How Much Does a Custom Chain Cost?

Start with pieces that already have prices, because a custom chain is a variation on this reality, not a parallel universe. The chain file holds 46 pieces. The floor is $290. The ceiling is $4,960. Every one of them is 10K, about 41.7 percent gold. The stone field on every chain is solid gold, which in this file means no diamonds are part of the product. If you want stones in the links, you are already outside this list and inside a drawing.

Chain	Width	Price
Singapore Chain	0.6 mm	$290
Curb Chain	1.5 mm	$300
Miami Cuban Link Chain	1.50 mm	$495
Flat Miami Cuban Chain	3.7 mm	$1,355
Hollow Franco Chain	2.8 mm	$1,425
Franco Chain	2 mm	$1,655
Flat Miami Cuban Chain	5 mm	$1,880
Hollow Cuban Chain	6 mm	$2,090
Rope Chain	3 mm	$2,175
Hollow Cuban Chain	7.5 mm	$2,870
Franco Chain	3 mm	$3,425
Miami Cuban Chain	5 mm	$4,260
Hollow Cuban Chain	8.5 mm	$4,870
Rope Chain	5 mm	$4,960

Read down the width column and the price column together. They do not march in lockstep. The 2.8 mm hollow Franco at $1,425 costs less than the 2 mm Franco at $1,655. The 8.5 mm hollow Cuban at $4,870 is in the same neighborhood as the 5 mm Miami Cuban at $4,260. Anyone who quotes you "per millimeter" without grams and construction is skipping the only columns that matter.

A chain's gold cost is grams times the gold fraction times the market price of gold that day. We do not print a homemade gram chart and call it a quote. The design is where the grams get counted for the length and the link you actually want. Karat changes the fraction. 10K is 10 parts gold out of 24, about 41.7 percent. 14K is about 58.3 percent. 18K is 75 percent. The FTC Jewelry Guides are why a chain under 10K is not sold as karat gold in the United States. Every chain we list is already at that 10K floor.

Length multiplies grams. A 24 inch chain is not twice a 20 inch chain in inches, but it is more gold, and the price moves with the extra links. Clasp, end caps and a stronger bail for a heavy pendant add metal too. When you compare two custom quotes, ask both for inch length, millimeter width, karat and gram weight. If one quote has grams and the other has only a vibe, you cannot compare them. Our exact price arrives with the design so those lines exist before you agree.

Small chains are a different economy. The Singapore Chain at 0.6 mm is $290, and the 0.8 mm Singapore is also $290. At that size the gold value inside the chain is not the whole tag. You are paying for a finished, wearable chain, not for melt value. A custom version of a hairline chain is rarely a win. Buy the $290 chain from chains unless the length or the clasp is genuinely wrong.

Hollow means the link is a shell. It can look wide and weigh less, which is why an 8.5 mm hollow Cuban can be priced near a narrower chain that uses more gold per inch. Hollow links dent if they are thin, and a dented hollow Cuban does not "press out" into new condition by magic. Flat Miami Cubans in the file, at 3.7 mm for $1,355, 5 mm for $1,880 and 5.8 mm for $2,060, are a lower, wider look than a puffed hollow link. The names are doing real work. Use them.

In our product data the phrase solid gold means the piece has no gemstone. It does not mean every link is a solid bar of metal. The Hollow Cuban is still tagged in that no-stone sense and is hollow in construction. When you brief a custom chain, do not say "solid gold" and think you have specified construction. Say whether the link is hollow or a full link, and ask the design to state grams. The price without grams is a number you cannot audit.

This is also why a custom chain can cost more than the hollow chain that "looks bigger" in a photo. Looks are width. Cost is mass, karat and labor. If you want the big look and the lighter weight, say hollow, and accept what hollow means when it hits a door. If you want mass, say so, and expect the gold line to lead the quote. Background on the link itself is on how Cuban link chains are made.

