, but actually calculate what it costs to make or source a piece of fine jewelry and what markup is required to run a sustainable one-person business.

This post is that formula. All of it. For both categories of work I sell: the Stack Pack sourced collection and my handmade Stone & Wild originals. If you have ever wondered why fine jewelry costs what it costs — or whether a price is fair — this is the breakdown.

How the Jewelry Market Is Actually Structured —
Before Any Formula Makes Sense

Fine jewelry pricing is opaque to most consumers because the industry is structured in layers that are largely invisible at the point of sale. Understanding why the formula is what it is requires understanding where in that structure a piece comes from — and how many hands it passed through before it reached you.

Manufacturing houses

At the base of the supply chain are manufacturing houses — large-scale operations that produce jewelry at volume. The most significant ones are in Italy (Valenza, Vicenza), Thailand (Bangkok), Hong Kong, India (Jaipur, Surat), and Turkey (Istanbul). These facilities produce everything from mass-market fashion jewelry to technically sophisticated fine pieces. Stuller, the largest fine jewelry manufacturer and distributor in the US, operates as both manufacturer and wholesaler — their Broussard, Louisiana campus produces millions of pieces annually and supplies the majority of independent American jewelers.

Manufacturing houses price by volume. A casting that costs $12 per unit at 10,000 pieces costs $85 per unit at 50 pieces. The economics of scale are extreme, which is why mass-market fine jewelry can be priced far below what independent makers can match — and why comparing prices across tiers is almost never an apples-to-apples evaluation.

Wholesale distributors

Between manufacturing and retail sits the wholesale tier. Stuller, Rio Grande, and similar distributors buy from manufacturers (or manufacture themselves) and sell to jewelers, goldsmiths, and designers at trade pricing. Access requires proof of professional status — a business license, a resale certificate, or a professional credential. Consumers cannot buy at this tier.

Wholesale prices reflect manufacturing cost plus the distributor's margin, typically 30–60% above their cost depending on the category. When an independent jeweler buys from Stuller, they are buying at a price that already includes the manufacturer's margin and the distributor's margin. The retailer's markup — typically 2–3× that wholesale price — is the third margin in the chain.

Retail — the storefront model

Traditional fine jewelry retail is built around the "keystone" markup: the retailer pays wholesale and sells at twice that price. Triple keystone — 3× wholesale, or roughly 6× manufacturer's cost — is standard at full-price independent retailers. Large chain retailers (Zales, Kay, Tiffany) operate at similar or higher multipliers because they carry the costs of physical retail at scale: prime real estate, trained staff, security, display infrastructure, national advertising, and significant unsold inventory.

A $600 sterling silver necklace at a mall jewelry store may have a manufacturer's cost of $40–60. The consumer price reflects not just the object but the entire distribution and retail infrastructure around it. That infrastructure has real value — return policies, in-person service, brand assurance — but the object itself is a small fraction of what you are paying for.

Online direct-to-consumer

The internet removed the storefront layer for brands willing to sell directly. Online-only jewelry businesses operating without physical retail can survive on lower markups because they do not carry the overhead of commercial space. The trade-off is marketing cost — customer acquisition online can be expensive, and the absence of walk-in traffic means every sale requires deliberate effort to find the customer.

At Bravais, 2× wholesale on Stack Pack pieces is viable specifically because there is no storefront, no staff, and no physical retail overhead. The margin that would go to rent and payroll goes to a lower price for you instead.

One-of-one handmade — a completely different category

Handmade one-of-one jewelry exists almost entirely outside the manufacturing supply chain. The maker sources materials directly — metal grain, sheet, wire, and individual stones from dealers and suppliers — and fabricates from raw materials. There is no factory. There is no volume discount. There is no wholesale tier to buy into. The labor is entirely the maker's own time, and that time is the scarcest resource in the business.

This category is closer to fine art than to retail goods. When you buy a one-of-one handmade piece, you are not buying a product from a supply chain. You are buying the only physical object that resulted from a specific set of decisions made by a specific person at a specific time, using materials that took years to collect. It cannot be reordered. It cannot be remade identically. When it sells, it is gone.

The Core Formula —
Both Categories

Every price in fine jewelry comes from the same underlying equation:

The markup is not profit. It covers all the costs that do not appear in the materials invoice: your time, your studio, your tools, your platform fees, your shipping, your photography, the pieces that do not sell, and yes — eventually — a margin that makes the business viable. Strip any one of those out and the business runs at a loss.

The Stack Pack —
Sourced Fine Jewelry at 2×

The Stack Pack collection is fine jewelry I source through Stuller and Rio Grande — the two largest fine jewelry suppliers in the US, who supply independent jewelers, not consumers. I do not make these pieces. I curate them: selecting for quality, wearability, and how well they stack with handmade originals.

What goes into the COGS

Why 2× and not more

The standard retail markup for sourced fine jewelry is 2.5 to 3× wholesale — what the trade calls "keystone" or "triple keystone." That range exists to cover retail overhead: storefront rent, staff, display cases, utilities, insurance, returns, and the cost of carrying inventory that may sit for months.

I have none of that overhead. Bravais is online only, one person, no physical retail. My overhead is a Shopify subscription, photography equipment, and the occasional shipping supply run. 2× covers my costs and produces a margin. Charging 2.5 or 3× would be charging for overhead I do not have.

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Handmade Originals —
Stone & Wild and the True Cost of One-of-One

My handmade pieces — Stone & Wild, the Torus Band, the Palimpsest signet — are a completely different calculation. These are not sourced. They do not have a wholesale invoice. Every piece starts as a block of wax, goes through my hands, goes to Jewel-Craft for casting and setting, comes back to my bench for finishing, and is priced on what it actually cost to exist.

What goes into the COGS

Markup for handmade originals

Fine jewelry buyers — who have spent years learning what quality looks like — will often trust a $400 price point more than a $195 one for the same piece. Price signals value. Value signals craft. Undercutting your own formula does not make your work accessible. It makes it invisible.

The Sanity Check —
Five Questions Before Any Price Is Published

Why I Publish This —
Treatment Transparency Extends to Pricing

Bravais discloses every gemstone treatment in every listing. Heated, unheated, beryllium diffusion, minor oil — all of it, in plain language, because you deserve to know what you are buying.

The same principle applies to pricing. When I tell you the Stack Pack is 2× and explain why that is lower than industry standard, I am not running a marketing campaign. I am giving you the information you need to evaluate whether the price is fair. When I tell you a handmade piece is priced at 3× COGS because my bench time is $100/hr and the stone took ten years to find, I am explaining what you are actually paying for.

Transparency is not a differentiator at Bravais. It is the baseline.