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Men’s engagement rings

It’s becoming increasingly common for men to wear engagement rings.

In the past men have generally only worn a wedding ring, though today, more men are choosing to wear an engagement ring also.

Men’s engagement ring designs

The distinction between the design of a men’s engagement ring and men’s wedding ring is far less obvious than it is for ladies rings.

However, one popular determining factor when considering the actual design of the rings is that men’s engagement rings will often feature a diamond.

Men’s engagement rings

Suited as a men’s engagement or wedding ring

Though naturally a diamond is optional, depending upon the taste of the groom-to-be.

Men’s engagement rings are also normally made in 18ct yellow gold or 18ct white gold (or two tone), or platinum.

Otherwise, there aren’t really any guidelines when it comes choosing the design of a men’s engagement ring.

Wearing 2 rings – a men’s engagement ring and men’s wedding ring

Generally, if a men’s engagement ring is worn, it will continue to be worn as an engagement ring after the wedding, in addition to a separate ring which is worn as the wedding ring from the wedding ceremony onwards.

Where to wear the men’s engagement ring and wedding ring – Same finger or different finger?

It is possible to wear both the men’s engagement and men’s wedding ring on the same finger (wedding ring finger on the left hand), though men’s rings are often quite wide, so wearing two rings on the same finger isn’t always practical or comfortable.

Most men choose to wear the men’s engagement ring on the wedding ring finger until the wedding ceremony. They then move the men’s engagement ring from the ‘wedding ring’ finger, to another finger on the other hand.

That way, after the ceremony, the wedding ring is worn on the wedding ring finger on the left hand, and the engagement ring is worn on the right hand. The right hand ‘ring finger’ is the most common, though, the finger that the engagement ring is worn on after the ceremony is entirely a matter of personal preference.

Using the same ring as a men’s engagement ring and men’s wedding ring

It’s possible to use the ‘one ring’ as both a men’s engagement and wedding ring – whereby the ring is initially worn as an engagement ring – as a symbol of the engagement and pending nuptials, and then after the wedding, the ring is worn as a wedding ring.

This ‘transitioning’ concept isn’t all that common, though, as you may have already noticed, when it comes to men’s engagement rings there aren’t any hard and fast rules – so at the end of the day, it really comes down to the couple’s wishes and preferences.

See men’s engagement rings here and men’s wedding rings here.

Blue topaz ring

Topaz is an ancient stone, and while it is being used in new and modern ways to make gorgeous topaz jewelry, it is also really interesting to find out what it meant to people hundreds and thousands of years ago.

Topaz, the birthstone for November, is one of the traditional birthstones, and there are a couple of sources that these are supposed to have been derived from. Unfortunately (or perhaps fortunately!) birthstones were determined in the times before democracy reigned supreme. Where nowadays a birthstone would need to be elected, to put forth its virtues and run the popularity race against its peer gemstones, in olden times birthstones were determined quite arbitrarily! The Exodus chapter of the Bible refers to the breastplate of Aaron, in which were mounted four rows of precious stones. The topaz appeared in the first row – although which row a stone appeared in does not necessarily relate to which month it belongs to nowadays. So, strangely, the reason for topaz being November’s birthstone is simply that it was on the breastplate of a warrior thousands of years ago!

Blue topaz pendant

Topaz was also one of the precious stones to adorn the walls of the holy city of new Jerusalem, as listed in Revelations in the Bible. It appeared alongside other stones which are now all but out of circulation – like jacinth, chalcedony, beryl and sardonyx! Topaz, however, was one of these stones to ‘survive’ over the many intervening years, along with sapphires, emeralds and amethysts.

Topaz was said to form one of the gates of the real ‘Holy City’ also – that is, Heaven! The king of Tyre wore it, as did the high priest in the Bible.

Back in the times when leeches were a popular form of medicine, topaz also had many other excellent medicinal qualities! Note that while people of ancient cultures believed in these qualities of topaz we don’t recommend powdering any of our topaz jewelry and taking it in wine to cure asthma, nor dropping it in boiling water if you want to cool it down quickly! It was meant to calm the passions (although why you would want to, we are not sure!), and to prevent the wearer having bad dreams.

Along with all this historical mumbo-jumbo though, comes the fact that topaz is associated with spiritualness and faithfulness. While we are not advocating that it has any magical properties that convey these qualities, it could be a nice verisimilitude to give topaz jewelry to someone that you think reflects these qualities.

Not all history is mumbo-jumbo!

Citizen Aqualand Divers Watch

As any spider knows, the number of feet you have is no measure of your toughness … In a huge leap of logic, but not truth, the same is true of the number of feet that your watch is marked as water-resistant to.

In order to avoid upsets later, check out the guidelines below for what you can do wearing a watch that is marked as ‘Water Resistant to x meters’ … it actually doesn’t mean that you can cavort around under the sea at that depth for indefinite periods. When manufacturers test watches, they are subjected to water at lower pressure for a longer period of time, and then water at a higher pressure for a shorter period of time, with the times and pressures varying to give different ‘feet’ equivalents. Always remember that different manufacturers will have different ideas of stringency in testing, and it is better to go with a more well-known, or larger brand, if you are looking for a watch specifically designed to go underwater.

