Editor’s Note
This article examines the strategic challenges facing mid-market jewelry brands as gold prices soar. While the full piece details how companies are adapting to maintain affordability, the core tension—balancing material value with accessible pricing—remains a defining puzzle for the industry.
Driven by economic uncertainties and market caution, the price of gold has reached historic highs. At $4,000 per ounce, the precious metal has never weighed so heavily on jewelers’ accounts. While major luxury houses have comfortable margins to absorb the shock, so-called “accessible” brands like Histoire d’Or, Pandora, or Gas Bijoux must double their inventiveness to keep their promise: offering “real jewelry” at reasonable prices.
In 2025, the price of gold has surged by over 50%. This spectacular rise is fueled by several factors: falling interest rates, a weak dollar, and geopolitical uncertainty, which have propelled the precious yellow metal to the status of the ultimate safe-haven asset. According to Goldman Sachs, gold is on track to record its third consecutive year of double-digit gains. UBS even mentions a doubling of net purchases by central banks, keen to diversify their reserves in a context of distrust towards the dollar.
This rush for gold is shaking jewelry workshops. For so-called “accessible” brands, which want to offer pieces at prices below those of major houses, the situation is becoming perilous. Production costs are exploding, and margins are shrinking.
Their names? Gas Bijoux, Histoire d’Or, or Pandora. These brands face a double constraint: they must control costs while remaining synonymous with “real jewelry.” For Histoire d’Or, which sells thousands of references per year and relies on very trendy designs, the model is based on volume: bulk importing, tight negotiation, and spreading the increases across the mass.
Pandora, another giant in the accessible segment (selling over 100 million pieces of jewelry per year), announced in 2024 that it would switch to 100% recycled gold and silver in its production. A strategic decision, as much as a brand argument. Officially, this shift is part of a strict environmental policy; unofficially, it also secures a supply less subject to global speculation.
However, this transformation was not enough to spare Pandora from turbulence: in its second quarterly report published in August, the house acknowledges an 80 basis point drop in margin linked to the rise in precious metal prices. But it is resisting better than its competitors.
For Gas Bijoux, a Marseille-based house founded in the 1960s, it’s a time for balancing, but always controlled.
So, to limit the damage, retailers are diversifying their supply sources or betting on lighter alloys.
9-carat gold (375/1000th) is the most accessible alloy. It contains only 37.5% pure gold, the rest being composed of metals like silver, copper, or zinc.
A compromise between brilliance, durability, and price. But for Sandrine Marcot, the challenge goes beyond raw materials:
