Gold Is Expensive. What That Actually Means for Buyers

Gold demand hit record value in early 2026 even as volumes fell. What record prices change about buying jewellery, and what they do not.

Every client this year has arrived with the same background anxiety: gold is expensive, and they suspect they have missed their moment.

The data is more interesting than the anxiety.

What is actually happening

Total gold demand in the first quarter of 2026 reached 1,231 tonnes, up 2% year on year, while the value of that demand hit a record US$193 billion.

But jewellery demand specifically fell sharply in weight terms, down 23% year on year to 300 tonnes, with declines across every major market.

In value terms, jewellery demand rose.

Read that again, because it is the whole story

People are buying less gold and spending more money. Volumes down, value up.

Nobody has stopped buying jewellery. They have stopped buying it by the gram.

What you are actually paying for

A gold piece has two costs inside it, and separating them is the most useful thing a buyer can do.

The metal. Weight multiplied by purity multiplied by the prevailing price. This part is not negotiable and not specific to any jeweller. It is the same number everywhere.

The making. Design, labour, finishing, setting, the margin that keeps a workshop open. This part varies enormously and is where jewellers actually differ.

When the metal price rises, the first component inflates and the second does not, or not proportionally. A heavier piece is therefore mostly buying you more of the thing that got expensive.

Ask any jeweller to show you the split. A straight answer is a good sign.

What it changes about how you should buy

Weight is a poor way to choose a piece now. When metal is expensive, buying by gram weight means paying more for the same idea. Buying by design means the money goes into what you actually see.

Workmanship becomes better value, relatively. The making charge on a piece has not tracked the metal price upward the way the metal has. Intricate, well-made, lighter pieces represent more design per ringgit than they did three years ago.

Waiting is a bet, not a strategy. Anyone who tells you confidently where the gold price goes next is guessing with conviction.

What it does not change

The price of gold has no opinion about whether a piece suits you.

It does not change what fits your wrist, what you will still want in twenty years, or whether a design is well drawn. Those questions were the important ones when gold was cheap and they remain the important ones now.

It also does not change the timing of a wedding, a birth or an anniversary. Occasions do not wait for commodity markets, and a piece bought a year late for a moment that has passed is not a bargain.

If the number is genuinely tight

Three honest adjustments, in the order we would suggest them.

Reduce the weight before you reduce the quality of the making. A lighter, well-made piece outlasts a heavier, poorly finished one.

Consider a simpler design rather than a smaller one. Scale reads on the hand; complexity often does not, at a distance.

Bring in gold you already own. Old pieces nobody wears carry real metal value, and putting that metal into something that gets worn is usually the best-value route available.

What we say in the room

If the piece is for an occasion that is happening, buy the piece. If it is an investment, buy the metal, and do not ask a bracelet to do a job a bar does better.

Most disappointment in this trade comes from asking one object to be two things.

Book a complimentary design consultation at our Kuala Lumpur atelier: 010-766 7448 · hq@cgarden.com.my

C'Garden is an independent bespoke jeweller in Kuala Lumpur. We are not affiliated with, endorsed by, sponsored by or certified by any organisation, laboratory or brand named in this article. Third-party names are used only to refer factually to those organisations and their published standards. All text and imagery in this article is original work created by C'Garden.

Reference

World Gold Council. (2026). Gold demand trends: Q1 2026. World Gold Council. https://www.gold.org/goldhub/research/gold-demand-trends/gold-demand-trends-q1-2026