Metals and Minerals

March 5, 2024

Brushed Gold Becomes the Finish of the Moment

Designers say the matte surface creates an interesting play of light for their pieces. Take a back seat, polished gold. Your shiny and reflective surface has […]
February 14, 2024

Watchmakers Have a Love-Hate Relationship With This Metal

Designers are attracted to tantalum’s unusual blue-gray sheen. But then their artisans learn how dense it is and start complaining about broken tools. In 1994, when […]
January 18, 2024

Timepieces Set in Stone

Watches with ornamental hard stone dials are making a comeback, but they still are quite rare. The latest grail category in luxury watches does not involve […]
September 13, 2023

A Happy Accident Created Sparkling Aventurine

Watchmakers use the material in both its glass and mineral forms. Aventurine is a name used for variations of the minerals quartz and feldspar. More frequently, […]
December 5, 2022

Gems Made in the U.S.A.

In the 1970s, when Jaymus Perry was growing up on the Navajo Nation reservation near Buell Park, Ariz., he and his siblings used to fill coffee […]