The Grove

Size 10, close at the base and easy over the knuckle. The wood is flush with the metal on both edges. It has been on for a year and I have not thought about it.

The grain runs around the band rather than across it, which is a small thing and the reason it reads as one piece. Worth noticing.

I unpacked it at the kitchen table and the first thing I did was run a nail along the wood to see whether it was flush, which it is. The box held the ring, a sizing gauge, a cloth and a card about keeping the inlay dry.

Chosen by my wife for our fifth anniversary, and I have had it on for three years since. She had expected me to be careful with it and I have not been. The inlay has darkened evenly rather than in patches.

I bought it for my brother a year ago and waited to see how it held up before saying anything. He wears a 13, has had it on daily including through building work, and the fit has not shifted.

First day the olive read almost yellow against my skin and I was not sure, size 12, fitting close at the base. By the weekend it had settled visually and now it reads brown. Fair warning, it does darken a little where your finger touches it most.

I had a wood-inlay band from Manly Bands that swelled and cracked at the seam. I asked here whether the olive was sealed, and they said it is stabilised and resin-set, and offered a replacement if it moved. Eighteen months on it has not moved, and it stays comfortable because the inlay sits flush rather than proud.

At a barbecue in July someone asked to hold it and said it was lighter than it looked, which is fair. It runs about 11 grams because the wood takes up the middle, and the inlay is set flush so a thumb runs straight across the join.

My wife ordered it in a size 10 after tracing an old ring. Two years of daily wear later the fit is the same and the inlay has not shrunk away from the channel walls, which is the failure I had read about.

I wore the Enso band at the gym for two years and it always felt like a band. This one, worn since our June wedding, sits flush at the inlay so there is no step against the finger, and I forget it is there.

My son bought it for me in a size 12 and I thought wood would not last on a working hand. It cleared the knuckle and sat close at the base. The moment was seeing that the inlay is set into a machined channel with metal walls on both sides, so the wood is protected.

Ordered a 12 on a Thursday and had it the following Tuesday. It has been on daily for eleven months since, and the fit is unchanged, close at the base and over the knuckle without force.