Bracelets

Men’s Diamond Bracelet Buying Guide – 12 Tips

Men's Diamond Bracelet Buying Guide

If you’re shopping for wrist candy for yourself or as a gift for a special guy in your life, this men’s diamond bracelet buying guide is for you. Learn to choose the best style, diamond quality and metal, and how to measure your wrist.

1. Choose the right style

If you’re shopping for a bracelet for yourself, it’s easy to pick the one you love. However, if you’re purchasing a gift for someone else then you should choose what’s right for them.

Read our guide to buying jewellery gifts for 9 top tips on this topic.

2. Measure your wrist

A bracelet should have a little bit of comfortable movement on your wrist. Ideally, you should be able to slide one or two fingers between the bracelet and the wrist.

Measure your wrist just below the wrist bone. It’s best to use a tailor’s tape measure.

If you don’t have a tape measure, you can use a strip of paper and mark it with a pencil and then measure the size with a ruler. Don’t use string, as this can stretch and skew your measurement.

3. What is a men’s standard bracelet size?

The average, most commonly found length for men’s bracelets is 7 to 9 inches (17.78 to 22.86 centimetres).

4. Gold VS silver

The precious metal used in a bracelet affects both its price and style:

  • Sterling silver is a softer metal than gold, and for that reason, slightly less resistant to wear and tear. Having said that, it looks beautiful and is the most affordable one of all the precious metals.

  • White gold has a silvery colour, achieved by alloying yellow gold with white precious metals.
Diamond Bracelet Buying Guide - How to Buy a Diamond Bracelet

5. How many carats?

Diamond size is measured in carats. Carats are abbreviated to CT. For example, 1 carat would be written 1.00CT.

As bracelets contain many diamonds, jewellers will show their overall weight stated as “total” carats.

The carats in a men’s diamond bracelet can vary from tiny micro diamonds at 0.02CT to wide bracelets with 10.00CT of diamonds or more.

The mathematics is simple: the more carats there are in a bracelet, the higher its price will be.

Diamond Bracelet Buying Guide - How to Buy a Diamond Bracelet

6. Is a high diamond quality needed for a men’s bracelet?

As a rule of thumb, no.

It is true, that the better the diamond quality in your jewellery, the better its sparkle. But since the diamonds in bracelets are usually quite small it’s impossible to see any imperfections in them with the naked eye.

7. What diamond qualities are best for men’s bracelets?

Generally speaking, these three qualities are all great:

  • Premium quality is a solid choice for small diamonds and when trying to keep the budget low.
  • H/Si quality, higher than premium quality, looks very sparkly and white and offers excellent value.
  • G/Vs quality, better than H/Si, is a superb diamond quality for men’s bracelets at 2 carat weight or more. However, unless you’re buying a bracelet with large diamonds, you don’t need to go any higher than G/Vs quality.

8. What about lab grown diamond quality?

Note that if you are buying a bracelet with sustainable lab grown diamonds, their quality is measured exactly the same as that of mined diamonds, as shown above.

But often with lab diamonds, you’ll be able to get a better quality or size for your budget – as well as sustainability.

9. What diamond shape is best?

In bracelets, the most common diamond shapes are the round diamond and the square princess cut diamond. You can also find baguette diamonds, which are rectangular. However, in very elaborate bracelets, you could find virtually any diamond shape.

Read our guide to picking the best diamond shape for you.

10. What diamond setting?

There are varying ways in which a jeweller can attach, or set, diamonds to a bracelet. Each type of setting has its own unique look and benefits:

Claw setting:

Four metal claws or “prongs” hold each diamond in place, allowing for lots of light to enter the diamonds and creating maximum sparkle.

Diamond Bracelet Buying Guide - How to Buy a Diamond Bracelet

Rubover setting:

The metal “wraps” around each stone. The metal protects the diamonds from all sides, so it’s a practical choice for active people who use their hands a lot. But this setting can limit sparkle it stops light entering the stones from all sides.

Diamond Bracelet Buying Guide - How to Buy a Diamond Bracelet

Pavé setting:

Tiny metal beads hold dainty diamonds in place. This creates overall surface sparkle.

Illusion setting:

The metal around each tiny diamond is cleverly patterned with ridges so that it creates the illusion of a much larger diamond. This brings the bracelet’s price down considerably yet still gives you a luxurious look.

Diamond Bracelet Buying Guide - How to Buy a Diamond Bracelet

11. On which wrist should you wear a diamond bracelet?

Men’s bracelets are usually worn on the wrist of your non-dominant hand simply because it feels more comfortable. But there are no real rules, so you can enjoy wearing your bracelet, or several of them, on either wrist.

12. How to care for a diamond bracelet

Care for and clean your bracelet the same way as you would any expensive piece of diamond jewellery. Remove when showering or swimming, don’t expose it to soaps or cosmetics and avoid having it ever coming into contact with household cleaning chemicals.

The simplest way to clean dirt and debris from the links of your diamond bracelet is by soaking it in a bowl of water with a tiny drop of soap. Clean it gently with an old toothbrush and dry with a soft cloth.

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