WATCH | The sparkling ring design that 'moved' Durban man's wife

A diamond merchant and goldsmith teamed up to create a unique moving diamond ring worth R350,000 for one lucky Durban woman.

The brief was simple to jewellery wholesaler Shaun Naidu — a 40-something engineer wanted to dazzle his wife, also an engineer, with a “mind-blowing” diamond ring.

He bought a 1.01ct heart-shaped natural diamond from Naidu but didn’t want any conventional settings. The client, who asked not to be named, wanted a ring which moved to impress and resonate with his wife.

“He sent me a link of a gear ring — that’s what it is called. But that was done overseas and in cheap silver. I think no-one attempted it in gold and diamond before because it is very expensive material to use as there is a lot of wastage,” said Naidu.

“He had been to other jewellers who said no because it was too intricate. ‘Too crazy’, they said, and that it can’t be done in South Africa. But I was blown away. It reminded me of a fidget spinner. So the next step was to find someone who could get it done because this could elevate us to another level of craftsmanship.”

It was a challenge which intrigued Pretoria East goldsmith Candice Paxton .

While she's been in the business for 20 years, Paxton said she initially hesitated as she had not crafted such a ring before.

“But I never say no to anything because I believe anything is possible. It was also nice to do something petrifying that challenged me. I push all limitations and am not scared to take on something that has never been done in South Africa before,” said Paxton.

“It took me a while to get the design right on the computer. I took into consideration how it was cut, what makes it turn, how the teeth were curved so it wouldn’t jam and so on. A month later and I still had no idea if it would work.”

“After we cast everything, the fine work began. It was cleaning small pieces of gears and tubes and not filing too much or you would lose the shape, or sandpapering it too thin; it had to be just enough and that was terrifying,” she said.

The final product, which took three months to manufacture, turned out to be “a huge success”.

The 1.01ct heart-shaped natural diamond sits on one gear and the bottom ring; 133 x 1.35mm brilliant cut G and H (nearly colourless) diamonds weighing about 0.01ct were used and 4 x 0.10ct 3mm were used for the tubes in the gears. That makes a total of 2.74ct and 19g of 18ct yellow gold completed the ring’s measurements.

“We were able to achieve what no-one else could. Our client was super-excited to see something he wanted was now a reality,” said Naidu.

He said the couple wanted to remain anonymous for security reasons but were happy with the final product which was presented to the lucky wife in December. 

Since making the ring, Paxton said she has received requests from other jewellers for her design.

“Jewellers asked me how it was made and they wanted my CAD design, but I said no. I will happily make the ring for them. With all my months of anguish and torment they can figure it out for themselves,” she said.

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