From as far back as it could be traced the wedding ring was made from precious metal and when gold was out of reach, silver alternative was the usual choice. Things have changed since then and new metals entered the wedding band territory in order to bring new colors and exotic diversity to the existing traditional media. The gold is still even today the only viable alternative for yellow wedding bands, but when it comes to white the choices are many.

In the early nineties, non precious alternative metals started to establish themselves especially in the mens wedding ring sector bringing drastically reduced prices and different shades of white, gray, and even black to the designers palette. This alternative media still has its fair share of the market, but they shared a common flaw – none of them was neither precious or pure, an important prerequisite to the wedding band`s symbolism. The white gold option could be classified as semi precious, since they are also far from pure. Highest purity of white gold alloy never exceeds 75% (18K) and the common one is 58.5% (14K). This together with the imperfect white color and the necessity of constant rhodium plating to remedy it, created a niche for new entry. Some 15 years ago platinum was reintroduced to the market. It looked like the perfect white media; precious, rare, hardwearing and hypoallergenic. Platinum gained popularity overnight and was soon accepted as superior to white gold in any aspect as white fine jewelry metal especially for diamond wedding bands. Everybody wanted platinum, but few can afford it. Platinum was and it is still far more expensive than any other precious jewelry metal. The market responded with a new solution.

Palladium was in use many years as whitening alloy metal for white gold alloys but its use as solo media was limited by its special manufacturing requirements. New technologies provided the solution and few years ago palladium was introduced as white precious jewelry alternative. It is still new and not very well marketed, but from every angle it has all the right qualities. Palladium belongs to PGM (Platinum Group of Metals) known also as noble metals. It is very close to platinum but 40% lighter (similar to the weight of 14K gold) and with much lower current price. These two differences allow Palladium wedding band to sale for about a third to a quarter of the price of identical platinum one, retaining all the platinum qualities and indistinguishable in appearance. Palladium same as platinum is used in almost pure (95%) form.

To choose wedding band in palladium is also a smart investment. Palladium is even rarer than platinum and just at the end of 2001 was more expensive than both – gold and platinum. Palladium is gaining momentum and its popularity will inevitably grow to a point where its price will sharply spring up.