Rolex, Jaeger-LeCoultre and De Beers use the durable metal in their watches and jewellery, as do boutique designers like Krishna Choudhary’s London-based brand Santi and New York jeweller Le Vian Yellow gold may have been trending at the start of the year thanks to the viral “mob wife aesthetic” on TikTok, but recently platinum has emerged as the precious metal of the moment. A naturally occurring, silver white material, platinum – originally named platina – boasts a long and noble history. Its use is believed to date as far back as 700BC, when the ancient Egyptians used the metal to adorn tombs and hieroglyphics.
It wasn’t until the 1700s, however, that the hard-wearing substance became prized, after Spanish conquistadors discovered it being mixed with gold to create ornaments in Colombia and Ecuador. Despite its solid weight and strength, platinum was initially dismissed as worthless by Ecuadorian gold miners. “Several of the mines have been abandoned on account of the platina, a substance of such resistance that, when struck on an anvil of steel, it is not easy to be separated .
.. the [gold] enclosed within this obdurate body could only be extracted with infinite labour and charge,” wrote Spanish scientist and explorer Antonio de Ulloa, having returned from a trip to Ecuador in 1748.
The colourless metal was, at the time, used in place of silver for decorative objects like sword hilts and snuff boxes. Advertisement {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":".
