Jewelry/Watch Glossary

Milgrain is a decorative metalwork technique that produces a row of tiny, uniform beads or granules along the edges of a ring, setting, or metal surface. The word comes from...

Karat is the unit of measurement that expresses how pure the gold in a piece of jewelry actually is. Pure gold is rated at 24 karats, meaning it contains no...

Re-tipping is a jewelry repair technique where a jeweler adds a small amount of metal to the worn or broken tip of a prong. Prong tips are the thin points...

A mandrel is a tapered, cylindrical rod - typically made from hardened steel or aluminum - used by jewelers to shape, resize, and measure rings. Graduated markings along the taper...

A gold fill is a jewelry material made by mechanically bonding a solid layer of gold to a base metal core - most often brass or copper - using heat...

Sterling silver is a metal alloy composed of 92.5% pure silver and 7.5% other metals, typically copper. Pure silver is too soft for most jewelry applications, so the copper addition...

A channel setting is a stone-mounting style where a row of gemstones is secured side by side between two parallel metal walls called channels. The walls grip the stones on...

Sizing beads (sometimes called sizing balls) are small metal beads added to the inside of a ring band to help the ring fit more snugly without permanently resizing the entire...

The shank is the band portion of a ring that encircles your finger. It connects to the head (where the center stone sits) and provides the structural foundation of the...