Milanese Mesh Bracelet in Gold

This article details the making of a gold Milanese link bracelet.

Custom made to be mounted on our customer’s watch, here we describe in detail the process of making the Milanese mesh.

This is a flexible hinged link bracelet crafted from 14k white gold.

14k Gold Milanese Mesh Watch Band 19mm Wide Made Through Our Service That Allows You To Be A Custom Jewelry Designer

The Milanese network is similar to the Polish network in the principle of production, but its visual rendering is very different, as shown below.

Polish knitted bracelet, the yield is different from the Milanese knitted bracelet

These two types of bracelets are made up of cannetilles (wire wrapped around itself to form a spiral) all assembled in the same direction in the case of the Milanese mesh and in the opposite direction in the case of the Polish mesh.

If the production of steel Milanese mesh watch straps is industrialised, the production of a men’s Milanese mesh gold bracelet is completely manual, as you will see.

To discover other link designs, check out this article or contact us to get a quote for your watch strap project.

Characteristics of the Milanese shirt

The Milanese mesh is characterized by a weave of steel, silver or gold wire links depending on the bracelet to be made.

In our case it is a gold thread that is wrapped in cannetille, cannetille which are then wrapped into each other, without pins joining them together.

Each cannetille is then enclosed with the previous one and welded with the penultimate one, giving the Milanese mesh its very particular appearance, both massive but very flexible.

Manual production

The production of our bracelet begins with the preparation of the 14k white gold alloy in the form of an ingot which is then rolled, then stretched and calibrated to have the right diameter for production.

This bar is then rolled to obtain a wire several meters long.

The following video shows the process of rolling the bar into an increasingly thinner thread. The fact remains that its profile is square rather than round.

Our wire is then calibrated to give it a round shape and the right diameter by passing it through a die visible here in the photo.

Pass the gold wire through a die to give it shape and diameter

Here is the video of the process.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2X8tkQj2S4Y

Our wire is then wrapped around a steel axis to obtain the correct diameter of the wire. The winding is done with a second wire which serves to give the pitch of our spiral which must be precise for the rest of the work.

We thus obtain a spiral winding of our gold thread which will then be cut to the right length (i.e. the width of our bracelet). This is how we get our cannetilles.

Once a sufficient number of cannetilles have been made, they can then be assembled, rotating them into each other to give shape to the bracelet.

Each cannetille is inserted into the links of the previous cannetille and then welded to the penultimate one.

Here is a photo summary of the different processing stages from the gold ingot to the bracelet.

Once the bracelet has been stretched, the ends can be soldered onto the watch lug, these are small tubes through which the pins pass to assemble the bracelet to the watch case.

Everything is then polished.

We can now appreciate the result of our work on this overview of the bracelet

Please note that the production details of the folding clasp are not presented here but can be seen in this article.

Milanese mesh bracelet in gold for watch without case

Another creation of a gold watch accessory made in our jewelry workshop:

To go further: