The Bracelet I Wear Most Days

I bought my first tennis bracelet the first week of June, at sixty-one years old, from Amazon, on my phone, in the chair I am sitting in right now. My husband Walt asked what was in the box. I told him it was for me, and it was.

For years I had admired them through the glass at the department store. You know the case I mean, the one with the little light inside that makes everything look like it costs more than my first car. I would lean in, do a little arithmetic in my head, and put my hands back in my pockets.

Here is what I actually wanted. A bracelet that looked like a bracelet. Not like a prize from a gum machine. Something I could wear to church on Sunday, to lunch with Donna on Thursday, and to the church office on Wednesday morning while I copy bulletins and answer the phone.

What I ordered was the PAVOI 14K gold plated tennis bracelet. Three millimeter round cubic zirconia, prong set, seven inches. PAVOI has a following for a reason and the reviews were plain enough that I trusted them. More than thirty-two thousand people had already done the deciding for me.

It came in a small box. I put it on standing at the kitchen counter with a dish towel still in my other hand, and I have worn it most days since. Five months now, and it is the piece I reach for without thinking.

Five months of near daily wear, and the clasp still shuts, the stones still sit down in their prongs, and my wrist is the very same color it has always been.

The weight surprised me. It comes in at 9.69 grams, light enough that I forget I have it on and sturdy enough that it does not feel like foil. On my wrist the seven inches sits with a little room, so it slides toward my hand when I reach across the counter. I like that. If you want it snug, measure your wrist before you order.

The clasp is a fold over, and it takes me two tries with one hand. That is the honest drawback. On a Sunday morning when Walt is already in the car, it is the one thing that slows me down. It has never come open on its own, and after five months I have stopped checking it every hour the way I did the first week.

The stones are round and prong set. That setting matters more than I understood when I ordered, because stones held in prongs are held, and stones glued into a strip are waiting to go missing. Five months in, nothing has loosened. I clean it with a soft dry cloth after I take it off, and I take it off before dishes, before the shower, before I get my hands in the garden. Jewelry goes on last in the morning, after the lotion and the hairspray. None of it ever goes to bed with me.

Donna noticed it at lunch on a Thursday, which is how I know it passes the test that matters. She asked if it was new and I told her it was from June. Then she asked where I got it. Nobody at church has ever asked me about a bracelet before, and two people have asked about this one.

At the department store I had also admired a gold vermeil bracelet, which is gold over silver and a real step up in price. I decided against it, not because it is not lovely but because a bracelet I am afraid to wear is a bracelet that stays in the drawer. I wanted the one I would put on for the grocery store.

What Five Months Has Done to It

Nothing dramatic, and I mean that as a compliment. The finish on a piece like this is plating, not solid gold, and I am not going to pretend it is. Plated jewelry wears eventually. So far the surface looks the way it did in June, and I think that has a lot to do with the cloth and with never wearing it in water.

It is a daytime bracelet for me. It looks right with a cotton shirt and a cardigan, and it looks like exactly what it is, a pretty piece that costs about what a nice lunch costs. I would not wear it to a formal dinner, but I have not been to one of those since 1998.

What I'd Tell You If We Were Sitting at My Kitchen Table

I would tell you to buy it if what you want is a bracelet you can wear on a Tuesday. Not a bracelet for a safe deposit box. If you are hoping to hand down a family heirloom, this is not that, and it does not pretend to be. Kelly has admired mine, and I told her to order her own instead of waiting on mine.

I would also tell you to take it off at night, keep it out of the shower and the dishwater, and dry it with a cloth before it goes back in the tray. A good share of what people call cheap jewelry falling apart is jewelry that never came off. And if your skin has ever reacted to a metal, talk to a doctor before you buy anything, no matter what a listing promises.