How to measure your wrist for a bracelet

How do I measure my wrist at home?

Wrap a strip of thread once around your wrist just below the wrist bone, mark where it meets, and read that length against a ruler in centimetres. You need thread or a strip of paper, a pen, and any ruler. A soft tailoring tape works too, and a stiff plastic measuring tape does not, because it will not sit flat against a curve this small.

1. 1. Cut a strip about 25 cm long. Sewing thread, a shoelace, or a strip of paper a centimetre wide. Anything that will not stretch.
2. 2. Wrap it once around the wrist you will wear it on. Sit it just below the wrist bone, on the hand side, where a bracelet naturally settles. Snug enough to stay put, loose enough to slide a fingertip under.
3. 3. Mark where the end overlaps. Pinch the crossing point with your thumbnail and mark it with a pen before you let go. This is the step people rush, and it is where the half-centimetre errors come from.
4. 4. Lay it flat against a ruler. Read from the end of the strip to your mark, in centimetres, to the nearest half. That number is your wrist measurement — not your bracelet size.

Measure the wrist you actually wear jewellery on. Most people are half a centimetre wider on their dominant side, which is enough to move you between two sizes.

What size bracelet should I order?

Our S is 15 cm, M is 17 cm and L is 19 cm, measured as the finished bracelet rather than as your wrist. The table below pairs each one with the wrist range it suits and how it will feel on. Screenshot it, or print this page — it fits on one sheet.

Between two rows? Go up. A bracelet half a centimetre loose is a bracelet you forget you are wearing; half a centimetre tight is one that leaves a mark by evening.

How much ease should I add for elastic versus a clasp?

Add about 1 cm to your wrist measurement for a stretch bracelet and about 1.5 to 2 cm for one that closes with a clasp. The difference is how the bracelet gets on. A stretch piece on nylon cord has to open wide enough to pass over your knuckles, then relax back to something close to your wrist — so it needs less built-in slack, because the cord supplies it on demand.

A clasp bracelet never stretches. Whatever length I finish it at is the circumference it holds forever, so it needs real room: 1.5 cm for a bracelet that sits neatly, 2 cm if you like one that shifts down towards your hand as you move. Several of our pieces sidestep the question entirely with a gold-tone chain extender — the Lilac Daisy Pearl adjusts from 16 to 19 cm and the Pearl Butterfly from 17 to 20 cm, so one bracelet covers three sizes.

What is the average adult wrist size?

Most adult women measure between 14 and 16 cm, and most adult men between 17 and 19 cm. That is why M at 17 cm is the size I make most often and the one I stock first. Teenagers usually land at 13 to 15 cm, which puts them in S. These are ranges, not rules: wrist width has more to do with bone than with build, and I have made 15 cm bracelets for tall women and 19 cm ones for small ones. The ninety seconds with a thread beats every assumption on this page.

How do I pick a size when it is a gift?

Order M, 17 cm — it fits most adult women and it is the size I would guess with. Before you settle for guessing, though, there are two better options. If she already owns a bracelet, borrow it for a minute, lay it flat, and measure the inside from end to end. That is the finished length, which is exactly the number I need. Or send me a photo of her wrist against a ruler on Instagram and I will read it for you.

If none of that is possible, order M and know that a sizing swap within 7 days of delivery costs you nothing but the return postage — I restring elastic pieces to the new measurement and add or remove links on clasp ones. Nobody has to know.

How does the exact wrist size box work?

Every bracelet page has an optional field under the size buttons labelled Or enter your exact wrist size. Type the number you measured — 16.5 cm, say — and I make that bracelet to your measurement instead of to the standard S, M or L. It costs nothing extra and it does not delay the order.

Put in your wrist measurement, not the finished length you want. I add the ease myself, because the amount depends on whether the piece is elastic or clasped and on how the beads sit. If you want it deliberately loose or deliberately snug, say so in the order note and I will build that in.

What if it still does not fit?

Message me on Instagram at @luxebyzee__ within 7 days of delivery and I will resize it. Send the piece back unworn and with its card, and I remake it to your measurement and post it out again. You cover the return postage; I cover the rest. It is a fifteen-minute job at the bench and I would far rather do it than have a bracelet sit in a drawer.