A cuff is the easiest bracelet for a man to wear and the easiest to get wrong. How to measure your wrist, how wide to go, how a cuff should actually sit, and the one habit that ruins an open bangle faster than anything else.
Most of the emails we get about bracelets ask the same two questions. Will it fit? And will it look like too much? A cuff has no clasp and no links to take out, so the answers matter more than they would with a chain bracelet. Here is what we tell people, using the cuffs we make as examples because those are the numbers we know exactly.
Cuff or bangle?
People use the words for the same thing, and so do we. Strictly, a bangle is a closed ring that slides over the hand, and a cuff is open at the back and goes on from the side of the wrist. Almost every men's "bangle" you will see is really a cuff, because a closed ring big enough to pass over a man's knuckles hangs far too loose on the wrist. All of ours are open cuffs for that reason.
Measure the wrist, not the hand
You don't need a tape measure.
- Cut a strip of paper about a centimetre wide.
- Wrap it around your wrist where you want the cuff to sit, usually just above the wrist bone.
- Mark where the paper meets, lay it flat and measure it in centimetres or inches.
Pull the paper snug but not tight. That number is your wrist size, and it is what the size options on our cuffs refer to. Don't add anything on top "for comfort"; the size already allows for it.
Different cuffs are sized differently, so read the listing before you choose. The Taotie Double-Body Bangle comes in four wrist sizes, 17, 19, 20 and 21 cm, and you round up to the nearest one. The Six-Tusked Elephant God Cuff is set by hand to any wrist from 16 to 22 cm. Others, like the Son of the Forest Cuff, come in two sizes: Medium for wrists up to 19 cm (7.5 in) and Large for anything over.
How a cuff should sit
A good fit is closer than most people expect. The cuff should rest on the wrist bone without sliding down onto your hand when you lower your arm, and without pressing into the skin when you bend your wrist. You should be able to turn it around the wrist with a little effort. If it spins freely, it is too big and will keep sliding toward your hand all day.
The opening at the back faces the inside of your wrist, where the narrow part is. The decoration sits on top, where people see it.
Put it on sideways, not by pulling it open
This is the part almost nobody is told. Sterling silver bends, and it can be bent back, but every bend works the metal a little harder. Pull an open cuff wide every morning and push it shut every night, and after a few months it can weaken at the same point and crack.
Instead, turn your arm so the inside of your wrist faces you. Hold the cuff with the opening against the narrow side of your wrist, press one end of the opening against your skin and roll the cuff around the wrist until it settles. Take it off the same way in reverse. The cuff hardly flexes at all.
The open back is there for small corrections. If a cuff is a touch loose, squeeze it gently by hand, a little at a time, and check it again. Don't use pliers, and don't try to change it by more than a centimetre or so. If it needs more than that, the size is wrong, and it is better to swap it for the right one than to bend it.
How wide should you go?
Width changes the look more than anything else. As a rough guide:
- Under 10 mm is a cuff you can wear every day, with a shirt cuff or a watch. The Taotie Bangle is 9.8 mm wide and still carries a whole Shang bronze composition across that strip.
- 10 to 18 mm is noticeable without being loud. The Wind Horse Cuff is 10 mm at the back and widens to 18 mm where the horse sits. The Son of the Forest Cuff is 15 mm all the way round.
- Over 20 mm is a statement piece, best worn on its own. The Six-Tusked Elephant God Cuff widens to 23 mm at the elephant's head.
A larger wrist carries a wider cuff more easily, but you don't have to follow that strictly. What matters more is what else you are wearing on that arm.
Weight
Solid silver cuffs are heavier than people expect from a photograph. Ours run from about 33 grams for the Taotie to just over 50 for the Six-Tusked Elephant and the Large Son of the Forest. A heavier cuff sits more steadily and doesn't ride up the arm, and most people stop noticing the weight after the first day. If you have never worn a solid cuff before, something in the 30 to 40 gram range is an easy place to start.
With a watch, or without?
The simplest rule is to put the cuff on the wrist without the watch. If you want both on one arm, keep the cuff narrow and let it sit a little higher up the arm than the watch, with a finger's width between them so the two metals don't knock together. Silver against a steel watch case will scratch over time.
Looking after it
The dark areas on a carved silver cuff are oxidation, put there on purpose so the carving reads. They are not tarnish, so don't scrub them out with a silver dip or a polishing cloth loaded with compound. A soft dry cloth is enough most of the time. Take a cuff off before the gym or anything where it might hit something hard. Our care guide has the details, and we clean and polish every piece free for as long as you own it; you only pay the postage to us.
If it doesn't fit
Measure twice before you order. If it still isn't right when it arrives, email us within 14 days of delivery: you can return it, unworn, for a full refund and order the size you need. See our Refund Policy.
Taotie Bangle · Wind Horse Cuff · Son of the Forest Cuff · Six-Tusked Elephant God Cuff · Bracelets
More from the Journal: The Face on the Bronze: What the Taotie Means · Lungta, the Wind Horse