M L
THE ART OF TRANSFORMING FAMILY HEIRLOOMS
By Mark Diggle of A & M Diggle Jewellers
A customer recently visited us with a 9ct gold Accurist watch with the idea of remodelling it to fit a leather strap as the original gold mesh bracelet was unfortunately worn beyond repair .
The watch holds a lot of sentimentality to the customer as it originally belonged to his Grandfather . He explained to us that he was very close to him throughout his life and sadly died too young . His parents , who then inherited the watch , knowing how much he idolised his grandad , kept hold of it for him until he was older as they knew he would greatly appreciate it .
The watch was gifted to his Grandfather from Tesco for 40 years of dedicated service as a very valued employee .
Understanding how important the task was that we had been entrusted with , we made sure to go through all specifications with the customer . As we wanted to make sure the job that we created with the help of his grandson would be something that his grandad would be proud of .
We removed the gold bracelet which was soldered onto the watch case and melted a small portion and rolled it to a thin wire to make watch lugs , which were to be fitted either side of the case . This makes it very easy to fit a leather strap making his late grandfather ’ s watch wearable once again .
When we cut the gold bracelet off the watch , we realised that there was quite a lot of gold that we could use to make something extra for him . We suggested to the customer that we could possibly make a signet ring out of the gold from his grandfather ’ s watch bracelet , he was over the moon with this idea , as he told us the gold was very
sentimental to him and the idea of having an item that would always be on his finger to stand the test of time would always remind him of his fond memories and love for his grandad .
So with that in mind , we measured the customer ’ s finger , weighed the gold from the bracelet and discussed the different styles of gent ’ s signet rings that we believed both himself and his grandad would approve of , and could be made from his gold . We settled on a square top signet with a tapered shank . There was more than enough gold to make any style he liked but he requested to make the ring quite heavy and use as much of his grandads gold as possible , without it being too overbearing .
We got to work and hand carved the top half of the signet in wax , which is used as a mould to make an impression in the sand so it can be casted . This saved on any excess waste , as we could have hand filed the top half of the signet but wanted to make sure that as much of his grandads gold as possible ended up in the completed design . We then melted enough gold from the bracelet into liquid gold and poured it into the sand to make the top . The rest of the metal was carefully formed for the shank which was then soldered perfectly onto the signet to the correct finger size . The ring is then filed , buffed and polished for a professional finish .
The end product was a perfect signet ring that we at A & M Diggle couldn ’ t be more than proud of . And even more importantly for the customer who collected the signet and watch together and was overfilled with emotion with the pair of items . Thank you for letting us be a part of this amazing journey .
To contact A & M Diggle , call 0151 708 8177 .
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