What are the Most Popular Engagement Ring Styles?

Edgy, alternative, and innovative engagement ring styles enter the market every year, ranging from fun floral engagement rings to engagement rings made from materials like wood or meteor rock. Even though people are excited by these designs, most eventually choose more traditional rings. Year after year, our most popular engagement ring styles are always classic settings like straight engagement rings and traditional halo engagement rings. Classic engagement rings are classic and popular for a reason – they typically are not overly elaborate, and instead feature simple silhouettes and diamond details that will never go out of style.

Solitaire Engagement Rings

The most classic of all ring styles is a solitaire engagement ring like R9360W, which has been one of our top 20 sellers for years! What makes a solitaire engagement ring unique is its signature golden shoulders. Without a diamond-accented shank, the main diamond takes center stage as the only gem visible on the ring, meaning it is literally a solitaire diamond. The polished gold shank creates a stark contrast to the shimmering solitaire diamond, allowing the stone to truly stand out. Therefore, a solitaire is a great option if you plan to save money on your ring’s setting and instead, invest in a stunning crystal-clear center stone. Due to its beautiful simplicity, a solitaire engagement ring is perfect for a down-to-earth, minimalist bride, like Jennifer Lawrence who has a stunning emerald-cut solitaire engagement ring.

In recent years, modern solitaire engagement rings have been gaining popularity. These styles maintain the traditional polished gold shoulders of a solitaire but showcase intricate golden details and accent-diamonds in the under gallery. By decorating the shank’s sides, you get that exciting surprise diamond look without compromising the signature solitaire setting. Styles like R1046P and R1040W were only released in 2019, but have already risen to our top 100 selling engagement rings! These styles show just how influential modern solitaires are. You can learn more about this engagement ring trend in our blog Modern Solitaires with a Fun Twist.

Straight Engagement Rings

Straight engagement rings are perfect for traditional brides who want a lot of sparkle on a slim silhouette. This setting comes in all shapes and sizes, but a classic straight engagement ring is just one shimmering step above solitaires – they literally look like a solitaire but with a single row of diamonds going down the shank’s shoulders, like our 11th most popular ring, RQ9365W. With proper love and care, a ring like this could easily be passed down through the generations without fear of it becoming unfashionable. Additionally, you can pair straight settings with virtually any band, like Reese Witherspoon who paired her straight engagement ring with three diamond eternity bands. By mix-and-matching your engagement ring with a variety of bands, you transform your delicate diamond ring into a dazzling and trendy stackable bridal look.

Classic straights are timeless but since younger generations value individuality above all else, there has been a major shift in engagement ring preferences. These youthful brides still crave that pop of sparkle and slim silhouette, but instead of simplicity, they want a captivating design. Therefore, just like how the modern solitaire has gained popularity, so has the modern straight. From this growing demand, the crisscross straight engagement ring was born! Sometimes called a spiral straight, this ring setting features a slim shank made of two intertwining, diamond-accented, gold bands. In fact, our top two Valina engagement rings are crisscross straight engagement rings, including R9635W and R9858P. Both rings have one diamond-accented band and one golden band, creating stronger visual intrigue and contrast in the small space provided. The rose gold ring goes a step further, by adding milgrain beading to the gold band, creating a vintage appeal to this otherwise modern engagement ring design.

Halo Engagement Rings

Another way brides fulfill their desire for a unique yet classic looking ring is by pairing a round center stone with a cushion-shaped halo, like on our 3rd top-selling engagement ring, R9542W. This combination is ideal because the square shape complements a finger’s contours best and round diamonds offer the most exceptional fire and brilliance found in any diamond shape – you get the best of both worlds! And since a cushion halo has rounded corners, the round diamond blends in flawlessly. Or if you want something more traditional, coming in as the 5th top-selling Valina engagement ring is R9541W, a round halo engagement ring with a round center stone. This is the exact same engagement ring style worn by Amy Adams! And like many modern brides, Amy paired her round halo engagement ring with three stackable diamond wedding bands in all three gold colors, creating an even more stunning bridal look.

Classic halo engagement rings are admired by so many because the style looks glamorous yet sophisticated, timeless yet trendy – again, the best of both worlds. The halo of diamonds makes the center stone look larger by enhancing its sparkle, and when paired with a classic straight diamond shank, you get a ring so heavenly that when you wear it, angels will sing in your head. Therefore, halo engagement rings make up about half of all engagement rings on the market, getting sold more than any other engagement ring setting does collectively. And no matter which center stone shape your heart is set on, whether it is round, oval, emerald, pear, marquise, or princess, your diamond will look gorgeous on a classic halo engagement ring.

Statement Engagement Rings

The most popular engagement ring styles might be delicate engagement rings with straight bands, but there is still a huge market for spectacular statement engagement rings like our 10th most popular style, R9303W. This statement ring features a wide shank made up of four diamond-accented strands that wrap around and below the center stone. Even though this look is very glamorous, it also has a sleek design that is not overly stylized – the design is simply two crisscrossing split shanks creating wide sparkling shoulders. This minimalist statement setting is highly revered because it highlights the diamonds in the ring above all else.

Our 4th top-selling ring is also a statement engagement ring. R9273W is considered a straight statement engagement ring because it has straight but wide shoulders featuring large channel-set diamonds. Since most engagement rings feature petite melee accent diamonds along the shank, these large side diamonds easily make a big statement! Any bride wanting an impact like this is without a doubt, very confident and has a bold personality, like the singer Ciara who rocks a 16-carat engagement ring featuring large baguette diamonds down the shank. These statement rings might not be as delicate as the classic solitaires, straights, and halos we have discussed, but they make up for it with their showstopping sparkle.

Vintage Two-Toned Engagement Rings

Just like statement engagement rings, vintage engagement rings are not simple. In fact, vintage engagement rings are some of the most stylized rings on the market. But they are easily classics since their designs come from the era when engagement rings started becoming mainstream. What makes a vintage engagement ring unique is its signature art-deco inspired design, typically featuring milgrain beading, intricate filigree swirls that have either been molded or hand-engraved into the ring, and a general architectural style. Scarlet Johansson has a truly unique art-deco engagement ring featuring three large diamonds on a three-pillar rectangular head. This massive architectural cocktail ring head rests on a lean and clean polished gold band, adding a touch of simplicity to her otherwise spectacular vintage bridal look.

Vintage engagement rings also utilize floral motifs and color more than most engagement ring settings. Color is often added in the form of gemstones or two-toned metal, like in our popular vintage white and rose gold ring RQ9421W. Vintage and two-tone rings like these are becoming increasingly popular and this popularity is predicted to keep rising as the desire for individuality among young brides increases.

Even though most brides desire simply sweet and classic engagement rings, there is still a huge market for these playful, intricate, and highly stylized settings. If there wasn’t, bridal retailers like Valina wouldn’t release trendy new engagement rings every year! We want our ring collection to be as diverse as the people getting engaged, whether they are urban or country, glamorous or down-to-earth, trendy or old-fashioned, minimalistic or eccentric. So, looking at the top-selling engagement ring styles is a good place to start your search, but like we always say, the ring you choose should reflect who you are. Whether your final choice is a top seller or not, your engagement ring will forever be the symbol of your relationship and love.