Say Goodbye to 585 Platinum
Wright & Lato, champion of 585 platinum, a “14 karat” alloy of 58.5 percent platinum and base metals, was acquired by Novell Design Studio after filing for bankruptcy under Chaper 11. Novell, which has been filling orders for Wright & Lato since November, acquired the company’s assets, customer list, and intellectual property. Although Novell will keep the Wright & Lato brand name, it has no interest in continuing Wright & Lato’s line of 585 platinum jewelry. The high price of platinum has led many in the jewelry industry to seek alternatives, including new whiter alloys of gold, palladium, and platinum alloys with platinum group metals (which are less controversial than the base metal alloy promoted by Wright & Lato since they are already included in FTC marking rules.) So far, palladium has picked up the most converts since this platinum group metal is similar in appearance to platinum but much lighter as well as much less per ounce, resulting in much more affordable jewelry even in 900 and 950 alloys. Without the support of Wright & Lato, 585 platinum seems unlikely to pick up any market share.
585 platinum is marvelous. It maintains its elegance beauty and luster of platinum at half the cost. It makes complete sense and the beauty behind the metal is that I had a whole jewelry line to choose from which isn’t seen in platinum.
what about the durability, longevity and wear of 585 platinum?
If this is a move to help sell more Platinum, someone isn’t reading their financial charts properly. The industry needs to consider 25-30% platinum with alloy materials to be competitive not 58.5. I can only guess where this will leave palladium.