Gold Watch

Thanks to a declining dollar, gold is becoming more precious than ever: The luxe metal made news last week when, for the first time ever, it topped $1,000 an ounce. That attention-grabbing price could lead jewelry designers working with gold to charge more for their wares.

A jewelry designer who co-founded Satya Jewelry, Beth Torstrick, said the company, which has boutiques in the West Village, NoLIta, and the Upper West Side, will be forced to raise the prices of its gold vermeil jewelry 5–10%. "We'll raise [prices] on select pieces as we make the new collections," she said, noting that the cost of silver has also been soaring.

Like Satya, many area jewelry stores will phase in higher prices over time — and not necessarily at the same rate as the raw commodity. "When you have a headline of a $1,000 gold price, that's not going to be reflected in stores tomorrow," the managing director, U.S., of the World Gold Council, John Calnon, said. "From 2004 to 2007, the price of gold went up 70%. During that time, the average retail price of a piece of gold jewelry went up about 14%."

Mr. Calnon added that the price of gold "is clearly a large component of the price of a piece, but other factors include the design, the manufacturing, and any supplier or retailer margins, which are substantial."

Even so, consumers may be noticing prices creeping up. "As the store owner replenishes his stock with new gold jewelry, it is going to come in at a much higher price for similar styles," a SoHo jewelry designer, Robert Lee Morris, said. To prepare for that, jewelry purveyors may be slowly raising their prices to avoid the perception of a onetime, vast price increase, he said. Prices are not the only thing poised to change. Mr. Morris, who works with copper and brass — in addition to gold and silver — said he believes that the next few years will usher in the return of "fabulous costume jewelry and renewed creativity using more experimental, non-precious but glamorous materials such as plastics, enamels, and lots of bamboo, recycled glass, and fibers."

Jewelry designer Devon Leigh of Devon Leigh Designs, who sells her jewelry at Neiman Marcus, as well as in jewelry boutiques in New York City and in the Hamptons, said she is minimizing the use of solid gold, in favor of bronze dipped in 18-karat gold. "That way, I can sell a cuff for $675 — instead of $10,000 or $12,000," she said. "I've had to change my designs to fit a lower price point, especially with the economy being what it is."

Meanwhile, Brooklyn-based jewelry designer Lorelei Hamm said the rise in gold prices has forced her to discontinue her 18-karat gold pieces altogether, and work exclusively with silver and gemstones. "I'm just not working with it unless I get a special request or commission," she said. "I can't put the money into creating a whole gold line and risk having it sit there and not sell."

While Satya has no plans to drop its gold vermeil or its 18-karat gold collections, but is altering its designs. "We are looking at doing more petite, filigree designs that use less gold weight," Ms. Torstrick said.