If you are looking at 50m water resistant watches, these are generally okay for immersion in tubs of water – for example, washing tubs and kitchen sinks. They would be fine for a person to wear while washing the dishes, or a worker to wear while cleaning up their hands.

Watches that are marked water-resistant to 100m are safe to wear while you are swimming … however, not swimming at greater depths. This means that if your swimming pool has a 5m diving area (and you have the you-know-whats to jump off the 15m board into it!), that if you do this repeatedly, your watch may suffer. However, fine for lap swimmers and surfers.

If your watch is marked as water resistant to 200m, then it is generally okay for beginner scuba diving, which is up to a depth of 30m below the surface. You could also translate this toughness into other terms – for example, watches built like this should be fine for hard wear under less water (when you are doing the dishes really violently!), when they are likely to be knocked or banged while under water. Be aware though, that watches that are suitable for diving (and say so on their packaging or description) must conform to a different international standard than standard water resistant watches – ISO6425 is the standard for diving watches, while ISO2281 is the standard for generally water resistant watches.

If you manage to find a watch which is water resistant to 1000m, lucky you can go down in the ocean to around 500m, at which depth the weight of all that water on top of you is slowly killing you – woohoo! Then again, you could also do our rough toughness translation, which means that these watches should be fine for salt and fresh water use, to resist knocks under water, to resist rapid or reasonably extreme under water temperatures, and for going up and down while diving.

Remember, it is better to be safe than sorry – don’t do your own trial and error tests on your gorgeous new watch!

Citizen Eco-Drive Watches

The Eco-Drive feature of Citizen watches is one of their biggest catchcries, one of their major selling points, and one of their unique selling points compared to other watch companies.

So why is Eco-Drive so hot? To me, it sounded more like something that would help you save a bit of money on your gas costs, like a standby mode for your car. Perhaps it was a tree-hugging chauffer? Anything seemed possible!

When you actually find out what Eco-Drive is, it does make perfect sense – it basically means that the watch is powered primarily by solar power, which is supported by a lithium ion battery. The reason the battery is a lithium one, is to prevent the usual inconvenience of the battery having a charge time and a discharge (or ‘being used’) time.

Sounds like a pain in the rear for those of you who constantly wear long sleeves over your watch, have an indoor job, or live alone in a cave, meditating, doesn’t it?! You definitely need an accurate timepiece to live in a cave, no doubt about it Well, you don’t need to sit it on the windowsill for a certain amount of time each day. Some models will run for about 6 months without being charged, others will run for about 4 years. Not a bad interval between sitting the thing on the windowsill for a little while … or getting out of your cave for a walk! However, if the watches are kept in the dark for long periods, they engage a sleep mode – sort of like the clock in your car, so that it keeps track of the time without any direct battery power. It uses its quartz mechanism to do this.

So, don’t dismiss the Citizen watches, just because you don’t like the idea of a tree-hugging chauffer.

Citizen Quartz Watch

Many of the watches in our range are quartz watches … and since they are obviously not made of a pretty, swirly pink stone, who cares?! What does it matter?

Well, quartz watches are the most accurate, common form of manufacturing timekeeping pieces. Quartz can be used to keep time in both analog and digital watches – the quartz piece is really the backbone of the timekeeping function, and the way the information is displayed is just window dressing (however important it may be to the wearer!).

It is fascinating how it works – when you apply an electric field to a piece of quartz, the stone actually bends … this electric field comes from a battery, and in some specialized watches can even indirectly come from the wearer’s thermo-kinetic energy (body heat!) and be transferred inside the mechanism. Then when the electric field is removed, the quartz creates its own electric energy in returning back to its original shape. Handy, eh? It’s a give and take relationship with the old quartz.

Another important property of quartz as a timekeeping mechanism is that it doesn’t change shape as the temperature changes. So, for you, or whoever you are making a gift of the watch to, that means that basically they don’t have to replace the watch if they decide to go skiing in the winter, then lie on a tropical beach in the summer, then perhaps even do some exercise early on a frosty morning. Some materials would respond to these temperature extremes by warping, however quartz does not. This means that your watch keeps working, and doesn’t break at the first sign of you taking off its little thermally insulated jacket!

Quartz has now become such a common material to be used in watch making that often people don’t bother stating it in their description – it can be a little like saying “this fabulous watch has an hour, minute and second hand, as well as a band so you can wear it on your wrist!”. However, there ARE some watches that are made with cheaper or inferior materials – but if you are not sure, always remember you are free to contact us with any questions about our watches.

Basically, the international standards organization took them all away, to keep for themselves! Let’s get them, guys!

