Le Gramme: the sense of detail in a silver bracelet

Today, I am going to present to you a brand that will particularly speak to a specific type of BonneGueule readers (myself included): detail obsessives .

Are you the type to carefully inspect every item of clothing that passes through your hands, where you weren't paying attention before? To look at the fineness of the seam of a collar? Counting the number of points on 1 cm? Has this approach generalized to other objects in your life? Do you find yourself “geeking” to buy even the smallest piece of furniture?

Now take a pair of object-obsessed men in its broadest sense, maniacs in the smallest thing they touch and that enters their house.

Now imagine that they created a brand of timeless, refined and unisex accessories, in which their (your?) mania for detail can be fully expressed. Let them push their obsession to the point of paying attention to invisible details , those that only speak to other enthusiasts of beautiful objects...

You get The Gram . An accessories brand that wants to play with elementary shapes, founded by Adrien and Erwan, two men who had solid experience in the design and manufacturing of objects.

A philosophy above all

The first thing I notice in the Gramme offices is that the quality is palpable in the smallest object.

Whether it's the Japanese paper clips purchased from USM modular shelves or the tray on which they bring me Japanese tea, absolutely EVERYTHING is thought through. Nothing was purchased carelessly.

Adrien and Erwan, they're like the friends you ask for advice before buying any beautiful and durable object for your interior, whether it's a sofa or a switch , because you know that they have delved into the subject from top to bottom before you.

Moreover, as an aside, they mainly dress with brands very popular with industrial designers: they only wear Common Projects , Notify jeans, Sunspel sweaters, and Erwan is wearing an Arct'éryx Veilance parka. Only labels with a sober design, but with a lot of work in what you don't see at first glance. Just like theirs.

For example, the bracelet presentation support is made of black marble... but not just any marble: "marquina" marble from Spain. It has the particularity of having a very deep black and beautiful white veins.

The logo is inspired by Mendeleev's periodic table of elements . The name of the brand is quite simple when you think about it:

• since they are very precise in machining, each object is designated by its mass,

• and given their obsession with elementary and refined forms, the very essence of an object is ultimately its mass.

Hence “Le Gramme”.

The object with which it all begins is a bracelet - a bangle to be exact - in polished silver, with brushed interior.

Silver: a material rich in potential

Adrien and Erwan love the nobility of this material, both beautiful and discreet, and its ability to develop a patina over time.

They mainly work with 925 thousandths silver : one of the strongest finenesses, composed of 92.5% "pure" silver and 7.5% copper. This is called “sterling silver”.

“ Why not 100% silver?” you might ask. Or even so-called “Britannia” silver, at 958 thousandths? Quite simply because pure silver is too soft , the bracelet would deform too easily.

Polished silver

When I took this bangle in hand, Adrien described it to me as a simple object, elementary in shape, but very complicated to make . It took them a whole year to get his form right.

This bracelet is exactly 2mm thick, a good compromise between thinness and rigidity. Among the invisible details that should be noted:

• there is a slight chamfer inside, to avoid having too sharp an edge,

• at the ends of the bangle, the right angles are worked to have a clean corner radius, but also "soft" so as not to scratch the wearer's skin. Except that if the corner radius is too rounded, the corner itself is visually too "soft". When I told you about obsession with detail...

• four punches are rigorously aligned:
  • the head of Minerva, which is a state hallmark (applied by customs) guaranteeing the precious metal content,
  • the denomination 925, for silver titration,
  • the Le Gramme hallmark, for the logo (all the same!)
  • and the goldsmith's mark, with his signature.

Methods combining technology and dexterity

Polishing silver requires a mixture of manual operations, dexterity, and machinery:

Behind the scenes. Polishing treatment in progress. | Polishing in progress. | #craftmanship #sterlingsilver #bracelet #craft #polished #legramme #bts #madeinfrance

A publication shared by Le Gramme (@instalegramme) on March 24, 2017 at 10:15 a.m. PDT

I also notice brushed silver bangles, a finish that I love on watch straps. Adrien explains to me that a craftsman holds the bracelet in front of a roller, digging tiny streaks into the silver.

