Ronnie Mervis: Hello! This is Ronnie Mervis from Mervis Diamond Importers and we're going to talk about diamond bracelets. The most well-known diamond bracelet is the Diamond Tennis Bracelets. It's an ordinary tennis bracelet and I might as well take a moment to tell you where the name came from. Many years ago at Wimbledon, Christie Evert Lloyd was playing on center court and she landed a shot and her diamond bracelet flew off and landed up on the coach. The camera panned in on Christie's bracelet and hence came the name, a diamond tennis bracelet.

Most of the times when people talk about bracelets, they're talking about the tennis bracelets. We have another name for it and we called it a straight line bracelet. It's a row of diamonds placed end-to-end along the entire length of the bracelet. Generally, a bracelet is seven inches long or sometimes they make them a little longer for a bigger wrist. And if you put all the diamonds end-to-end, it takes somewhere around 35-37 diamonds and that is what is known as the straight line tennis bracelet.

Many important things you should know about the tennis bracelet. One is, if you have say 37 diamonds, you want each one of the 37 diamonds to be almost exactly the same as each of the other diamonds in the 37 diamonds. It's hard enough in selecting the diamonds to match for them cut and for color and for clarity and for carat weights. But in addition, millimeter size is so important. Each of the diamonds has to be the exactly the same size as each of the other diamonds. In terms of the cuts and the color and the clarity, the fact that which catches our attention the most and which is the one item that you should focus on more than anything else is the cut. If the stones are cut correctly, you get a shimmering row of white light. That is what's going to give a great bracelet. And then of course you want to have a decent size for each stone. You'd like the stone to be as white as possible each time around. And the clarity which is the internal characteristics of the diamond are actually far less important than everything else. It is not only an item of beauty which is that to wear and enjoy forever. But it has to be engineered in such a way that when you put it in the wrist and it takes the knocks of everyday wear, that it stands up to it properly. And the old adage, about the chain being as strong as weakest links is absolutely true with your diamond tennis bracelet. If there is inherent weakness in the way each link is joined to the next, that is a place where it may break. If it takes a knock and if it breaks anywhere that bracelet will fall off and will be lost. So make sure that when you're selecting your bracelet, you're selecting a well-made bracelet where each link is properly put together and where you have a guarantee from whoever you buying it from, hopefully a reputable firm, that that bracelet is going to be able to withstand the knocks are ordinary everyday wear and keep itself together. Another major issue is the clasp. You want the clasp to close securely. Fastening down, you want to hear that little click as the clasp closes and you want a safety lock on top of that as well. So you get a click and a click because if there is a problem with the clasp or the safety doesn't work, it could easily open and fall off.

Something else you want to look at is flexibility. The diamond bracelet should be flexible so that it gives. And a good test is just wrap it around your finger. If you can make many turns of a diamond bracelet around your finger, it'll tell you that it is flexible and so that if does a hard blow, it's going to be able to give. You'll have no problem there. An important test in selecting a bracelet is just hold it up and let it dangle like a pendulum. You want to make sure that it hangs straight. No twisting as you go.

Now, the diamond bracelets come in different metals. They come in white gold, they come in yellow gold and they come in platinum. Most of times, we would recommend a white or yellow gold. As with diamonds stud earrings, traditionally the material of choice has been yellow. But now, more and more, it is turning to white and that seems to be the choice of preference. If it's a large bracelet, meaning large diamond weights, 10 carats, 12 carats, 14 carats or more, the preference seems to in platinum. But platinum is an expensive metal to work with and for bracelets I think you'll be just as well off in gold. Each link is normally is a four-pronged link which holds each diamond in place and each diamond is held in a four-pronged link which then connects with the next link. But those links could just as well be a three-pronged link or the diamond could be held in a bar set where each one is separated from the next by a little bar, or the diamonds could be in a channel which will run the length of the bracelet. Or they could be bezel sets where each diamond is in a little cup of gold. Sometimes they are in a half bezel set. Most times however and what we recommend because it seems to work the best, is an inline tennis bracelet where each diamond held in a four-pronged link.

Now we've spoken about the tennis bracelet and we have spoken about the inline tennis bracelet but that's not all. There are many other diamond bracelets which may not look anything like it at all. You can have a fancy one with twists and turns, you can have loops, you can have a diamond bracelet which has its diamond spaced out on every half inch or one every inch. So really you're using less diamonds and bringing the value down to a number which is more affordable to most people. Or you can have a bracelet where you have the diamonds covering only the two or three inches which show in the center and this one on the wrist.

So in this case, if you drape it around your wrist you might want to show just this part and you don't need to have diamonds which go all the way around. You don't have to break the bank. You don't have to know everything that there is about tennis bracelets. Before you come in, you don't have to tell us exactly what you need. Just come in open-minded and say I haven't mind a diamond tennis bracelet, please show me the choices. I think that concludes tennis bracelets. Thank you for listening.