Half bezel engagement rings hold the diamond with two arcs of metal at its ends and leave the sides open, so the stone shows more of itself and takes light from the side while the points and corners, the parts most at risk, stay covered. Clairamor makes three half bezel designs, the half bezel, the east-west half bezel and the bypass half bezel: 156 bezel set engagement rings across nine shapes and nine metals, from $950 for the setting, each built for a lab-grown diamond you choose.
Half bezel or full bezel?
A half bezel, also called a semi bezel or partial bezel, is a solitaire setting that keeps the rim where it does the most good. On an elongated stone the thinnest parts of the diamond are its two ends, the points of a marquise or pear and the corners of an emerald or radiant cut, and that is exactly what the caps cover. The open sides let in light, show the stone close to its true size and leave the girdle exposed to a direct knock, as any prong setting does. That puts it a step below a full bezel for security and a step above prongs, with nothing to bend or lift. At Clairamor the half bezel and the full bezel cost the same, $950 in 14k gold, so the choice is how much metal you want to see; our guide to full, half and faux bezels compares the three side by side.
Three half bezel designs
The classic half bezel sits on a clean 2 mm band and takes a straight wedding band flush underneath; it comes in nine shapes and nine metals. The east-west half bezel turns the same setting sideways, so an oval, emerald cut, radiant, elongated cushion, marquise or moval lies across the finger like a bar of light; it is the same $950 and leaves out only round, pear and the Dutch marquise, the shapes that do not read sideways. The bypass half bezel ($1,650 in 14k gold) nests the stone between the two arms of a band that pass each other beneath it, the lowest setting we make at under 5 mm from the finger; it comes in oval, elongated cushion and marquise, and because the arms meet off-center it is planned with a curved or notched band rather than a straight one, as our bypass engagement ring guide explains.
Which shapes take a half bezel
Elongated shapes first: the oval is the half bezel's natural form, the emerald cut is the bezel shape our customers search for most, and the marquise, Dutch marquise and pear get their fragile points covered without losing their long open sides. The radiant cut, elongated cushion and moval take it just as well, and a round half bezel reads as a pair of crescents holding a circle of light. Each shape page shows the half bezel beside the full bezel, cathedral and other bezel settings for that cut.
Metal, price and what is included
Every design comes in 14k and 18k yellow, white or rose gold and in platinum, and all but the bypass in two-tone. The setting is $950 in 14k gold, $1,100 in 18k and $1,200 in platinum for the half bezel and the east-west half bezel (two-tone adds $150 on the classic design), and $1,650, $2,050 and $2,150 for the bypass. In white gold or platinum the caps blur into the diamond and the head reads as one bright shape; in yellow or rose gold they frame it as two crisp lines of color, and two-tone puts white caps on a warm band. Our platinum vs white gold guide covers the difference in wear. The diamond is chosen separately: every center stone is lab-grown, independently graded by IGI or GIA with its report, and priced well below a mined diamond of the same grade. Every ring ships free, can be returned within 30 days and includes one complimentary resize within 100 days for clients in the USA.