The difficulty is to correctly handle the jewel, so that the brushing is perfectly parallel with the edges. To do this, the craftsman is helped by a guidance system on his machine.

So, what to do after that?

Working with silver in relief

We start with the horizontal guilloché bracelet, where well-marked streaks run all the way. Finding the "step" of each groove was not easy: an aesthetic result was needed, while respecting certain proportions.

Then there is the vertical guilloché pattern, where the bracelet appears to be made of “notches”.

And my favorite: the pyramid-shaped guilloché bracelet. For once, they crossed the vertical and horizontal guilloché patterns.

It was necessary to find the right length for the base of the pyramid, so as to perfectly align them in length and width. Example on this ring..

The rendering of the relief differs depending on the texture given to the metal.

As I said, I really like brushed silver because it breaks its "precious" side in favor of a rougher, richer appearance. Without forgetting the "matte" silver, also very elegant, which is obtained by spraying silica powder onto the bracelet while sanding it.

Colored money?

Next comes the superb black silver, obtained with a 5 micron layer of ruthenium, a dark metal.

The silver ribbons are immersed in a “ruthenium bath”. Galvanizing then gives this dark color to the silver.

The bracelet becomes more masculine. The opacity of the dark shade gives it a fairly unique aura, especially if it is matte.

A large range

The versatility of a clean design

Each bracelet is available in several widths , and in several sizes, from XS to XL - something quite rare for an accessory brand.

According to Adrien, the advantage of an elementary form is that it suits everyone. This made my head "tilt"... Look how Charles Innocenti, a chef, wears it for example (you have a ton of other photos like this on their Instagram ).

Charles Innocenti unveiled his #mylegram on our website. He's wearing two LE GRAMME bracelets: Le 15g and le 33g, both slick polished in sterling silver. He talks about his way of wearing #legramme and what carries weight in his life. | "I like working in a team, I like the atmosphere we have, the way we help each other." | photographer @benoit_linero | #jewelry #jewelryformen #menstyle #menswear #charlesinnocenti #chef #chezlivio #paris #france #madeinfrance #sterlingsilver #bracelet

A publication shared by Le Gramme (@instalegramme) on Oct 11, 2017 at 3:26am PDT

Whether the wearer is a lawyer, DJ, writer, student, accountant, restaurateur, consultant, I have no trouble imagining him with a refined bangle on his wrist.

It is an object which is not "gendered", totally unisex, which can be placed as easily on the wrist of a man as of a woman.

Jewelry made to be accumulated

When you combine colors, textures and reliefs, you get a wide choice of bracelets.

Le Gramme is a brand that is part of an “accumulative logic”. Don't ask me why, but accumulation is a concept dear to some designers.

Among other things, the Tokyo interior design agency “ Super Potato ” has made it its trademark . She loves creating interiors with bottles or grouped pieces of wood.

Basically, if you are a fan of the brand and you have the budget, you can wear several, of different widths and textures, on the same wrist.

The effect is very beautiful, both refined and rich. I, who was in favor of only wearing very different bracelets, am reviewing my habits.

The road to gold

They then declined their collection with gold. I'm not particularly a fan of gold accessories, but given the basic and "raw" shape of these bracelets, I find the result tasteful and not at all "bling".

And above all, they created bracelets in... red gold.

Before we talk about it and I explain to you how they did it, I would like to come back to measuring the purity of a precious metal. It's quite fun and it will serve you for life...

But back to the red gold of the Gramme...

Red gold Le Gramme

So no, it's not red gold harvested in the Wild West. It is in fact 24 carat gold, which we will mix with silver and copper :

• 750 thousandths of 24 carat gold,

• with 210 thousandths of copper,

• and 40 thousandths of silver.

But why mix pure gold with other less precious metals? Is it to lower the price? Not so much... In jewelry, it is important not to use 100% pure gold (or rather 99.999% ), simply because it is too malleable and would deform at the slightest impact .

