Poll: Are you unlucky with your Jewellery?

[Ally T]

I am beginning to feel like the most unlucky jewellery lover in the entire world. My (long) catalogue of disaster goes a bit like this:

March 2011 - daughter dropped my pressure set princess cut engagement ring, resulting in a diamond cracking in half. Too complicated to fix, so insurance company wrote it off.
May 2011 - purchased replacement pear cut solitaire in a basic setting.
August 2011 - had full eternity ring re-shaped after it became oval after 8 months of wear.
November 2011 - had custom setting made for pear.
January 2012 - pear diamond fell from ring after snagging on daughters car seat.
February 2012 - ring returned from Jeweller re-set but completely butchered. The original 3 claws were arrowhead. The front weak claw had be replaced with a straight claw, crudely soldered into place.
April 2012 - eternity ring re-shaped again.
November 2012 - commissioned handmade ring for pear solitaire.
June 2013 - eternity ring re-shaped yet again.
June 2014 - received beautiful upgraded studs (1ctw) & floating pendant (.75ctw) from hubby for 40th Birthday.
November 2014 - one stud had to go back for tightening due to diamond coming lose.
November 2014 - eternity ring bent to oval for the 4th time in less than 4 years. Have commissioned new setting which will begin on January 5th.
December 2014 - last night the ring bolt on my pendant exploded into pieces as i took it off, the spring ended up who knows where.

Am I the most unlucky person EVER or are these experiences common?? My old studs & pendant were worn 24/7 for 15 years without incident. I am careful with my Jewellery, I appreciate it, clean it & admire it. Am I cursed???

Please share your disasters here so that I don't feel alone!!

 

[arkieb1]

I don't think you are unlucky if you wear your jewellery and are hard on it and or wear it often that is normal wear and tear. I used to wear jewellery all the time until I smashed a diamond into pieces smashing out a brick wall renovating a house, I chipped another stone doing another reno, and I scratched and knocked out of shape a yellow gold and diamond band diving many years ago.... I've also broken clasps, had things fall to pieces and broken coloured stones.

The lesson in all of this is if it is a piece that I like and treasure then I now take better care of it and baby it, I don't wear it when I renovating anything or doing something that can potentially smash or damage things. Most of my jewellery these days is not worn that often.

 

[SB621]

AT I have quite an extensive list myself except several pieces were lost so unless they show up in a few years (has happened before to me) i'm SOL. I just recently lost a Cartier trinty band AND my DH's great grandmothers yellow gold chain! Other items I have just damaged (or damaged me) because well I'm a klutz.

 

[Ally T]

Thank you ladies. Its nice to know I'm not alone! My Jeweller (the fab one who made my pear its forever home, not other ones who've made bits that have damaged) has just put a new bolt ring on my chain whilst I waited, and informed me (not for the first time) that these things happen & are not through fault of my own. He said that women like me with lots of lovely trinkets that are treasured & worn are in to see him more often than those who really never wear Jewellery, for obvious reasons

 

[motownmama]

Lost: my wedding band, a pair of gorgeous studs, an amazing/heavy charm bracelet.

 

[ame]

OMG yes. I feel like I am jinxed. There's not enough space on this forum's server for all the drama.

 

[heididdl]

I agree with other posters If you wear your jewelry and enjoy it as you should every day then "sh t happens". I've had my eternity band reforged twice first in platinum then in 18K as I lost like 9-10 stones over the 10 yrs I wear it aevery day. I lost a .50 side trillion on my engagement ring. I've had to change settings in one of my stud earrings as my ear was allergic to the metal. my stone got knocked loose and thnk goodness didn't lose it. I have broken clasps and necklaces have fallen off from taking off sweaters My 1.8 pear was ripped of my neck in NYC. Oh yes I lost my diamond tennis bracelet and it wasn't insured but the insurance co gave mr $1000 as part of homeowners (so lucky).

It happens that is what insurance is for. You should wear and enjoy your pieces.

 

[ame]

I feel like just as much happens as doesn't when I wear it or not. I have had just as many issues with workmanship as I have with flukes like car accidents and thefts.

 

[Rhea]

You're not alone. I've misshapen several rings, lost a pair of diamond earrings, broken a few things. I wear them regularly and just like anything I wear they get wear and tear. I'm crying over a leather handbag at the moment which is scuffed and scrapped over 2 years of use. Clothes get holes, leather gets scuffed, jewels get misshapen. We were cat sitting a bit ago and the silly thing wanted to eat my ruby pendant my parents got me for my 16th birthday constantly. Cat teeth = bent prongs so that's off for repair at the moment.

 

[Jambalaya]

I'm unlucky in terms of repairs. It's not that jewelry gets broken when I'm wearing it, but when I decide I want an adjustment made, it all goes south. I sent a necklace back for a better match with some earrings, and the jeweler lost the earrings. I sent another necklace back for the same thing (a better earring match) to another jeweler, and it's now been about five months since I asked this jeweler to custom-make me this necklace - it's still a work in progress. You would hardly think that a pink stone in a bezel setting would take almost half a year to make.

