The Six-Month Check Nobody Books

Prongs loosen, clasps wear, settings shift. Why a twice-yearly inspection is the cheapest insurance on a piece you wear every day.

Nobody books it. Every jeweller recommends it. Almost everyone finds out why the hard way.

What wears, and where

Prongs. They are the smallest structural element on a ring and they hold the most valuable part of it. They thin over time, they catch, and they bend. A prong that has worn thin gives no warning before it fails.

Clasps. A bracelet clasp opens and closes several hundred times a year. Springs fatigue. The mechanism that felt firm in the shop develops a little play, and one day it opens in a car park.

Settings. Metal moves. A stone that was tight when set can develop a barely perceptible rattle, and that movement accelerates wear on everything around it.

What an inspection involves

Very little, from your side. A jeweller looks at the piece under magnification, checks the prongs and the clasp, feels for movement in the stones, and cleans it properly while it is on the bench.

Once every six months is the standard recommendation. Once a year is the absolute minimum for a piece worn daily.

Why we push it

The cost of tightening a prong is trivial. The cost of replacing a lost centre stone is not, and insurance rarely makes anyone feel better about it.

Nearly every serious loss we have seen was preventable, and visible to anyone who had looked in the previous few months.

For our own clients

Bring your piece back to us. We will check it and clean it, and if something needs attention we will tell you what and why before we touch it.

We would rather see a piece twice a year than see it once, in pieces.

Book a complimentary design consultation at our Kuala Lumpur atelier: 010-766 7448 · hq@cgarden.com.my

C'Garden is an independent bespoke jeweller in Kuala Lumpur. We are not affiliated with, endorsed by, sponsored by or certified by any organisation, laboratory or brand named in this article. Third-party names are used only to refer factually to those organisations and their published standards. All text and imagery in this article is original work created by C'Garden.

Reference

Jewelers of America. (n.d.). Jewelry care. Jewelers of America. https://www.jewelers.org/buying-jewelry/jewelry-repair-and-care/jewelry-care