NO LONGER GRANNY GOLD

More young people are going for gold jewellery

- Carmen Sin

She used to think gold jewellery was old-fashioned, too yellow and culturally loaded for casual wear. But in July, 25-year-old Phoebe Lye walked into one of Chinese jewellery giant Chow Tai Fook's Singapore stores and bought two 999 gold charms ($190 each). That is the purest grade of the precious metal, unblunted and ingot-like in hue.

Could granny gold be getting new legs? If that rising bellwether, Chinese entertainment, is anything to go by, it is.

Ms Lye took her cue from viral Chinese drama series The First Frost (2025), filmed in Chongqing, in which the female lead gifts a Chow Tai Fook bracelet to her boyfriend.

The local Gen Z entrepreneur decided to do the same. She went for matching barrel-shaped gold charms, containing 0.52g of gold each, on braided cords — pink for her, black for him.

It was her first gold purchase after years of wearing fashion jewellery. She says: "I wanted it to be something we could keep forever. Gold felt perfect because it's timeless and everlasting."

She is hardly an outlier. Gen Z and millennial appetite for gold bling has been bubbling here in the post-pandemic years, even as record-smashing gold prices sap global demand.

According to reports from the World Gold Council, 25- to 35-year-olds were the top spenders in China in 2021, accounting for an estimated 75 per cent of consumption. In 2024, that cooled to roughly one third for those aged 18 to 34.

But here, local retailers playing in the middle leagues — between fast-fashion names like Lovisa and luxury brands like Cartier and Van Cleef & Arpels — report a quiet but steady incline.

Singapore Jewellers Association (SJA) president Ho Nai Chuen tells The Straits Times interest from under-35s in gold jewellery has jumped 20 to 30 per cent in recent years, spurred by effective marketing and growing awareness of gold's value as its stock soars.