In the last year I've had about eight rings sized to a 5, at different places, and without fail they are all size 5.25. I've had necklaces and bracelets shortened to 16 inches and without fail they are all 16.25. I'm particularly unlucky with sizing.

I've paid triple figures for watch repairs that haven't been repaired, and I've had a citrine stone returned to me a different color after having it tightened up in its setting.

Honestly, after going for repairs, some of my jewelry has never been the same since.

I'm due to pick up a whole bunch of repairs this week - about six of them - and I'm nervous.

Edit: In terms of losses, I've had stolen a half-eternity band, a pair of Tiffany pearl earrings and a 22kt gold ring. I've lost a pair of diamond hoops and another pair of pearl earrings, and a gold bow ring. Luckily none of them were mega-expensive. The insurance covered the bow ring and the diamond hoops. The other things were bought many many years ago and cost maximum $200, while some of the pieces only cost about $50. Still, they were nice and it's annoying.

The only thing I've damaged, as opposed to a jeweler messing things up or having things lost or stolen, is when I recently dropped my aquamarine bow ring and a tiny piece of metal chipped off the bezel.

Reading through this, I guess you could say I'm pretty unlucky after all!

 

[Jambalaya]

OMG yes. I feel like I am jinxed. There's not enough space on this forum's server for all the drama.

 

[Jambalaya]

AT I have quite an extensive list myself except several pieces were lost so unless they show up in a few years (has happened before to me) i'm SOL. I just recently lost a Cartier trinty band AND my DH's great grandmothers yellow gold chain! Other items I have just damaged (or damaged me) because well I'm a klutz.

Hi, just wondering what SOL stands for. At a guess...Sort Of Lost?

 

[Jambalaya]

I feel like just as much happens as doesn't when I wear it or not. I have had just as many issues with workmanship as I have with flukes like car accidents and thefts.

Yup, absolutely. For me, mostly it's a jeweler misreading instructions or getting something wrong or not sizing things accurately.

 

[ame]

AT I have quite an extensive list myself except several pieces were lost so unless they show up in a few years (has happened before to me) i'm SOL. I just recently lost a Cartier trinty band AND my DH's great grandmothers yellow gold chain! Other items I have just damaged (or damaged me) because well I'm a klutz.

Hi, just wondering what SOL stands for. At a guess...Sort Of Lost?

Shit outta luck!

 

[kenny]

Luck is not real.
Luck is a widely-agreed-to idea that people invented and many embrace so extreme things happening fits more comfortably into how we prefer to think/hope the world/universe/life is.

Cause and effect is what is; it requires no faith/belief/superstition.
When you drop something it falls.
It was the force of gravity doing what gravity does when no other force prevents it.
No unluck involved.

That said, no, nothing bad has happened to my jewelry.
I'm sorry so many bad things have happened to yours.

 

[Sunstorm]

Lately, not so much but I baby my jewelry too much, many would call me crazy.) Losses, theft, well, I definitely do not want to jinx it by saying no, so better say nothing.

Other things, oh yes, stones falling out of micropave setting in the past yes, stud posts breaking off, lost a a couple earlier in my life though fortunately only one or two and not so valuable. I was not as careful back then but it can happen to any of us at any time.

My Art Deco stuff has held up the worst but that is to be expected, my Art Deco watch spends half the year going through repairs, also before it was resoldered and prongs fixed diamond loss occurred often, one time while just using a toothbrush, another time when dropping it and then stupidly flushing the diamond down the toilet. My Art Deco bracelet broke when I dropped it. I try to be extra, ultra careful with everything now and perhaps I really should not wear antiques every day, guess that would be common sense.

But yes it can also happen when jewelry is not worn so often. I also had an ultrasonic go crazy but that is another story.

I do not think I am particularly unlucky with it though, I think Ame might just lead in this regard.) Hope it is over though Ame.

I definitely feel that there is such a thing as lucky or unlucky, sure, so many things are events and consequences in life but how come one can drop a diamond and not break it or like I have once had a ring shoot out of the polishing machine, hitting a metal wall and then a hard stone floor at very high speed and nothing happened to it, then others are definitely not so lucky when a diamond falls apart after simply falling. The one thing I have been really hard on is my emerald ring I wear every day and it has held up incredibly, perhaps I have been lucky in this regard but definitely do not want to jinx it.

Things happen but unfortunately they happen more to some than others. I feel for you OP, hope your newest repairs come out fine and same goes to all of you that have had bad luck.

 

[CRYSTAL24K]

I got engaged in 2005.

2006- Hubby and I married and moved to our first apartment. Hubby lost my jewelry box with heavy Italian gold jewelry- necklaces, bracelets, rings and a couple of diamond bracelets during the move. Sad then, but he has been making it up to me ever since. Only my E-Ring was insured so we were up a creek without a paddle.

2007- My original platinum pave setting broke.

2009- One of the eternity bands that I received when we were married broke and is beyond repair. My fault as I did not handle it delicately.

2014- Chipped my diamond. Thank God my ERing was insured.