The cleanest example in the file is 5 mm. The Flat Miami Cuban Chain at 5 mm is $1,880. The Miami Cuban Chain at 5 mm is $4,260. Same advertised width. More than twice the money. Whatever the difference is in weight, link depth and build, it is large enough to show up as $2,380 on the tag. A custom order that says "5 mm Cuban" without saying which kind of 5 mm is an incomplete order. The design has to pick a link, not a millimeter.

Franco tells a similar story. The 2 mm Franco is $1,655. The 3 mm Franco is $3,425. One extra millimeter, more than double the price, because a Franco's twisted links add gold fast as they grow. The hollow Franco at 2.8 mm is $1,425, under the thinner non-hollow Franco. Bring those three tags to any conversation about "a Franco around 3 mm." The range is the lesson.

Rope chains span even wider in the file: a 3 mm rope at $2,175 and a 5 mm rope at $4,960, which is the top chain price we list. If your custom brief is "the biggest rope," the $4,960 piece is the thing to try on first. Custom is justified if you need a length, a clasp or a karat that piece does not have. It is not justified as a way to rename the same chain.

None of the 46 chains carry a diamond stone field. Iced-out chains are a custom brief here, or they live on other jewelry pages as a category discussion, not as a chain SKU with a diamond carat weight in this file. Adding diamonds changes the quote from a gold problem into a gold-plus-stones problem. Every stone needs a seat. Seats need metal thick enough to hold them. A hollow shell that was fine as a plain chain can be the wrong home for a pave. The design has to thicken the link or refuse the stones. That choice belongs on the drawing, with a new carat total and a new price.

Laboratory-grown diamonds and natural diamonds both have to be named. The FTC Jewelry Guides call for a clear laboratory-grown disclosure, not a footnote nobody sees. GIA's distinction is growth history: the crystal can match, the origin does not, and a lab can separate them when your eyes cannot. On a fully set chain the carat total will dominate. On a chain with stones only on the clasp, gold still dominates. Say which coverage you mean. What an iced-out chain costs is the companion page. What a Cuban link costs stays with the plain-gold version.

Do not describe a plain catalog chain as iced because the photo is bright. The $4,260 Miami Cuban is a gold chain. If you want diamonds in it, you are approving a different design. Nothing is made until you agree to that design and its exact price.

Labor on a plain chain is the making and finishing of the links and the clasp, not a vague shop fee. A complicated clasp, a custom end that has to clear a pendant bail, or a length that is not a stock length adds work. A box clasp and a lobster clasp are different objects. Name the one you want so it is inside the price. Clasp types are compared on chain clasp types if you want the vocabulary first.

The pendant changes the chain spec. A 15 mm locket can live on the $495 Cuban. A large custom face cannot. If the chain and the pendant are one project, they are one design or two coordinated designs, each with a price. The bail opening and the chain width have to match. Approving them in separate conversations is how people buy a chain the pendant will not fit. Custom pendant cost covers the face. This page covers the chain. Read both if you are buying both.

Under $1,000, the chain file is full of finished options, which is what chains under $1,000 and jewelry under $1,000 are for. Custom quotes under that line only make sense for a length or a clasp you cannot find, not for a style that is already on the site at $290 to $700.

The price comes with the design, before any chain is made. Check length in inches, width in millimeters, link type, hollow or not, karat, color, clasp, and grams. If diamonds are included, check total carat weight and origin. Then check the number. If you want it cheaper, change a spec: shorter length, hollow instead of full links, narrower width, no stones. You get a new design and a new exact price. Agree to one of them or buy a finished chain.

Insured shipping applies when a chain ships. A manufacturing defect has a 7-day window. No refunds. All sales are final. The showroom, if you want the weight in your hand before you approve a heavy custom link, is 7900 NW 27th Ave, Unit 506, Miami FL 33147. Phone 954-504-5640. The starting page is custom jewelry.

A custom chain costs more than a stock chain when it is actually different: different length, different link, stones, a karat the chain shelf does not list. It should not cost more because nobody showed you the $1,880 flat Cuban before drawing a new one. Look at the table first. Then draw what the table does not have.