By definition, fine jewelry is made from solid gold (be it yellow, white, or rose), sterling silver, or platinum, and it likely comes with gemstones (either precious like diamonds, sapphires, rubies, and emeralds, or semi-precious like turquoise, lapis lazuli, malachite, and carnelian). But buying it online isn't easy, even if you're a fine-jewelry collector like me.
That's mostly because it will cost you: Many fine pieces are priced upwards of $1,000. The price of gold now isn't helping matters, either. It's at an all-time high (valued at $4,206 per ounce as of yesterday), and some pieces in a previous edition of this guide went up in price -- a few even by the hundreds. That means that not only has your favorite jeweler most likely already marked up their prices, they're not going to be marking them down anytime soon. But, despair not: There are still plenty of fine-jewelry pieces out there for less than $500.
Just in time to meet this year's holiday shipping deadlines, I searched for fine jewelry under $500 that would make a nice gift, whether you're shopping for your mother, mother-in-law, wife, girlfriend, sister, or yourself. I made sure to include pieces that feel truly special, from places that we've written about, have been recommended to me, or that I have personally shopped at. As of publication time, everything here should be available to ship before Christmas. (I can't think of anything better to be unwrapped on Christmas Day than something sparkly.) For more gift inspiration, here's our guide to every gift guide we've written this year.
The Strategist is designed to surface useful, expert recommendations for things to buy across the vast e-commerce landscape. Every product is independently selected by our team of editors, whom you can read about here. We update links when possible, but note that deals can expire and all prices are subject to change.