The Lumen

Ordered on a Sunday and had it Wednesday. It comes in at around 16 grams and balances flat on the finger. The polish is even across the whole outer face with no flat spot where a machine would have stopped.

My wife chose it for our seventh anniversary and I did not think I was a mirror-polish person. The moment came seeing it against a shirt cuff rather than in the box, where it reads as a bright line rather than a bright block. She had expected to have to talk me into it.

I held it up to a window the day it arrived to look for tooling marks and found none anywhere on the polished surface. It came boxed with a sizing gauge and a microfibre cloth, which gets used.

I borrowed my father's Cartier band for the rehearsal and it had a squared inner edge that pressed. This one, worn since our June wedding, is domed inside and polished right over that inner edge, so there is nothing to feel.

The band I wore before was satin and had gone patchy at the contact point. This one is polished, and marks show as fine lines rather than dull areas, which buff out with a cloth. It has been on since.

It came out of the box under a kitchen light and it's brighter than anything else I own. Size 10, close at the base, clears the knuckle without soap. The polish carries right round the inside edge as well as the outside.

I put it on the kitchen scales the day it came and it read 16 grams, which is enough that it sits flat rather than rolling. The polish is even across the face with no soft spot at the join.

Eighteen months of daily wear. The polished face collects fine scratches and I have buffed them out twice with the cloth it came with, and both times it went back to an even surface without a dull patch.

This is the second band I have ordered from them and the process was the same, five days door to door. It runs about 16 grams like the first one and balances the same way, and the polish arrived without a mark on it.

My last band was brushed. This is mirror-polished the whole way round, size 11, worn daily for ten months with no change in fit. Different animal.

I wore a titanium band for seven years and it never held a shine after the first month. Two years into this one and the polish still comes back with a cloth, which is the practical difference: the marks sit on the surface rather than in it.

My daughter picked it for my sixtieth and I opened it expecting something I would put in a drawer. The moment was catching it against a dark jumper, where it reads as an outline rather than a shine. She had clearly thought about that.