Our Top Tips for Choosing your Wedding Band

We see people stopping to look in our windows every day- but now I will let you in on a little secret- if you see us looking out from our windows on a Saturday afternoon, we are having a sneaky peak at the Brides and Grooms as they pass our windows after their wedding at St Mary's Church. We are a bunch of romantics, and love watching weddings. However, before you can achieve a wonderful wedding at a Church or the venue of your choice, you need to do some wedding ring homework- here are a few of our top tips for choosing the right ring; 

The Budget

As any couple who are planning , or have planned, a wedding will tell you, Weddings are expensive so you need to decide how much you want to spend on your wedding ring. Don't forget your wedding ring will be worn every day 'until death do us part' so make sure you don't leave too little in the budget.


Remember if you have purchased an engagement ring from Gatwards of Hitchin you will be entitled to a 20% discount on your wedding rings- something well worth having.

Practicality 
This is a ring you will wear daily, through gym workouts and household chores, so it is better to choose something durable; here is a quick guide to metal choices;

White Gold
All gold is yellow and is is the manufacturing process which makes it bright white colour you see in our windows. 18ct White Gold is 75% Yellow Gold with other metals alloys added to achieve this colour, it is them Rhodium plated. Over time this will wear, and to keep your rings pristine you will need to have re-rhodiumed- the thickness of the plating and your treatment of your rings will be a factor in how long they last.

Yellow Gold 
Gold is a noble metal - it doesn't react with the air. gold will dull and scratch but it will remain it's rich yellow colour.

Platinum and Palladium 
These are metals within the same family and therefore have similar qualities. They are both naturally white in colour, so although they will scratch and wear over time they won't change their colour, unlike White Gold, While 18ct Gold is 75% Gold and 9ct Gold is 37.5%, Platinum and Palladium are both sold at 95% pure making them a good choice for durability.

Rings are sold by weight. Palladium is less dense than Platinum making it a great choice for a wedding band if the budget is being squeezed.

Other important point- we strongly recommend that the wedding ring metal is the same is the engagement ring metal because metals wear at different rates, having two different wear tolerances. For example White Gold engagement ring worse against a Platinum wedding band would cause more wear and tear on the engagement ring than a White Gold wedding band.

Sizing 
Lastly, make sure the ring is a good fit. Many men do not often wear rings, and the wedding band is probably their first significant piece of jewellery. Fingers swell as the day progresses, and if a ring becomes too tight it comes uncomfortable and, in worse case scenarios  has to be cut off; rings that is, not fingers!  If a ring is too loose however you could lose it washing your hands or if the weather is cold- not an endearment to your partner!


Happy wedding planning and if you need any more help and advice please feel free to see any member of the  team at Gatwards of Hitchin, who will be happy to help. 

Longines Watch and Royal Ascot

Longines Watches

Always synonymous with style and elegance, it is no surprise to find that Longines is the official timekeeper at Royal Ascot this week.

To celebrate this, we thought that we would focus on the brand and highlighting a few little known facts about this watch brand.

Longines is still based in St. Imier where it has been since 1832 (they are nearly as old as us!). In 1832, under the horological vision of Auguste Agassiz, the principles of Longines watches were founded on the cornerstones of tradition, elegance and performance, principles to which Longines still adhere today.

In 1867, Agassiz’s nephew, purchased a piece of land in Switzerland known locally as ‘Les Longines’ for his factory, the Longines watch brand was born and Longines winged hourglass’s logo was registered. A logo now famous in over 130 counties. 

A random nugget of information - the Longines logo is the oldest logo or trademark registered with the World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO) and what’s more, it is still in the original form! That is quite impressive!

There are four main collections within the Longines family; Elegance, Sport, Heritage and Tradition. Each collection focuses on a different aspect of watch making. Heritage and the Tradition collections look to the past to draw on historical influences for modern watches. The watches which form a part of the Elegance collection have one point in common; style! While the Sport collection focuses on sport and sporting events and produce a variety of timepieces supporting this.

Come into Gatwards of  Hitchin for a look at our extensive Longines collections- there is something for everyone- also check out our Longines online at www.gatwardsofhitchin.co.uk


Gents Longines Watches

Ladies Longines Watches   

Father's Day 16th June 2013

Father’s Day

It is hard to escape the fact that with modern technology our lives are getting busier and more demanding.. The third Sunday in June is a special day for Fathers, Fathers in Law, Grandfathers – their special place in our lives is celebrated to the full! Pause a minute and remember that special Father or Father figure in your life. One of our unique gifts will make Sunday even more special.

We have a wide selection of ideas for your Dad. Do you want something traditional? How about a set of cufflinks or a tankard? Do you want something a little more unusual? What about a silver photoframe with a picture of you and your Dad? Or silver bottle coaster and a bottle of his favourite tipple?  Dads aren’t limited to mugs and socks- they can have Richard Cooper Bronzes or Montblanc pens too!

Need some more ideas? Why not pop down to Gatwards and have a look at our new window display- dedicated to chaps especially for Father’s Day! Fathers are wonderful and whether you believe that Father’s Day was an American invention in the 1930s or has it’s roots in pagan times; it is a day to celebrate that special Dad in your life- spend Sunday 16^th June with yours to remind them of how special they are.

Pearls

The sun is shining and the temperature is starting to rise- it must be June!

June is the start of the summer and the start of the wedding season- so it seems very appropriate that the birthstone for the month is Pearl. This beautiful gem is unique in so many ways;  Diamonds, Emeralds and  every other stone that you see in our Gem window- have all been enhanced in some way, mainly by cutting and polishing the gemstone to  make sure that the beauty of the stone is shown off. Pearls are not like that, they are not crystalline, they are organic. We open a mollusc and there they are- beautiful and unique. Of course, this refers to natural pearls which are rare and expensive. Most pearls in jewellers windows are either cultured or cultured freshwater – still natural, but helped along by man’s ingenuity………..

A natural pearl is made when some grit or an irritant gets into an oyster or mussel. To protect itself the mollusc coats the irritant with nacre (a beautiful substance with a unique lustre). 

A cultured pearl is produced when a mother of pearl bead & a piece of mantle tissue is inserted into the mantle tissue of another oyster. This stimulates the host oyster into covering it with pearly nacre and the resultant pearl is usually perfectly round. The quality of the pearl is judged by the depth of nacre which depends how on long it is left inside the mollusc, and the colour, which can vary from white, through slightly rose or greenish tints to creamy yellow.

In the case of a cultured freshwater pearl, only a piece of mantle tissue is inserted into the host oyster, which is of a different species of mollusc. The resultant pearl is often less spherical and somewhat ‘potato’ shaped and also tends to be less lustrous than a cultured pearl.

Sales of pearl jewellery are often targeted at women, however there is a wide range of Mother of Pearl set jewellery available for men; from cufflinks, to tie pins and pens set with Mother of Pearl detailing.  Why not browse our online store at www.gatwardsofhitchin.co.uk or pop in to Gatwards of Hitchin to see our collection of pearl jewellery.