Jewelry shopping can be intimidating. That’s why we started Ask Holden, our blog where we answer your FAQs, break down scary industry lingo, and guide you in finding the perfect piece of jewelry.
Open bars, open arms, open books…there are a lot of great things with open beginnings! At Holden, our favorite of these is “open rings.” If you’ve been scrolling on our website, you might’ve noticed that we recently launched three different open ring styles: The Open, The Open Diamond, and The Open Baguette.
But what is an open ring? Though they’re definitely less traditional wedding band or engagement ring styles, you may have seen similar solid gold or open diamond ring styles out there. The idea with open rings is that they aren’t completely perfect circles. They’re designed with a gap or opening (the ones on ours are 8mm wide to be exact), which makes them perfect for a few different scenarios.
Keep reading to learn the three main reasons why an open ring might be right for you:
1. To accommodate the low setting on your engagement ring
If the center stone on your engagement ring has a lower setting, your options for wedding bands are more limited. Traditional flat wedding band styles can be tricky to pair with low-set e-rings, as the rings might not sit flush together!
At Holden, some of our most historically popular styles for customers in this predicament have been our curved ring styles. While curved rings are fantastic options for many customers with low-set engagement rings, they aren’t one size fits all.
Due to the 8mm opening on each of our open rings, these styles are even more flexible in terms of what kinds of engagement ring settings they’re able to accommodate. If you aren’t sure if one will sit flush with your engagement ring, just ask! Feel free to shoot us an email at help@hiholden.com and one of our team members will be happy to confirm whether an open band should pair well with your engagement ring.
2. If you’re nervous about ring size fluctuation
If you didn’t know, the size of your finger can fluctuate up to a quarter size day-to-day, and up to a half size seasonally due to factors like weather and physical activity. Though we offer free resizing on our rings, we don’t typically recommend resizing your ring a bunch as it will lose material and can become weaker each time it’s resized!
If you find the thought of your ring size changing troubling, you’ll definitely want to check out our open bands. Since the metal doesn’t wrap all the way around the circumference of the finger, these rings can be gently pulled or pushed apart to make them slightly smaller or larger. If you need to adjust by more than a half size, we don’t recommend doing a DIY resizing—simply reach out to help@hiholden.com to get the process started.
3. To stack with other bands
Looking to create the perfect ring stack with solid platinum, white, rose or yellow gold pieces? Our open rings are the ultimate stackers, as their flat profile keeps them sitting pretty and flush with other rings.
They’re also ideal as spacer rings! Since open bands are quite flexible in terms of what kinds of engagement ring settings they’re able to accommodate, they stack quite seamlessly with many engagement rings that have low-set center stones. Pop on an open ring with another flat band of your choice, and you can kiss your worries about gapping goodbye!
Or say you have a couple of diamond eternity rings with delicate prongs. You won’t want the diamonds on your eternity bands to rub against one another, as this can cause scratches, abrasion, or chipping to the stones. Diamonds are one of the hardest substances on earth, but they can damage other diamonds!
To avoid this, you can put a thin spacer band between your diamond rings. Our Open bands are made in a thin 1.5mm width, so they’re super subtle! The opening also makes them great spacers with engagement rings that feature a less protective center stone setting, since this will allow a little extra breathing room for your rock.
Ultimately, there’s no need to follow these guidelines too strictly, as it’s all about wearing the rings you love at the end of the day (we’ve seen plenty of lovely ring stacks that feature gapping between the bands, so if you like this look, definitely go for it!). But if you're considering a ring that opens, we hope that the knowledge of its benefits makes the decision-making process easier.
Lastly, know that an open circle ring looks amazing when worn on its own as well—but if you’re a fan of subtlety and minimalism, we figure you were probably already thinking this!
Shop Open RingsQuestions? Give us a shout at help@hiholden.com or a ring (pun intended) at 646.722.6817.
