9. The Historical Trajectory and Market Revolution of a Modern Metal The ascent of the tungsten wedding ring from an industrial composite to a mainstream jewelry staple represents a significant, yet relatively recent, revolution in the wedding band market. The material's introduction to consumer wearables began not with rings, but with timepieces; the Swiss watch company Rado pioneered the use of scratch-resistant tungsten carbide in their watch cases in 1962, demonstrating the material's viability as a lifelong-wearable item. Its subsequent transition into the wedding band industry was initially slow, coinciding with a broader shift in consumer tastes toward "alternative metals" in the late 1990s and early 2000s, where materials like titanium, ceramic, homepage and stainless steel began to challenge the dominance of gold.