0.50 ct Natural Diamond Stud Earrings in 14K White Gold

Four is the smallest number of prongs that will hold a round stone still. Three will keep it from falling out, but a circular girdle gripped at three points can creep and turn in its seat over years of wear. Four points at the quadrants lock it. Everything past four is security bought with obstruction: each extra prong covers a piece of the crown and interrupts the outline, which is why a six-prong stone looks safer and slightly smaller than the same diamond in four.

The prongs do something else that is invisible from the front. A seat is cut into each one, so the girdle drops into a notch and is carried on that shoulder rather than by pressure from the folded tip. It is the difference between a setting that stays where it was put and one that works loose in a decade, and it is most of the labor in a mount that looks like nothing at all.

0.50 cttw of natural round brilliants, graded I–J in color and I1–I2 in clarity, in solid 14K white gold on push-back posts. Half a carat total is the weight at which a stud no longer needs pointing out and still never needs taking off.

Natural stones, solid 14K white gold, covered by the DEEVE lifetime warranty.