An Heirloom Watch Gets a New Life

It was a downright honor to take someone's precious, priceless family jewelry and turn it into some gorgeous everyday wearables. 

We started with a 16th birthday ring and a great grandmother's watch. We finished with this stunning spinner ring and two pairs of earrings. 

My client remembers going with her parents to the Jewelers Building in Boston to pick out her garnet birthstone ring on her 16th birthday. She loved that ring for the sweet memories it held, but she wasn't a fan of its style anymore, so it sat in a drawer for decades. 

She had also received her great grandmother's watch a few years ago. It was a white gold and diamond beauty but, like the ring, it just wasn't getting used. 

She came to me wanting to use the two pieces to make something spectacular.  We ended up making three things. 

The resulting ring features that pretty garnet, and the gold from the birthstone ring became one of the spinners. The other spinner band has diamonds from the watch set into in the a 4-3-4-3 pattern of stones. The numbers are a nod to some symbolism in her family. This piece is at home on her hand now, able to be worn daily, where it will act as a reminder of her precious family history. 

In addition to that ring, we also made two sets of earrings. See those little fleur de lis details that attach the band to the watch face (in photo above)? I was able to carefully remove them with my torch, clean them up, and add some Art Deco lever-back hooks to make these gorgeous earrings. 

 Then, with sections of the watch bands, we made these dangles.