We won't give you a single date on day one, because we don't think a single date is honest. What we can tell you is the shape a commission usually takes with us, what tends to add time, and why we'd rather build in a proper buffer than promise something we might not hold.
Why we don't quote one number
A bespoke ring moves through consultation, design, stone sourcing, making, setting, finishing and hallmarking, and each of those stages depends on decisions that haven't been made yet when you first walk in. How many rounds of CAD revision you need. Whether the stone you want is sitting with a supplier already or has to be sourced against a specific brief or cut for the order. Whether the design calls for hand fabrication rather than casting, which takes longer by its nature. A standard commission typically runs four to six weeks from consultation to collection, and that gives us a working range once we understand your brief, but we treat it as a planning estimate, not a guarantee, until we're further in.
The stages, from where you're sitting
The first fortnight or so is usually the fastest-moving part: the consultation, your written brief, and our first CAD design. After that, CAD revisions and stone sourcing tend to run in parallel. If you're reviewing renders and asking for adjustments, there's no separate design fee, and no cap on revisions either, since we keep refining the CAD until you're happy with it, while we're working through stone options against your brief in the background. Once you approve the final CAD file and we've confirmed the stone, the piece is cast or, less often, hand-fabricated. Setting and finishing follow, then the piece goes to a UK assay office for hallmarking before you collect it.
What tends to push a timeline out
Stone sourcing is the stage we can predict least well, and we're upfront about that from the start. A well-specified, commercially available diamond is usually straightforward. A particular coloured stone, an unusual cut, or a tight combination of carat, colour and clarity all at once can take considerably longer, because we're working with what's actually available in the market rather than something we can conjure to order. We can cut stones to your brief as well, as sometimes a design demands this to ensure the perfect flow of diamonds or as you want something less commercial, this can add up to 4 weeks to the lead time. Design itself can extend a timeline too, though not because we cap it, we keep refining until you're happy. But every round of changes takes calendar time, and a change of direction after you've approved the CAD file means work already done sometimes has to be redone. And like most UK workshops, our queue lengthens around Christmas, Valentine's Day and the summer proposal season, which can mean longer lead times per piece during those windows.
The other variable, and it's one entirely on your side, is how quickly you respond at each approval point. We build our estimates around reasonably prompt decisions. A CAD render that sits unanswered for two weeks adds those two weeks to the timeline just as surely as a delayed stone.
Why we ask for a buffer before a proposal
If you're commissioning for a specific date, we'll ask you to come to us at least eight to ten weeks ahead of it, even though the build itself is usually shorter than that. That margin isn't padding. It's there to absorb the things most likely to run long: a stone taking longer to source than we'd hoped, a second CAD revision pass, or hallmarking landing during a slower turnaround week at the assay office. Starting at the average timeline and hoping nothing slips is not a plan we're comfortable making on your behalf, particularly when the date in question is a proposal.
If your date is closer than that, come and talk to us anyway. We'd rather have an honest conversation about what's realistic, a simplified design, a stone chosen from what's readily available, or, where we can make it work, a rush service to compress the timeline, than let you assume something isn't possible, or worse, promise a date we later have to walk back on.
Starting the conversation
If you have a date in mind, or simply want a realistic sense of timing before you commit to one, we'd be glad to talk it through at a bespoke consultation. We'll give you our honest estimate for your specific design, not a generic figure, and we'll tell you as early as possible if anything looks likely to move.