Only kidding … actually, the ISO decided that the ‘waterproof’ label was misleading to consumers, and decided that the best way to protect you from making a decision based on false information was to simply take the label away. The reasoning behind this is that if a watch was ‘waterproof’, you should be able to leave it sitting in your toilet cistern while you go on holidays (to protect against thieves, of course!), and when you come back, it would be in perfect working order. Strangely enough, watch manufacturers don’t employ this quality control test as standard practice! Basically, they subject a watch to underwater conditions at increasing pressures, but only for a limited amount of time. Then, when water begins to creep into the mechanisms, that is the limit of its water resistance – hence the ‘water-resistant to 30ft / 50 ft / 75 ft’ label on watches.

Since the test doesn’t include subjecting watches to varying pressures, as might happen even in shallow dives where you go up and down within less than thirty feet, or any number of other environmental factors like testing in both salt and fresh water, testing along with different water temperatures, as well as testing in conjunction with physical shocks (when you misjudge the wall while swimming and bang your watch into it, for example), these tests can’t really qualify a manufacturer to say that their watch is waterproof. There really has to be a qualifying statement behind that…

So you see, the reason you cannot buy a waterproof watch anymore is because you never really could buy a waterproof watch!

Platinum engagement ring

The earliest known use of platinum dates back to 7^th Century BC, when it was used to craft caskets in Egypt. Its use for this purpose shows that even the earliest civilizations valued platinum as an important and precious metal. Today, platinum is one of the most demanded metals in the bridal market. It’s popularity is beginning to surpass white and yellow gold in engagement rings, and is growing increasingly favoured as the metal for both men’s and lady’s wedding bands.

But what is it about platinum that makes it so popular, and also so expensive?

Platinum is very popular because of its many advantages. Unlike white gold, which has to be rhodium plated to achieve its brilliant white shine, platinum is a naturally white metal that will never require re-plating. Platinum is also a little harder wearing than gold, making it less susceptible to, though not completely impervious to, the signs of everyday wear and tear.

There are three reasons why platinum jewelry is relatively expensive as compared to gold or white gold jewelry.

Platinum wedding ring

The metal platinum is a more expensive metal than gold as it’s a more rare metal and there are difficulties involved with mining it, which also adds to its price. Platinum is also used in a much higher concentrations in jewelry than the proportion of gold used in jewelry. The platinum alloy used in jewelry consists of 85% to 95% platinum, that’s 850 to 950 parts platinum for every thousand parts. Gold jewelry conversely generally uses a maximum of 75% or 750 parts gold per thousand parts for 18ct jewelry, or less gold for 14ct, 10ct or 9ct jewelry.

Whilst traditionally platinum was mixed with an alloy of gold, it is now combined with another member of the platinum family such as palladium or iridium which helps to retain its whiteness. Palladium is also more expensive than gold and it has a metal price more comparable with platinum than gold. This change in alloy mix has also contributed to raising the price of platinum.

Platinum is also a denser heavier metal than gold, making a ring design made in platinum heavier than the same ring design made in 18ct gold. As the metal price is calculated based on gram weight, this density or heaviness, also contributes to making platinum more expensive than 18ct gold.

Titanium ring

Titanium is becoming an increasingly popular metal for men’s jewelry pieces. Titanium is admired for its unique properties including its lightweight nature, strength, its resistance to corrosion and its innovative addition to the jewelry industry.

Gillett’s Jewellers offers a wide variety of titanium jewelry including wedding rings, fashion rings and bracelets.

Most men and women will choose titanium because of the style, durability and the fact that titanium is a hypoallergenic metal. Meaning titanium does not react with any skin types.

Blue moon colored titanium ring

Titanium is as strong as steel and 45% lighter! It is a white/silvery metallic color.

If you are looking for something different to traditional yellow and white gold, titanium is a great alternative. Not only is it everything mentioned previously but also it is very affordable.

Gillett’s Jewellers also offers a unique ‘design your own’ titanium ring section. It allows you to choose your ring color, add gemstones, add inlay stripes and choose the ring width. It becomes your very own created jewelry piece at a very affordable price.

The different coloring of the titanium rings is caused by oxidisation. It is not paint, plate or pigment. Oxidisation occurs through a heating process that then at different stages will change the titanium to different colors.

Diamond ring

Diamonds are the hardest known natural material in the world.

The scale used to measure the hardness of natural materials is called the Mohs scale. Diamonds are measured as a hardness level of 10 on Mohs scale of mineral hardness. That’s the hardest there is and the top of the Mohs scale!

Diamonds are very precious, not only for their beauty, but also because of their practicality.

Diamonds are popular for jewelry pieces worn daily such as engagement rings, wedding rings, earrings and pendants.

Diamonds are the best suited gemstone for these types of jewelry as diamonds are so very hard, which means that they can stand up to everyday wear better than any other gemstone.

The only thing that can scratch a diamond is another diamond. This makes diamonds such a fantastic choice, especially for engagement rings and wedding rings. As the diamonds do not scratch, diamond jewelry shines, magically disperses light and looks stunning over long periods of time.

The high quality diamonds, know as the gem quality standard of diamonds are used in jewelry.

The lower quality small diamonds, known as industrial grade diamonds, are used for industrial purposes. Because of the strength of diamonds, the industrial grade diamonds have been used for cutting and grinding industrial tools. The industrial diamonds can wear away any other materials, including other diamonds!