So I said! I find the Gramme red gold bracelets magnificent . The effect is even more unique on the pyramid guilloché ring. The appearance is really different, without being feminine.

After their lines of bracelets and rings, working with gold and silver in several forms, I couldn't wait to see what they were going to release. And suddenly, I was surprised!

A line of atypical accessories

The precious ruler

If I tell you "timeless accessory, with an immediately understandable elementary form, which we take pleasure in handling and looking at" , what do you think of? A knife ? Spoon ? Pen ? A toothbrush ? No, none of that!

Adrien and Erwan chose to work with silver... on a ruler! Yes yes, a good old 16cm ruler!

If I have difficulty understanding who the object is aimed at, apart from a great architect/designer who is obsessed with the beauty of his material, I must admit that it is splendid, thanks to its surface at the same time brushed and polished.

It's easy to see it as a terribly snobbish object but afterwards, I tell myself that it was no more so than a handmade shirt for €500 or designer shoes.

It's just that it's aimed at the most obsessive lovers of beautiful objects, who only want the very exclusive on their desk.

They have pushed luxury to offer it in three thicknesses: the 43 grams, the 83 grams and the imposing 209 grams which is quite impressive. . Not to mention the potential for passing on such an object to your children!

After the rule, they looked at the key ring...

A silver key ring

Yes yes, a silver key ring which, at first glance, consists of an ordinary metal plate.

But here too, the devil is in the details. I was fascinated to see how far you can push this obsessive side on a ring and a rectangular shape.

The ring appears simple at first glance except that, thanks to a system as simple as it is ingenious, the keys are very easy to place or remove.

You just need to exert pressure to “open” it and place your keys there. For reasons of robustness, it is made of 10 micron silver-plated steel.

As for the silver plate, it exists in three sizes: 13g, 27g, and 41g.

For the dimensions, Adrien was inspired by the Fibonacci sequence:

• the 27g is the "sum" of two aligned "13g",

• the 41g is the size of a 27g and a 13g placed side by side.

Don’t hesitate to reread this sentence!

Adrien showed me his prototype key ring, which has a nice patina. Obviously, it gradually loses its polished and shiny appearance, but that is what makes the patina so interesting. At the end, the object acquires a matte effect of... the most beautiful effect.

I'm now very curious to see what other objects Le Gramme will explore, if only to see how they will apply their radicalism and obsession with elemental form elsewhere.

The question of price... and black Friday

Now let's talk about prices.

I told you, the range is very wide, from silver to gold. The thinnest bracelet (7g) costs €230 (it's Geoffrey's); the most expensive is the 4220, in 18-carat gold, at €4,220. In this price range, I want to say that there is something for everyone!

Obviously, if you just want a "really accessory" accessory in your outfit, at the lowest price, this isn't the brand for you.

On the other hand, if you tend to be hypnotized by the shine of a metal, the shape of the hands of your watch, the edge of your bracelet or the work of the architect Tadao Ando , ​​and you know the value of this clean work with beautiful material, so dig this mark.

Oh, and if you want to give it as a gift, know that the packaging is very, very careful.

Discover our brand new website with all our new objects on legramme.com | thanks to @beaubourg_bureau for the amazing job! | Check it out! | #legramme #website #beaubourg #menjewelry

A publication shared by Le Gramme (@instalegramme) on Nov 18, 2017 at 4:02am PST

And the good news is nice: the brand never has sales, but this year it decided to try Black Friday (that's why I absolutely wanted to publish this article this week).

They played the game well since everything is 40% off on the site!

It's time to let yourself be tempted by a precious bracelet that will last you a lifetime ...

Conditions of the article: as a reminder, there is no affiliation, no sponsored article, no gift, no small arrangement, nor exchange of good process behind this article. Just a brand I wanted to share with you.

To go further on jewelry, do not hesitate to (re)read:

• our article on how to choose them ,

• the podcast dedicated to the subject ,

• and our interview with Pauline , founder of Gemmyo jewelry.