Making a pendant from an old ring starts at $1,500 and runs to roughly $3,500, depending on how much of the ring you reuse and how custom the pendant design is. Resetting the stone into a clean bezel sits at the low end. A fully custom pendant with added detail sits at the high end.
These are ranges from my studio. So much depends on your particular ring that a consultation is the only way to get an exact number — and mine is always free.
Ring-to-pendant cost, at a glance
| What you're having done | Typical price range |
|---|---|
| Reset the stone into a simple bezel or prong pendant | $1,500 – $2,000 |
| Custom pendant reusing your stone and your gold | $2,000 – $3,000 |
| Elaborate pendant with added detail or accent stones | $3,000 – $3,500+ |
| Chain, if you need one | $100 – $600 |
Why the floor sits at $1,500: a pendant reset isn't a repair, it's a new piece. The stone comes out, a setting gets built around it from scratch, and it gets finished by hand. That's the same work as a ring reset, minus the sizing. Anyone quoting you a few hundred dollars is either reusing a stock mount or not doing what you think they're doing.
What drives the price
How custom the pendant is
A clean bezel around your stone is the most affordable route, and honestly the one I recommend most. A pendant with milgrain, a halo, or accent stones takes more hand-work, and that's where the cost climbs.
Whether I can reuse your gold
Often the gold from the old ring can be melted and used in the new pendant, which offsets some of the metal cost and keeps the original material in the piece. Not every ring yields enough usable gold — a thin, worn band frequently doesn't — and I'll tell you honestly whether yours does before you get attached to the idea.
The stone and the setting
A single sturdy center stone is straightforward. A delicate or unusually shaped stone, or one that needs a bezel cut specifically to fit it, adds setting labor.
Why a pendant is often the right answer
Most rings that come to me for this have stopped being worn for one of three reasons: the ring doesn't fit anymore, the style belongs to another decade, or it carries a memory that's complicated to wear on your hand every day.
A pendant solves all three at once. There's no sizing problem. A stone in a simple bezel reads as contemporary regardless of what the original setting looked like. And a necklace is easier to wear occasionally than a ring is — you can put it on when you want to think about the person, and take it off when you don't.
There's also a practical argument. Rings take a beating; necklaces don't. If a stone is chipped, has a feather, or is a softer gem like an emerald or opal, moving it off your hand is the single best thing you can do to keep it intact.
The honest version of the math
I'll say the part that doesn't help me: if your ring holds a small stone of modest quality, $1,500 to build a pendant around it may be more than the finished piece is worth on paper. Plenty of people do it anyway, and they're not wrong to — you're buying the ability to actually wear something that's been in a drawer for a decade. But you should make that choice knowingly, not because someone let you assume it was an investment.
Where the math is clearly good: a decent center diamond. A one-carat stone that would cost thousands to buy new is already yours. You pay only for the setting around it.
What the process looks like
Bring in or photograph your ring, tell me the pendant style you have in mind, and I'll give you a preliminary range on the spot. You approve the design — and a CAD rendering for custom work — before any metal is touched. Then I reset the stone, and you have a pendant you'll actually wear.
Related reading: what works and what doesn't when turning a ring into a necklace, what jewelry redesign costs overall, and my heirloom redesign page.
Book a complimentary consultation — in person in Santa Monica, or virtually from anywhere in the U.S.
Kate Price is the founder of Kate Rose Fine Jewelry, a Santa Monica studio specializing in heirloom redesign and custom fine jewelry.
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