Diamond Bracelets

A tennis bracelet is a continuous line of diamonds in a flexible setting, and it is the piece where construction quality shows most clearly — because it moves, all day, against a hard joint.

Judge it by the clasp and the links before the stones. A tennis bracelet is lost when the clasp fails, and the difference between a box clasp with a single catch and one with a figure-eight safety latch is the difference between a bracelet you still own in ten years and one you do not. Ask for the safety catch; it is worth insisting on.

The links themselves should articulate smoothly with no stiff sections, and the bracelet should lie flat rather than twisting when you set it down.

On the diamonds, matching matters more than individual grades. Fifty stones of the same colour and cut look far better than fifty stones averaging a grade higher with visible variation between them. Consistency is what the eye reads along a line.

Length is personal: it should slide over the wrist bone but not spin freely. Most people take 7 inches; sizing up beyond that puts the clasp under more strain.