People worry about the wrong component. The question is nearly always about the stone — will it scratch, will it dull, will it last — when a hard stone will comfortably outlive its owner.

What wears out is the metal. And because it happens gradually, most people do not notice until something has already failed.

Prongs: the first thing to go

Prongs are thin pieces of metal doing the most important job on the piece, and they sit in the most exposed position. Every contact with a surface, a fabric, a door handle removes a microscopic amount of metal.

Over a decade of daily wear they thin, flatten at the tip, and lose the slight curve that grips the stone. A prong at half its original thickness looks broadly normal to the eye — which is precisely why stones are lost without warning.

The band, from underneath

A ring worn every day thins on its underside, where it meets whatever your hand touches. This is uneven wear — the top of the band can look almost new while the bottom has lost a third of its thickness.

You can feel it before you see it: the band starts to flex slightly under pressure. That flex is the warning, and it is worth acting on rather than waiting for the band to crack.

Softer metals show this sooner. Sterling silver thins faster than gold, and higher-karat gold faster than lower, because more gold means a softer alloy.

Clasps and chains

A clasp is a mechanism, and mechanisms have a life. Spring rings weaken over years until the spring no longer closes fully — usually failing while the piece is being put on or taken off, which is when a necklace is most likely to hit a hard floor.

Chains fail at the link nearest the clasp, because that is where the pulling force concentrates. If a chain is going to break, that is where.

Rhodium plating on white gold

White gold is plated with rhodium to give it its bright white finish, and that plating is a surface layer rather than the metal itself. It wears through over roughly one to three years of daily wear, first on the underside of a band.

What appears is a faint warm or yellowish tone coming through. Nothing is wrong — that is the gold underneath. Replating restores it, and is routine rather than a repair.

What does not wear out

The stone, if it is hard enough. Moissanite sits near the top of the hardness scale, above almost everything it will encounter in daily life, and it does not cloud, discolour or degrade. A moissanite stone from a ring worn for thirty years is the same stone it was on day one.

Which is the useful way to think about long-term ownership: the stone is permanent, the setting is serviceable. Looking after the setting is what makes the whole piece last.

A rough timeline

1–3 years: rhodium plating wears through on white gold. Cosmetic only.

3–5 years: prongs begin to show visible thinning on daily-wear rings. First point worth a professional check.

5–10 years: band thinning becomes measurable; clasps on daily-worn necklaces start to weaken.

10–15 years: prongs on a daily-wear ring typically need rebuilding or retipping.

Timing for having this looked at is covered in when to get jewelry serviced.

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