Quick Answer
An OEM jewelry design request, a client asking you to manufacture a custom piece to their specification, needs a quotation built from six distinct cost blocks: metal cost (priced against a live source like Kitco), plating cost (driven by metal tone, layers, thickness, and coating type), labour/making cost, findings and chain cost, and one-time setup/tooling cost for the new design. Treating these as six separate, clearly itemized lines, rather than one blended "price per piece," is what makes a quotation defensible when gold prices move or a client asks why one design costs more than another.
Step 1: The OEM Design Request
Before costing anything, the design request itself needs to specify enough detail to price accurately:
- Base metal: gold (with karat: 24K, 22K, 18K, 14K), silver (925 sterling), brass, or another alloy
- Metal tone: yellow, white, or rose, since this changes the alloy mix even within the same karat
- Design weight and dimensions: gross weight, net metal weight, and stone weight if applicable
- Plating specification: required for the finish requested (see below)
- Findings and components: clasps, jump rings, ear wires, chain type and length, if the design uses standard components rather than being solid-cast throughout
- Order quantity: OEM setup/tooling cost gets spread across the run, so quantity materially changes per-piece price
Step 2: Plating Cost, Broken Down by Tone, Layers, Thickness, and Coating
Plating is one of the biggest hidden cost swings in an OEM quote, two visually similar pieces can differ 30-40% in plating cost alone depending on these four variables:
Metal tone and plating color
- Yellow gold plating over a yellow or rose-toned base is the most straightforward and typically cheapest
- Rose gold plating requires a specific copper-alloyed gold solution
- White gold finishes usually use rhodium plating rather than white gold plating directly, rhodium is a platinum-group metal, priced and sourced separately from gold, and finishes with a bright white, tarnish-resistant shine
Layers
- A common structure is base metal → barrier/underplate layer (typically nickel or palladium, to stop base metal from leaching through and discoloring the top layer) → top plate (the visible gold or rhodium finish)
- More layers add process steps and cost, but improve durability and colorfastness
Thickness (measured in microns)
- Flash plating: under 0.5 microns, decorative only, wears off within months
- Standard plating: 0.5-1.0 microns, the common commercial default, typically lasting 6-18 months of normal wear
- Heavy plating: 2.5 microns, meaningfully more durable, often 2-5 years
- Extra heavy / gold-filled equivalent: 4 microns and up, gold-filled construction can run 5-30+ microns, the most durable and most expensive non-solid option
- Thickness cost isn't linear with microns alone, surface area, texture (a textured or engraved surface needs more material to achieve the same nominal thickness than a smooth one), and rejection/rework rate all factor in
Coatings
- Anti-tarnish lacquer: a clear protective topcoat, adds a modest cost but extends the life of a thin plate
- Rhodium overlay on yellow gold: sometimes used to shift tone or add scratch resistance, effectively adding a second plating step on top of the first
Step 3: Metal Cost, Priced Against a Live Source
Gold and rhodium prices move daily and have moved substantially even within 2026, which is why an OEM quotation should reference a live market source like Kitco rather than a fixed number the sales team hasn't updated in months. The calculation itself is straightforward once the rate is current:
Metal cost = (Net metal weight × current rate per gram at the specified purity) + wastage allowance
Wastage (metal lost during casting, filing, and polishing) is typically added as a percentage of net weight, and should be quoted as its own visible line rather than buried inside a rounded-up metal cost, so the client can see exactly what they're paying for.
Step 4: Labour, Findings and Chain, and Setup Cost
Labour (making charges): covers wax modeling, casting, filing, polishing, and stone-setting labour, typically quoted per gram or as a flat per-piece making charge depending on the design's complexity.
Findings and chain cost: if the design uses standard components, clasps, jump rings, ear posts, pre-made chain by length, these are priced separately from the cast body of the piece, usually at a fixed cost per component or per unit length, since they don't scale with the main design's metal weight.
Setup/tooling cost: a new OEM design typically requires a one-time cost to create the wax master, mold, or die before production can begin. This is the line most often mispriced, quoting it as if it were a per-piece cost on a small order overstates true unit cost, while spreading it correctly across the actual order quantity gives the client an accurate picture of what a reorder would cost per piece once setup is already paid for.
Putting It Together: A Six-Line Quotation Structure
| Line | What It Covers | Priced Against |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Metal cost | Net weight × purity rate + wastage | Live Kitco rate |
| 2. Plating cost | Tone, layers, thickness, coating | Plating spec + surface area |
| 3. Labour/making cost | Wax, casting, filing, polishing, setting | Per gram or per piece |
| 4. Findings and chain cost | Clasps, jump rings, pre-made chain | Per component/length |
| 5. Setup/tooling cost | Wax master, mold, or die for new design | One-time, spread across order qty |
| 6. Margin/safety allowance | Buffer against price movement and estimation error | Percentage of subtotal |
This structure lines up directly with the estimated-quotation approach we've covered for manufacturing generally, raw materials, operations, overhead, and safety margin, applied specifically to jewelry's plating and setup cost drivers.
Frequently Asked Questions
Why does gold-tone plating cost differ from rhodium (white) plating?
They're different metals entirely. Gold plating deposits actual gold (priced against gold market rates); rhodium plating uses a platinum-group metal that is typically priced even higher per ounce than gold, and is applied specifically for white/silver-toned finishes rather than yellow or rose tones.
Does thicker plating always cost proportionally more?
Not exactly proportionally. Thickness cost is affected by surface area, part texture, transfer efficiency, and rejection rate, not just the nominal micron number, which is why comparing a 0.5-micron quote to a 2.5-micron quote from different suppliers isn't always a fair apples-to-apples comparison.
Should setup/tooling cost be included in the per-piece price?
It should be shown as a separate line and then allocated across the order quantity, showing it separately lets the client see that a reorder of the same design would cost less per piece since the tooling is already paid for.
Why price metal against Kitco specifically rather than a fixed internal rate?
Gold and rhodium prices can move meaningfully within days. A quotation tied to a live source stays accurate at the moment it's issued and gives both sides a transparent, verifiable reference point rather than a rate the client has to take on faith.
For more details, contact us.
Related on our site: See our Jewelry Manufacturing solution page, and our comparisons on Openbravo vs Odoo for Jewelry Manufacturing and Estimated Quotation: Raw Materials, Overhead, Safety Margin and Currency.
Part of the Complete Guide to ERP Comparisons, Manufacturing Performance Systems & Data Roles.