The life of a watch battery depends on a number of factors. It's easy to forget that our favorite wearable time-tellers have numerous tiny parts that work daily to keep us on an accurate schedule. These parts are all lubricated to reduce the friction and ultimately the energy it takes to make them run. A brand-new watch, with freshly lubricated gears, takes the least power to run and therefore the battery can potentially last a few years. As a watch ages, the lubricants dry which causes more energy to be used to power the gears. The average length of time a battery will last in a typical watch is approximately one year. If you need a battery change more frequently than once per year, it may be time to have your watch serviced; during a watch servicing the movement is cleaned of old lubricant, etc. and re-oiled.
While swimming may seem like a low-impact, safe activity for jewelry wear it can actually be extremely harmful. The sanitizing chlorine found in most swimming pools is very corrosive and as a result can begin to erode the precious metals in your ring. This can make the overall ring brittle, weak and more susceptible to breaks or stone loss. When heading for a swim it's best to leave favorite pieces safe at home.
From fashion magazines to Facebook posts, rose gold jewelry seems to be popping up everywhere, but is rose gold that much different from yellow gold? The answer is no. When gold ore is mined from the earth it is yellow in color and extremely soft. In order to make it useable for everyday wear it is mixed with stronger alloy metals (the amount of alloy the gold is mixed with is noted by the 10k, 14k, 18k, etc mark). Alloys metals commonly used in jewelry occur in a variety of colors and these colors are responsible for creating different colored gold. Rose gold jewelry gets a pinkish hue from copper added into its alloy mixture, but the amount of pure gold contained in each piece of jewelry is the same.
With regular wear and tear, over time even the most well cared for pieces will need some maintenance. Prong repair or re-tipping is a normal maintenance repair that helps secure the stones in your ring. Prongs are the metal pieces that hold a stone securely in place. The top of prongs normally wear away as a ring ages; however, it is important to re-tip worn prongs as soon as possible to avoid the loss of the stone they hold. Re-tipping simply means the jeweler adds gold to the top of the worn prong and reshapes the metal. This enables the prong to securely support the stone again. With regular cleaning and checking by a professional, worn-looking prongs can be easily identified, mended and stone loss can be avoided.
Pro Tip: Bring your ring in to Vincent & Company as often as you'd like to receive a complimentary ring checkup and cleaning. No matter the color, from rose to white, all gold begins life yellow in color. It is through careful mixing with alloys that gold jewelry gets its strength and color. White gold is merely gold with more white colored alloy metals in its mixture. Jewelry consumers prefer a bright white look to their white gold pieces, and as a result, manufacturers plate the white gold jewelry with a substance called rhodium to give it a bright white look. The rhodium is simply a plating over the slightly yellow white gold. Through everyday wear and contact with chemicals and soaps, this plating can wear off causing the ring to appear yellow. If your white gold ring has started to look yellow, don't worry, it can be plated with rhodium again to restore its original brilliance. If you love white gold, but don't want the maintenance of rhodium plating check out our line of rhodium free white gold rings!
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AuthorsYour friendly jewelry experts at Vincent & Company Archives
May 2020
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