Ruby Halo Flower Cluster Ring with Round Diamond Center in 14k White Gold

This one is built in three rings working outward. A single round brilliant diamond sits at the centre, larger than anything else on the piece. Eight more round diamonds circle it close in. Then ten round rubies ring those, deep and purplish red, each one held in its own set of prongs so the outline finishes in ten distinct points rather than a smooth rim. Every stone is prong-set in white gold and the shank splits as it leaves the head. Just over a third of a carat of diamonds across the two inner rings, in 4.30 grams of 14k white gold.

Concentric rings of stones are easy to get wrong and this one steps correctly: the rubies are noticeably bigger than the diamonds circling the centre, which is what keeps the top reading as petals opening outward instead of as a bullseye of equal bands. The white ring in the middle is earning its place too. Red and white is the highest-contrast pairing in coloured stone jewelry, and rubies pressed straight up against a white centre would swallow it — the band of small diamonds is the gap that lets the centre stone stay the centre. It is the oldest combination in the trade for a reason. How many designs survive a century of copying?