The Jewelry Topic Thread - here we discuss bracelets, rings, necklaces, etc...

[jtj48]

Anyone have any ideas for a watch to put into this band?
https://www.navajorugsindianbaskets...-_Watch_Bands_and_Watch_Bracelets/7183/#!7183

 

[dieworkwear]

this is good. esp end of part two, which gets into turqoise

 

[justridiculous]

Really digging my new cuff from MoonPi. They have several cool items and I may be picking up some more.

 

[Valfunde]

Bump because I'm suddenly interested in jewelry but I'm a nincompoop when it comes to what is "valuable."

Looking at a couple of SLP stuff and it's probably overpriced but is something like 100% brass ring/bracelet worth north of $400? I get stylistic elements and brand cache adds up to the price but I'm more than happy with finding a different brand if the costs of making it is extremely low.

Likewise I'm gonna swing by Self Edge sometime and check out some of the Good Art wares and in house stuff.

 

[Callusing]

I'm no expert, but having held both, I think if you held something from Good Art and something from SLP in your hand at the same time you would not have a hard time deciding which to choose.

That said, Ann Demeulemeester's stuff used to be made by Werkstatt Munchen, and it looked the part.

I've been fixating on Peanuts recently. I don't think I have the stones to pull off any of their stuff, but I wish I did and might buy something and hope the stones come later.

 

[dieworkwear]

Bump because I'm suddenly interested in jewelry but I'm a nincompoop when it comes to what is "valuable."

Looking at a couple of SLP stuff and it's probably overpriced but is something like 100% brass ring/bracelet worth north of $400? I get stylistic elements and brand cache adds up to the price but I'm more than happy with finding a different brand if the costs of making it is extremely low.

Likewise I'm gonna swing by Self Edge sometime and check out some of the Good Art wares and in house stuff.

I think my progression on jewelry has followed my progression on clothes and fragrances. When you first get into this stuff, you care a lot about the classics, the rules, and what's considered "technically" good. You think a lot about quality because this stuff is all very expensive and you don't want to be taken for a sucker.

Then at some point, you develop your taste and just buy whatever you want. Quality matters, but it's not the first thing I think of anymore. I buy clothes depending on how I look in them and how they make me feel. I buy fragrances depending on how I like the smell and how often I think I'll wear something. Similarly, with jewelry, I just buy whatever I want now.

That's not to say quality doesn't matter. I don't know if I'd personally buy an SLP piece -- or any designer piece -- because there's something weird to me about paying that much money for brass, which is one of the cheapest metals. But when you look at Good Art, it's sterling silver -- very well done, but sterling silver. And there's a lot of much cheaper sterling silver jewelry. So why buy Good Art? Because of the design, the provenance, the story, the manufacturing process, the culture around those pieces, etc. All those are good reasons, but they're not about quality, they're about the intangibles.

I was recently watching this video of Mark Cho, where he talks about some of his watches:



One of the watches he names is AP's Royal Oak -- the quartz version!! He says he likes that version better than the automatic ones because it has a thinner profile.

I mean, there are good reasons why someone might not want to buy such an expensive quartz watch. But I kind of hate how, when you look up people's discussion on the Royal Oak quartz (or any other expensive quartz), so many of the arguments are about how "only teh poorz buy that stuff" or "no *real* enthusiast will respect you if you wear that." But how great is it that someone buys something simply because it brings them joy?

I think buying jewelry is kind of the same. It's probably a good idea to not buy cheap trinkets in the beginning -- there's something weird about all of us where we value expensive things just because their valuable. But I think you have to accept that some of your first purchases are going to suck. Your taste is going to develop. You'll buy some things you'll never wear. Some things you wear all the time. The most I think anyone can do is develop a strong sense of personal taste, but that only happens through a lot of exposure, real-life experiences, etc. It's like with all this stuff -- suits, fragrances, watches, etc. If some designer brass piece brings you real joy, that's all that matters. But it takes some time to develop a real sense of taste.

FWIW, I would just be wary of SLP jewelry cause the look is red hot right now and you may not be into it once trends move on.

 

[Zeke90]

In line of jewelry Ive only been interested in watches. Im not really into gold chains/necklaces or different rings aside from my wedding band. I blame my old man for this, since growing up he’s the one who got me into watches with his vintage rolex.

I do like looking at different special cut superideal diamonds and different ring settings but for my wife only lol

 

[jtj48]

Where do you guys look for necklaces? Looking for some kind of simplish gold pendant necklace - nothing in particular, really - but I'm having a hard time finding much other than crosses and saints, astrological symbols, and kind of in your face stupid stuff like replica sardine tins and weed grinders.

 

[dieworkwear]

*slowly tucks away weed grinder necklace*

 

[michaellosauro]

Tried on a couple of Good Art HLYWD pieces this past weekend. Fell completely in love. The quality blew my mind. So did the price tag.

 

[LA Guy]

Well, I barely ever post pictures, but here is about as homemade a picture as one can find. Funny, I never think of my stuff as "jewelry" but it definitely is. Right now, I'm waiting on a GoodArt HLYWD 10C bracelet - thanks @kiya for making that happen.

I tried on a GoodArt 10A at a Self Edge store years ago, and really loved it, but told the SA: "I like that, but I need it to be much, much, thicker. The clasp, the links, everything. Just make it much huger."

