Men"s Chains on a Budget

Today I had a lady enquire about buying a gold chain necklace for her partner. She had a budget of around $500 to $800 and was determined to find something in that price range come hell or high water.

We normally recommend that a necklace for a man is at least 5mm thick, anything less than that can lack masculinity. As men would usually wear a necklace around 55cm to 60cm in length, the minimum price is closer to a range of $1000 to $1200 dollars for our lighter style figaro or belcher chains.

More masculine chains with a thicker heavier link as you would find in a round curb are closer to the $1800+ mark. It is important that you understand that a manly gold necklace will be fairly weighty and that is the single biggest factor when calculating price.

Not long after we first opened our online jewellery store, a lady bought her husband a 1.2mm thick 40cm chain necklace.

It was around $90 and she said she thought it was 1.2cm wide. Now 12mm is quite a thick chain and I’m not sure why she thought it would be possible to buy one for less than $100, I guess she hadn’t been anywhere near a jewellery store to do some research and comparisons.

Think about that for a moment.

It was way too short to fit around his neck, and very delicate and fine. She thought she was doing the right thing by buying him a solid gold chain, but really hadn’t thought it through properly. Such a gift is very likely never to be worn, even if it was long enough. Being the nice guys we are, we allowed her to return it and gave her a refund.

The only time a man should wear a thin gold necklace is when it holds a pendant, ring or cross that is in proportion to the chain. A delicate gold necklace should never be worn alone by a man.

Everyone, I’m sure, would love to be able to give their partner a thick solid gold chain necklace or bracelet, but not everyone has the budget that allows it. I strongly recommend NEVER buying a piece of jewellery for a man that is less than masculine, it will be a complete waste of money. It will cause him to be embarrassed because it really won’t be what he wants, and it will find its way to the bottom of his sock drawer, never to be seen again.

Personally, I believe it would be much better to look at silver necklaces, if you want to keep in the $500 to $800 range. We have some really solid, beautiful and manly chains that sit right in that price range and will make your man proud to wear them. Ok, they aren’t gold, but solid sterling silver is a quality material that rivals gold for beauty and is priced at a level many more people can afford.

Many men prefer to wear silver toned jewellery, so if you can’t afford to lash out on white gold, sterling silver is just as attractive and far more reasonably priced.

If they really must wear yellow gold, and price is not a concern, then go for it, solid gold.

A gold plated sterling silver chain (vermeil) will look great for a month or two and then it will begin to look terrible as the plating wears through.

Don’t do it!

It is a waste of money, stick to sterling silver or if you really must have gold, buy a gold plated brass chain for a lot less money. At least then when you throw it away it won’t have cost you a fortune.

The other advantage of sterling silver is that you can have a thicker more masculine necklace at a very reasonable price and it will last a lifetime if made well.

The major disadvantage of sterling silver is that it will tarnish over time and need more regular cleaning than solid gold will. Fortunately it is really easy to restore that brand new look to silver jewellery with a glass bowl, a square of aluminium foil, some baking soda and salt and a little hot water. We have an article on our website that shows how easy it really is to clean silver jewellery.

Men"s Chains on a Budget