Anyway, like all my stuff, everything I regularly wear has some link to something personal. From the top:

1) MA+ bracelet from PNP-Firenze. My first piece from there. That was the last Pitti Uomo I attended with my wife, and I wanted a memento, so I picked that up at the last moment. Since then, a lot of the staples have fallen off, I had to replace the silver holder, which broke, etc...

2) Lanvin linkchain bracelet - I had a medical emergency that laid me out for a good six months starting at the end of 2014. That was the first half year that I didn't work out since I was in college. I lost a ton of muscle mass and didn't know how active I could get back to being. Before that, (you can check the threads in the exercise and fitness forum) I was regularly cranking out 100-150 pullups a day, 5-6 days a week, plus cardio and lifting. It went from that to facedown, no movement, for two weeks at a time, several times, and just dread in between those times. I got this bracelet on sale during that winter, and worked on making myself a new leather strap (Lanvin jewelry is nice in concept, but often is overly delicate for what it's supposed to be), and it just made me feel better. I think that I wore this thing into at least 3 surgeries.

3) MA+ bracelet - I got this as a gift from my kids, or maybe my wife, for Christmas.

4) The Flathead S-bracelets and a GoodArt snap bracelet. My first pieces from Self Edge were just a load of Flathead bracelets. When I was a poor postdoc, or trying to buy a house about a decade ago now, these were little luxuries that I could still afford. The Good Art Snap bracelet is actually brand new, thanks to Styleforum's secret Santa/Valentine exchange, and it reminds me that this is a pretty special community we have and that I'm super lucky to get to own and develop it and has let me also pursue other interests, some in business, some not. Oh, and during my medical emergency, that's when I discovered GoodArt, just randomly searching for "leather bracelets". When you are on 100% bedrest, facedown on a massage table, you find all sorts of things on the internet. I still have the white leather band (meant to evoke the hospital ID bands I was wearing so many of), but the snap cover was lost in short order. I'm okay with that.

5) Omega Speedmaster on a leather "saddle" with a steel chain and belt holder. Christmas present from my wife. love the entire set up. I have smashed so many cheap watches in my life that when I started getting into watches (the only previous good one is in storage - a gift from graduate school, and I never wore it after it was gifted to me,) that I needed to find a new way to wear a watch, and I came across a cool photo of a Panerai on a fob. I now have a couple of these. This is by far my favorite combo though.

6) Vintage curb chain sterling silver bracelet with a DIY silk braided rope closure, from Union LA. A Valentine's Day gift from my wife.

7) Braided leather bracelet from Genten Firenze, in Florence. I took my entire family to Italy in the fall of 2017. I've grown to really hate air travel, but I do like showing my kids some of the countries and cities with which I've become quite acquainted. Genten Firenze has an artisan showcase every so often, and on one visit there, the craftsman had been in and made this. I've always wanted a braided leather bracelet, but never could find one that I really liked - too flimsy, usually, with screws or rivets rather than sewn, etc... This is in a thick bridle thickness leather, woven tightly, and sewn by hand with sinew. Perfect for me. I didn't get anything big that trip (a lot of meals though), but this was a nice souvenir.

8) Jutta Neumann barbell leather bracelet - I think that this was the first gift that my wife got me, ever, during out first year of marriage. We moved out of Cambridge to Somerville to save some money. We got kicked out of our first apartment and luckily met a great landlord who understood our rather unique situation. That was probably the catalytic event that changed my politics considerably.

9) Werkstatt Munchen bracelet that I bought for one of my trips to Pitti Uomo. Yes, I hate air travel, but lemme tell you, if you have a travel sponsor, and are flying business class, it really takes the edge off.

 

[LA Guy]

Where do you guys look for necklaces? Looking for some kind of simplish gold pendant necklace - nothing in particular, really - but I'm having a hard time finding much other than crosses and saints, astrological symbols, and kind of in your face stupid stuff like replica sardine tins and weed grinders.

https://micweb.jp/brands/good_art_hlywd/categories/pendant/

You can get pretty much anything GoodArt makes from Kiya, in gold.

I personally really like the skeleton key design:

 

[LA Guy]

Anyone have any ideas for a watch to put into this band?
https://www.navajorugsindianbaskets.com/artist/_07 - Jewelry-Old/types/W_-_Watch_Bands_and_Watch_Bracelets/7183/#!7183

Tudor Black Bay Bronze?
https://www.jomashop.com/tudor-watch-79250bm-0005.html

 

[Spunwell]

Tudor Black Bay Bronze?
https://www.jomashop.com/tudor-watch-79250bm-0005.html

The black is not a bad choice......don’t know about the bronze though. I would recommend a 79220N if going black bay.

My first thought when seeing that bracelet was this guy......pure vintage goodness

http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1104/5151182944_f70e711521_b.jpg

 

[LA Guy]

The black is not a bad choice......don’t know about the bronze though. I would recommend a 79220N if going black bay.

My first thought when seeing that bracelet was this guy......pure vintage goodness

http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1104/5151182944_f70e711521_b.jpg

I like that a lot, but have found that servicing can be... spotty. If you live in NYC or SF or some place where servicing and repairs are easily accessible, then vintage is awesome. But otherwise, it can be a pain. I still have a watch requiring repair (it's running incredibly fast), that is still sitting in a drawer because it needs to be packed up and sent rather than just requiring me to bring it into a shop.